[Fic Rec] "Away With Us" by anactoria - post-S9 AU/Mark of Cain + FAE

[kalliel]

[Hi it's me again sorry--!]

But I have another rec. :D

Title: Away With Us
Author: anactoria
Characters: Dean, Sam, Cas, Gilda
Genre: gen, post-S9 AU
Rating: PG-13
Tags: depression, dissociation/dissociative disorder, emotional pain/hurt, injury (misc./other/uncategorized), mark of cain, missing (kidnapping/abduction/etc.), psychological issues, supernatural powers, trapped between realities
Word count: 5900
Summary: Dean is still marked by the fae as their own, and, with the Mark of Cain gone, they begin to take an interest again. This time, he finds it harder to resist.

Reccer's Commentary: You always have such clear, incisive prose, no matter the complexity or frenetic whirlwind of a mental space you're conveying. <33 [...] I think what's particularly heroic and skillful about the way you've written this story is that you've managed to capture Dean's feelings of dissociation, and the cadence of that dissociative narrative, without losing those nodes of engagement that steer your audience towards empathy and feeling and a very intense experience of association; it's something I cannot do and envy very, very much. You are awesome. <3

Another thing you do across the board that I really admire and delight in when I read your fics is your allowance for this brief but scintillating appearances from characters who are not central to the fic yet are integral to its telling (I'm thinking here of Jody and Alex in one of your recent fics, and here Charlie and also Cain, in the opening scene). And in a similar but separate vein, inasmuch as this fic is very much Dean-centric, and inside of a headspace that has very little to do with the outside or with Sam, Sam remains this salient, dimensional person within the story as well; that marshaling of his character with such a short window, from so deep inside Dean's head, is truly ace.

The collision of mytharcs here, between the fae and the Mark of Cain, melds and bridges the two so powerfully--the result is a quiet thriller, internal without being buoyless and muddled. That external relation back to S9's mytharc and to the world of the fae really gives the fic a sense of wholeness and clarity and deep, wide horizons. It creates something new and exciting in that not only does it cross-breed two very different species of lore, but its warp and weft through Dean's human-mythic story makes that cross-breeding feel vital in every sense of the term. [...] If you couldn't tell, I adore this completely, and the whole world needs to read this fic.