The Myth of the Open Road

Title: Nothing Half So Pleasant
Author: chasingtides
Beta: smallcaps
Word Count: ~4, 500
Rating: PG
Summary: Dean Smith takes Sam Wesson home to meet his family. (Smith & Wesson)
Notes: For the spnwriterlounge Saturday Picture Post.

( Dean coughed nervously. “Ikindaquitmyjobtolivewithmyboyfriend.” )

Title: Bloody Knuckles
Author: chasingtides
Fandom: Supernatural
Pairing/characters: Sam/various, Dean/various
Rating: PG-13
Disclaimer: I don't own the characters of Supernatural and no copyright infringement is intended.
Prompt: 1294. Supernatural, Sam and Dean (or Sam/Dean), The only thing in common between succubi and crossroads demons was the fact that they would appear as something you would be willing to swap spit with Sam and Dean deal with the fact that Sam's crossroads demon and Dean's succubus appeared as men rather than supermodels.
Summary: Sam never figured a bar fight in Nowheresville, Tennessee would lead to learning so much about his brother - or the hunting community.
Warnings: References to underage sex, homophobic violence and language
Author's Notes: Written for lgbtfest. Special thanks to my betas, tahu and katbcoll. I had been wanting to write this ever since the siren episode and this fest gave me the push to actually do it. I hope I've done the prompt justice.

( Bloody Knuckles )

Title: It's the Most Manliest Day of the Year
Rating: G
Summary: Jared likes football. He really does.
Warning: RPF, domesticity
Notes: Written for estarmuerta in spnsecrets with this prompt: "I just pictured Jared sitting on his couch with his legs up watching football and knitting. HAYYYYYY" Inspired by this picture. Original comment fic here.

( Jared was excited. )

So I re-watched Heaven and Hell tonight. (Oh, and my father thinks that Anna is a weak, poorly written, whiny milksop. My mother likes Castiel.)

Hey, Castiel, can you get more passive? Seriously. Even when Alistair is attacking you or Uriel is being a jackass, Castiel is immensely passive.

Actually, Castiel and Sam act pretty similarly in this episode. Until Dean is threatened, neither of them do anything. Uriel and Dean act similarly - they are both verbally violent and take physical action.

What does it mean, other than my amusement at watching Uriel call Dean a monkey and Dean call Uriel junkless? (I do like it when Dean calls Uriel junkless.) I'm not entirely sure.

Sam is, by the presence of his demon blood and his faith, in a gray area. He believes that there are better things in this world (see Houses of the Holy, 2.13). He wants the angels to be the angels of his faith (see It's The Great Pumpkin, Sam Winchester, 4.07). The angels, however, don't seem to be terribly pleased with Sam, despite the fact that he actually believes in them. He didn't need to see them or their wings - he knew that they were real, needed them to be real, in a way that was never true for Dean. And yet, he is the so-called Boy King - the poisoned human with the demonic powers. He is torn between using his powers for good and following the apparent will of God. What about the people who will die, he asks himself in 4.07, what about the people he can save?

Castiel, too, is in a strange place. He is angel who loves his Father and his Father's creations (4.07). However, unlike Uriel, his violent and shoot-first-ask-later counterpart, has his doubts. He wants to save, to love, to let live. He is a soldier, but he, as best he can, cares. When he and Uriel encounter Anna in Heaven and Hell (4.10), he tells he that he is sorry. She tells him he is not. In 4.07, he appears to have doubts.

Neither Sam nor Castiel take action in the same way Dean and Uriel do in 4.10. In the first scene, in the encounter in the shack, Dean and Uriel go at it like angry cats, but both Sam and Castiel hang back. Castiel turns away from Uriel and looks down. When Uriel attacks Ruby, Sam - whom we know know was in some kind of sexual relationship with her - hangs back, while Dean goes after Uriel. Dean and Uriel fight physically. Sam turns to Castiel and begs him to stop. Castiel pulls his sleepy-time fingers and removes Sam from the situation in a most nonviolent way.

Again, at the end of the episode, when the angels, demons, and Winchesters meet in the barn, both Sam and Castiel hang back. They don't fight. They are passive. Dean and Uriel both attack and fight like the soldiers that they are.

I am not sure what this means. But I do think that the parallels (Uriel:Dean, Castiel:Sam) are interesting. I think Castiel's character is evolving. I don't think he's as simple as Anna made angels out to be - he is very clearly thinking differently from Uriel in this episode. I don't think he's falling, but he and Uriel are behaving very differently and possibly toward different ends.

Title: Always Burn to Be
Author: chasingtides
Beta: samidha
Rating: R
Pairing: Sam/Dean
Summary: He was too tired; too exhausted from chasing black, oily eels out of the innocent, human dead; too burned out from holding back; too wasted from saving people to even think before he moved, before he grabbed Dean, before he wrapped his long, sinewy length around Dean's bright sun to keep him safe forever, safe from demons who tortured and soiled and angels who blessed and burned.
Notes: Written forkeefaq in spn_giftxchnge. Her request was: Sam/Dean, first time, any rating, I like competent Latin chanting smart boys. I've had the help of more people than I can count, but particularly I'd like to thank samidha, for dealing with my shenanigans, and spn_support for being impromptu betas and psychic incest advisers.

( It burned like he was standing just too close to an open flame in the dead of winter. )