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Current SPN post-15 headcanon (note, written after 15x04 aired, been musing on it since the end of season 14. It will change once we get closer to the end I imagine because I like being somewhat canon-compliant). Some of it is also I guess considered spec, which is why it will also shift once we get closer to the end!
Sam and Eileen
Let’s start with Sam and Eileen: Yes, Eileen is alive and well and yes I want them together because they were adorable right from the get-go and I want them both to be happy.
They live in Humboldt County, California. I think I’ll put them in Eureka unless I have somewhere better to take them. Sam wants beach and California but Eileen doesn’t like hot temps and SoCal very much. They compromise.
In terms of being able to get a house and money and crap, Eileen writes and sells successful horror novels of their experiences (careful not to read into the ‘Supernatural’ series waters). Mostly, they are just stories inspired by their past experiences, but also their current ones with hobby hunting. She gets inspiration from a family that was haunting another family (not unlike Haunting of Hill House probably), or a morally ambiguous vampire living in a small Montana town or something. Basically: She doesn’t rely on Sam and Dean’s life to produce her work.
Sam overlooks her writing and helps her with it, and volunteers at loval animal rescues because he’s technically dead in the eyes of the US government and is sick of lying about identities. So, instead of applying for a job, he volunteers. Plus, hours are more flexible which leaves room for hobby hunting. He takes on Eileen’s last name when asked.
Eileen’s books are successful (unlike Chuck) and that’s how they can get some money. She writes under a pseud. No one knows who they really are, and no one in town knows who they are.
They have three dogs. Because I say so.
Hobby Hunting/Heaven and Hell
Before I go further, I want to talk about hobby hunting: They are the little jobs that I guess you could harken back to season 1 with. Ghosts, mean-ass ghosts, weird-ass pagan rituals, a vampire or two beyond saving, a murderous skinwalker – that kind of shit. No matter what, I think that will always exist, and hey, why not just tinker around and fix it up here and there? They don’t do it as often, and it’s harder when you don’t want to call attention to yourself with fake FBI IDs and shit, but they make other excuses: old family friends, old work friends, researchers for a book or scholarly paper – stuff like that.
Jody and Donna help when they can since they got those official badges and stuff.
But, there is no more demon or angel interference. There may be a demon here and there that never got sucked into Hell or something but they take care of it quick, and, if they can avoid it, they don’t kill the person and instead really do just exorcise the low-level demon out. The demons aren’t complicated anymore, there’s no ‘grand plan’. They’re just stupid nuisances.
Hell and Heaven aren’t issues anymore because the boys have allies there now.
Jack is in Heaven – I won’t call him the new God but more like God-Lite. It’s my dream that Amara becomes a new God somehow. But, if Jack becomes a new God, I’m also okay with it. Regardless of his role, he takes Heaven on his shoulders and decides to kind of rebuild it, make better angels, not as many either but just enough, and make Heaven and actual place of peace and rest. Angels are only allowed on earth with his permission (which, he’s guided by Billie a lot of the time in the beginning). He does believe it’s good for Angels to interact with humans now and again just to remind themselves who it is they’re watching over. But, the point is, Heaven gets functional again, and there’s no big grand scheme of self-preservation and greed.
Hell is also back under control and buttoned up. For a few months, I didn’t have an explanation but bless Rowena and her amazingness, tossing herself into the pit. After she did that, and the parallels she drew, it’s my full belief she is now the Queen/Ruler of Hell. She’s a friend, but also knows to keep her distance. What she can do is get her shit under control, and not have demons and other hell fiends interacting with the Winchesters anymore. No more diabolical plots, no more “let’s revive Lucifer!”. None of that. The boys can trust her, and she trusts them. If there’s a demon they send back to hell, she lets it back in and makes sure it doesn’t get back out.
I’m sicking a lot with this locked Heaven and Hell thing especially now, with current quotes from people on SPN saying the finale will have a sense of ‘finality’ to it. What’s more finality than the boys not having to worry about cosmic and demonic entities anymore? It’s chill. It all chills out.
