#not to sound fucking batshit but sastiel post-cram (in the cult) would be absolutely hilarious and also kinda fun ngl

[cramenjoyer]

thanks to the poll i am now thinking about sastiel where they meet in a recovery program for people leaving/escaping cults. sam was lured in after a violent and difficult childhood, told he was powerful and amazing... and then that he'd cause the deaths of all nonbelievers and be crowned king after they were gone, Because He Is The Devil. meanwhile jimmy novak got sucked into a cult because of his religious fervor, got renamed "castiel", and can't quite bear the loss of feeling so very close to god.

initially, they're put off by each other. then, guiltily, they make a little effort to be friendly. by the third or fourth meeting, they have to do an exercise where they figure out what needs or values they had that the cult met and catered to. (for the purpose of learning you can find all those things outside the cult and in a much healthier way, probably. i assume this might help people after escaping a cult but who knows.) sam and cas discover that they have similar values, similar fears, but their life experiences were different enough to lead them to seek "a perfect loving family" and "closeness to the divine" and "justification for not feeling a part of society" in very different places.

things happen. sam tries to call dean but can't bring himself to do it. he knows cas lives in a shitty apartment not too far away, because he hosted the meeting once, and he just... starts driving. he can't bring himself to explain, when cas finds him at the door, but cas lets him in anyway.

sam's family disowned him. cas' wife officially divorced him last year and won't let him see claire. despite what that exercise told them, they feel they really do have nothing left.

"a perfect loving family" really boils down to love, despite one's flaws. "justification for not feeling a part of society" really boils down to needing a community. "closeness to the divine"? they can figure that out together.