The status at the beginning of six was interesting because it offered a lot of possibilities, depending on where you wanted to go. The end of 5x22...I mean, there's Sam, but it's less...IDK. It's just harder to expand a story from that. I wrote a one-shot that was kind of like a giant AU in my head right before season 6 started, but one of the things that kept me from pulling the trigger, so to speak, on the larger AU was that there were enough rumors swirling around about season 6 that it seemed like they might go somewhere interesting.

I *wish* I could find/remember the fic I was thinking of. I don't quite think it fits your interests, but it was stunningly beautiful. With such strong imagery that I'm not sure if it had any art attached to it, because I keep thinking "maybe" and then remembering that what's in my head was actually a text description. I think- I think it was about Dean going into hell to save Sam. And it was all very 9 circles of hell. And the devil at the bottom, in a frozen lake. Compass. Compass something? Maybe it was a summer gen. Maybe it had art with a compass on it.