Happy Birthday Dean!

[hells_half_acre]

As has slightly become my tradition, I'm going to do an edition of THIS DAY IN SUPERNATURAL HISTORY for Dean's birthday, which will mainly just be updating my previous edition....

NOTE: I follow chronological time, which means that the year Dean spent with Lisa and the year that he spent in Purgatory are included.

January 24th

1979 - Dean Winchester is born.

1984 - Jessica Moore is born. Elsewhere, Dean quietly turns 5.

1990 - At some point in January, John investigates a series of grave robbings in Windom, Minnesota. He hooks up with a nurse. Hopefully, he does not miss Dean's birthday. Dean turns 11.

2006 -  It's the first time Sam's been around for Dean's birthday in four years! Hopefully they do something special...even though Sam's probably sad because it's his dead girlfriend's birthday too. Dean turns 27.

2007 - I'm hoping that Dean's birthday falls between putting Father Gregory's soul to rest in in Providence, Rhode Island, and Sam getting possessed and thus disappearing for over a week. Dean turns 28.

2008 - Dean doesn't get to celebrate his birthday over 100 times, so it either falls before or after Mystery Spot. My guess is before. I'm not sure if one celebrates their last birthday or quietly ignores it though. Dean turns 29.

2009 -  Dean is probably still recovering from being beaten severely by Alistair, not to mention recovering from the news that he unknowingly broke the first seal to free Lucifer. Dean turns 30 (although his soul is now 70 years old).

2010 - Dean may have just escaped from a mental institution, or he may have just spent 24 hours with some teenage kid in Sam's body, or he may have just traveled back in time to save his parents' lives. In any case, I hope that Sam treated him to some pie. Dean turns 31.

2011 - Dean turns 32 at Lisa and Ben's house. Elsewhere, Sam is hunting without his soul.

2012 - There's a good possibility that Dean celebrates his 33rd birthday with a newly resouled Sammy. They may have just slain a dragon and rescued some virgins too.

2013 - Bobby possibly dies very very close to Dean's 34th birthday. I'm going to go ahead and hope that maybe Dean, Sam, and Bobby all celebrated Dean's birthday just before going on the hunt in the woods of New Jersey. There is, however, a possibility that Bobby died just before Dean's birthday.

2014 - Dean turns 35 in purgatory (though he probably doesn't physically age) perhaps having already found Cas, perhaps still looking for him. Perhaps alone, perhaps with Benny by his side. Meanwhile, Sam is dating Amelia Richardson whilst living in a motel in Kermit, TX.

2015 - Edited to Correct We don't know how they spent the day, but the evening of Dean's 36th birthday finds the boys driving through Michigan. Sam pouring over research and focusing all his attention on the job now that he's chosen to put Amelia behind him.  On the road before sunrise, Dean wants to do something fun. Sam just wants to work. Luckily, Garth calls with a job that will give Dean a little bit of a birthday present even if it's a day late.

And there you have it. Happy Birthday Dean!

You dork.

Comments

[yalumesse]

You are awesome. *cuddles timeline* ;p

Poor Dean. He has pretty lousy birthdays. (Except 2012, it seems, and maybe 2013 - I'm going to believe he had a great birthday at least one of those years!)

He's an adorable dork.

[hells-half-acre.livejournal.com]

He is indeed an adorable dork. I think 2012 is the best candidate for a really good birthday during the years that we know about. :)

[yalumesse]

Maybe I'll write him a birthday fic for that year, then, just so I can believe he has some happy times. Or... Would you mind if I use your timeline and deductions to make a fic about Dean's birthdays over the years? The sharp contrasts between his circumstances on the same day every year appeals to me, and would lend itself well to fic format. (No promises that it'll actually get finished, um, ever, but I'll credit you regardless.)

[hells-half-acre.livejournal.com]

I don't mind at all! That's why I posted the timeline - so that people could have resources for their fic or get fic ideas from it. :)

If you do end up finishing the fic and posting it, let me know. I'd love to read something like that. :)

[yalumesse]

Thank you! And I will, if it gets done. I get so many ideas and can see them working but actually finishing them is much less common, so we're about 50/50 with a fic like this. But I'll make very sure to put a link here for you if it works out. Cheers! :D

[hells-half-acre.livejournal.com]

Awesome! I'm the same way with fic, and if I do actually put pen to paper on an idea, there's a 50/50 chance that it will be an extremely slow writing process (as with the fic I'm currently working on.)

Good luck! I hope this one works out. :)

[yalumesse]

Thanks! :)

[yalumesse]

Well, I'm surprising myself, but I am getting somewhere with this Dean's-birthdays fic. Hurrah for that!

But I have a question, and since you're still compiling your s8 timeline, I can't go look it up: Why do you say that in 2015 Dean's birthday is almost over when the LARP episode starts? Because my cap of the phone that says January 23rd also says that it's 11:40 - pm, it seems, given the lighting and that it looks like Mr Doomed has just come home - which makes it seem to me that it's Dean's birthday during the bulk of the episode and only the LARPing battle at the end is on the 25th. So... did I miss or mistake something?

