[fic] balder12: Still Raining, Still Dreaming
[ Open Reccing ]
Title: Still Raining, Still Dreaming
Writer: balder12
Alternate links: at springfling
Status of work: complete
Characters and/or pairings: Sam/Castiel
Rating: R
Warnings, kinks & contents: [Click to read]pot smoking, references to harder drugs
Length: 2,200
Summary: Post-8.23. Sam and Cas try to deal with a supernatural storm and their feelings for each other. They only succeed at one.
Reccer's notes: This study of a possible headspace for Castiel after 8.23 works so well for me because it deftly balances the physical and the psychological. Castiel is sharply uncomfortable in his skin, dealing with the sensory load and limitations of human perceptions, and the atmospheric setting (I love Spn fic that uses weather) underlines the discomfort. At the same time it is a look at Sam through Castiel's eyes that uses the limitations of POV to explore both characters. Castiel's moments of insight come fraught with reluctance and irritation as well as understanding: in addition to the guilt and complications of his relationships with the Winchesters, this is a Castiel who isn't happy about the trouble that connection lets him in for. Sam, meanwhile, is both his hard-to-read canon self and recognizable in his moment of disinhibition. The overall tone of the fic is compassionate without sentiment, which at the moment is exactly what I want in fic.