Fanfiction Appreciation Challenge: Short Fic Wednesday
(Banner: @ficlovechallenge, Rules/Challenge Info: posted here)
FAVOURITE SHORT FIC: Chrysler Almighty, by Zatnikatel
Pairing: Castiel/Dean Winchester
This fic has a special place in my heart because itâs the one that made me say, I want this - I want to do this, because this is how you do it and itâs beautiful. Until the day I chanced upon it, fanfiction was something I only associated with Harry Potter. I mean, Iâd sort of noticed on AO3 that you could find fanfiction of anything and counting, but I wasnât really curious about those other stories, and I was also a snobby fool: I assumed that you could only write proper fanfiction of a book - not a movie or a TV show. It wasnât a judgement of value or anything. I just thought, you know - how can you write fanfiction if youâve got no style you can mimic, and what you do have instead is a whole world of visual things youâre forced to put down on the page?
And then I found this fic and thought, Thatâs how. And it was the beginning of the end.
Chrysler Almighty is, or pretends to be, a coda fic set in season 6. Dean is upset and angry because heâs just found out Sam is missing his soul, and then Cas flutters into appearance into his motel room and things get steamy - think very hot sex and dirty talk expressed in architecture form (which shouldnât work, but Zatnikatel is clearly a wizard, because it does). And also think canon compliant and Deanâs POV, which here is not so much a POV as it is a freaking hole cut into the actual Dean Winchesterâs brain, because the way Zatnikatel writes him - surely, thatâs exactly how Dean thinks? And think short and sweet and JFC, why havenât I read this yet? because this story is awesome and itâs even more awesome now, five years after it was written - because we are reminded of how things used to be - of how angry and desperate Dean was all the time, and the dangerous self-assurance Cas carried around everywhere he went, as easily as he wears the stupid trench coat.
So, really. Much love for this story. Thank you, Zatnikatel!