[hells-half-acre.livejournal.com]

No worries, I'll explain my logic, because technically, I was a LITTLE wrong above. Once I've explained, you can feel free to choose which version works best for you - what actually makes the difference is whether you are timelining for 2013 or 2015:

Fact #1: Mr. Doomed gets off the phone at 11:40pm on January 23rd. He then goes to bed. He awakes sometime during the night (AM of January 24th - Dean's birthday) and is killed.

Fact #2: Dean and Sam are driving in the dark when Garth calls them with the case. This means that the body has been discovered.

Now, someone could have heard the murder (maybe the lady downstairs) and called the cops right away and Sam and Dean are inexplicably driving before sunrise on the 24th, in which case they would have gone to see the body on the 24th, and then arguably went to the LARPers that same day, in which case the episode only takes place over 2 days (the first day being the case, the second day being the fun!) This actually works REALLY well if you are setting the story in 2015, since the 24th is a Saturday and the 25 is a Sunday (fitting perfectly with the fact that the Battle of the Kingdoms at Moondoor is a WEEKEND event).

Now, the version I used above is slightly different...

Mr. Doomed died. Didn't show up for work. Maybe didn't meet other commitments... and was discovered late in the night on the 24th. Garth saw it, and told Sam and Dean. In this version, the lady downstairs who heard the horses was interviewed after the death was already discovered.

Sam and Dean therefore arrive the morning of the 25th, to find the Sheriff still at the scene, the body not yet removed, but the forensics team having been and gone. They then head to the station and interview the friend, and discover Moondoor. Then, either that day or the next day, they go to Moondoor and the rest of the episode takes place. In this version, the episode takes place over 3-4 days. This is the version you have to use if you want to set it it in 2013 (as the show does), because Dean's birthday is on a Thursday and the Battle of the Kingdoms takes place on a weekend.

So, you can use either one. When I wrote the above timeline for Dean's birthday, I had only timelined for the 2013 version and I hadn't considered 2015 yet. So, you aren't wrong! Technically, I should have written that Dean actually spent his birthday in 2015 playing an FBI agent in the morning and solving a case with Charlie in the evening.

Most of the time, I don't have to timeline separately for different years though, because usually whether something is on the "weekend" isn't such a huge factor. So that's my excuse. But yes, technically, if it's 2015, you're completely right and the bulk of the case takes place on Dean's birthday. :)

[yalumesse]

Okay, good points! All of them. I saw the time on the phone and vaguely took that as the date of Mr Doomed's death, completely forgetting to account for the time it would've taken him to change and go to bed and fall asleep, especially given how wound up he was on the phone call. Not something that tends to happen in twenty minutes. Doesn't actually affect your logic and timelines, but proof that I hadn't thought it through far enough.

I'm going to go with the first version though - partly because I am using 2015 as the setting, and because of, of all things, the freshness of the blood in Mr Doomed's room. I know TV shows aren't great about showing blood congeal and change colour as it dries, but the sheriff's line about how the boys "got there quick" made me feel like it was really sudden. Also, because I really want to give Dean an awesome birthday ;)

[hells-half-acre.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I'd use the first version if I were setting it in 2015 too. It DOES make sense given the freshness of the blood. And the woman who heard the horses is a good excuse for an immediate 911/police response.

And yeah, Supernatural in particular, I find, is pretty bad with not showing blood congeal and change colour... so I tend to ignore that when I timeline. :P

[yalumesse]

You'd go crazy if you didn't :)

[yalumesse]

I finished the fic! As promised, here's a link:
January 24th.

Hope you like it. Your timelines were invaluable. A huge help. And the inspiration. So thank you :)

[ashkiryn.livejournal.com]

Holy shit, it's been ten years in canon time since we first met Dean. *tears*

[hells-half-acre.livejournal.com]

It has! A lot of people don't realize that, because the show keeps losing its extra years - but we all have taken a 10 year journey with these brothers. :)

Which makes the characters actually older than the actors, which is fairly rare on TV (unless they're playing a quasi-immortal or something.)

[sweetondean.livejournal.com]

Awwww..... Dean. Now I want to hug him. Wait. I always want to hug him! I'm glad he got to dress up and quote Braveheart around his birthday...that was probably the most fun birthday he's had for a long while. I wonder if he even told Lisa and Ben it was his birthday?

[hells-half-acre.livejournal.com]

I just assumed that Lisa would have asked him at some point, like maybe if he arrived in time for Ben's birthday, or if Lisa's birthday was late in the year - she would have realized she didn't know when Dean's birthday was and asked...

But you make a good point. All evidence suggests that the Winchesters don't really celebrate birthdays, so it might very well be that he just never told them... which would make that year even more depressing. :(

HUGS FOR DEAN!

[fannishliss.livejournal.com]

Mark of a Deangirl -- tearing up at the thought that he's 36 now. I love that boy something awful.

[hells-half-acre.livejournal.com]

Awww... *hugs* to you. :)

[4422shini.livejournal.com]

I really fucking love that you've labelled this year as 2015. Take that 1 year later title cards!! Awesome.

[hells-half-acre.livejournal.com]

Haha, yup! I'm stubborn that way. ;)