But they all still feel the call to action whenever they get wind of a spooky presence in a small town. It’s a habit. They’re in their 40s. It’s how their life works.
Dean and Cas
Cas is very much human, and he chooses it.
I was elated when we realized, then got confirmation, that his abilities were waning in season 15. It’s going to lead to some angst and sadness before it gets better, but it aligns with headcanon that I was building prior to season 15:
Powers waning, he’s practically human when God’s dead, Amara rises, Jack’s in Heaven.
Jack approaches him with an offer to return to Heaven to help him rebuild. Jack can also restore Cas’s grace and he’d be back to normal, wings and all. But he knows it needs to be Cas’s choice because that’s what this is all about, choice.
Cas chooses to stay.
I was waffling back and forth on if I wanted Jack to let Cas keep the remnants of grace in some form, like in a necklace or something or if I wanted Cas to let Jack take it with him.
I already wrote in my DCBB that Cas gave his grace to Heaven so they could begin to create more angels. I think I’m sticking to that. Cas will give his grace to Jack so they can create some more angels up there to restore some kind of order. Also, by that point, there isn’t much left anyway so if Jack is going to restore it, he may as well use it to create some more angels. And, it’s grace from an Angel who learned a lot of lessons, so I imagine adding it to the mix is good for creating Angels who aren’t robotic murder machines.
I am unsure on how Dean is present in the scene, but I like to think that he’s there and he sees it all play out.
As for adjusting fully to human life, I had Cas taking a little under a year. The last time he was human it was for such a short amount of time, and feelings and emotions and even things like the five senses can be overwhelming. He also has to get used to sleeping and hunger again. Thankfully it’s a little easier because, due to waning powers, it was already coming back – but it’s insomnia that really sticks with him.
There’s a small nugget of fear I like to stick in Dean (and this is more recent) of him scared of fucking their relationship up because Cas gave everything up while Dean sacrificed nothing, and he’s afraid of making Cas regret his choice.
Dean also has trouble for about a year adjusting to life not having to worry about God pulling him by the strings every five minutes. He’s experienced a lot of Trauma TM (as did they all) and it still catches him off guard sometimes. He’s also not used to not being on guard 100% of his time.
As for their living situation – all four of them move out of the bunker. Sam and Eileen first, and Dean and Cas a few weeks later. The bunker serves as a meeting spot, a library, a research place – but it’s not home anymore because it’s an old way of life.
During one of their hobby hunts, Dean and Cas help out a widower who’s approaching his mid-80s who had a minor ghost problem (cursed object). He got so freaked and was very grateful for the boys helping him. They stayed for some drinks after with the guy to help calm him down, and they let slip that they’re looking for somewhere to move to (the guy doesn’t care about gay this or that). Old man says he’s thinking about moving down to Florida with his cousin for the remainder of his time. Midwestern winters are hard on old bones. He offers the home to Dean and Cas, saying she needs fixing up. They agree, thankful, and help the man move out.
The house is signed over in Eileen’s name since she’s the only one who’s not like – a felon. All that’s needed to pay on it is property taxes, mortgage long since paid. The house is a three-story, white farmhouse with a wrap porch, overgrown fields, and a large red barn that hasn’t been touched in decades. While exploring, they find good shit in the barn they can sell for some spare cash. They also find a 1940 Chevy 4-door sedan.
They decide to rework the barn and turn it into a garage so Dean can work on restoring old cars between hobby hunts. They also need to work on the house. It’s a project that takes some time since they do everything themselves more or less.
The home is only about 40 minutes away from the bunker, 30 if you speed.
Aside from hobby hunts, they do meet up for dinners and stuff and yes they do do a Thanksgiving.
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So that’s where I’m at right now. This will all shift the closer we get to the end of season 15 but I thought of a lot of this stuff when we got the announcement that 15 was the last season.
If any of my fics are based on post-15 canon-compliancy, this is the guideline I’m working off of.