Okay yeah the drinking and nightmares. That makes sense.

This is what happens when I watch everything at once and in a bit of a haze I forget details.

They are a mess, an interesting mess.

I need to go and watch everything slowly again and when I can pay some more attention to stuff.

Has the connections been made that Dean has done or resisted at least three things that he shouldn't have been able to?

Famine, killing an angel, killing the Whore of Babylon. Possibly looking upon Zacchariah's true form in his death throes.

I know I've seen mention of these oddities, but more in a context of "that makes no sense" or something along the lines of how his desire/intention to say yes to Michael empowered him thusly. And I don't quite trust Famine's honesty. But as I track back, it's starting to look like there's more to Dean's choseness than simply as a meat-suit.

Are you referring to the owner of the beach house? All asides to that person and the other things and people surrounding them were side-splitting.

Totally! I thought the choice was a good one, and I'd noted the similarity shortly before reading the story, and the writer made it very funny.

Other D/C recs to follow.

Dean was drinking heavily, and was withdrawn and not as quick as before because he was dreaming of hell,

Did they actually show him off his game, though? I didn't remember that. I thought it was just Sam overcompensating because he thought it was his turn to save the day.

Has the connections been made that Dean has done or resisted at least three things that he shouldn't have been able to?

Dean also resisted Lust of the seven deadly sins.

My personal fanon says that any of Team Free Will could have killed the Whore of Babylon if you consider "servant of Heaven" to mean a warrior of God (which is what I thought Castiel was getting at--since Pastor Gideon has no affiliation with Michael) and that they read incorrectly into Dean pulling it off.

As for drunk!Sam, I think that's encouraged because we've seen him drunk on the show, and not Dean, if memory serves. Drinking Dean, all the time, but not drunk or particularly hung over.

However, I read sloshed and slurring and puking Dean all the time, so drunk Sam wouldn't ping me at all.

Huffing and fisting and blown pupils--all the freaking time.

Did they actually show him off his game, though?

I remember--and I may have been reading in--some hesitation, some delay put down to tiredness, Sam questioning Dean's lack of energy, investment, eagerness, and Dean putting it down to "just tired." Dean's been tired for a while. But the drinking, while keeping him functional, after a fashion, also slowed his reactions to a degree, and depressed his responses.

Maybe, as I say, I'm reading in. But certainly JA has been reading tired and reluctant.

Other D/C recs to follow.

Wheeee!!

Have you read this one, ita? [link] Not only does it adhere perfectly to your wish list of a D/C fic, but the commentary was interesting and the bloopers were so hysterical as to sort of ruin the rereading of the actual story.

But as I track back, it's starting to look like there's more to Dean's choseness than simply as a meat-suit.

All of those instances have come since he met Michael face-to-face. It could be that Michael has done some behind-the-scenes prep work to alter him along the lines of what YED and Ruby did to Sam.

Of course, since we know God has directly intervened on at least one occasion (and left instructions for Joshua to do so on another), pretty much anything unusual can be chalked up to that as well.

But the drinking, while keeping him functional, after a fashion, also slowed his reactions to a degree, and depressed his responses.

I don't see any clear indication that it's the drinking that did that, and not the PTSD of which the drinking was another symptom. He's drinking massively now, and there's no indication that he's impaired because of it. What would have changed?

All of those instances have come since he met Michael face-to-face

His resistance to Lust was pre-Michael.

I haven't read that, Julie. Will check it out!

It could be that Michael has done some behind-the-scenes prep work to alter him along the lines of what YED and Ruby did to Sam.

So he's drinking some kind of angelic fluid? O . . . K.

Come now. We know that Dean has been set up to be an amalgam of Michael the archangel fighting Lucifer, Jesus in all his martyrdom, and Jim Morrison with his sexual magnetism wrapped in leather. There's nothing he won't be able to do, after sufficient angsting, manpain and crystalline teardrops. All beginning in just over 24 hours.

Isn't just over 24 hours the next to last where they complete their secret decoder ring collection? And a week from over 24 hours is what you said.