Track 48: Hurt/Comfort

Welcome to episode forty-eight of the Mixtape Book Club Podcast.

In this episode, Mal and Ellen welcome author carnationqueen to the podcast to discuss Destiel fics featuring the time-honoured trope, Hurt/Comfort. Fics include carnationqueen’s What’s a Little Dying Between Friends?, Flight by NorthernSparrow, On Drowning by domesticadventures, and Lights by LoversAntiquities, plus many more!

You can find our Mixtape Book Club Ao3 collection here, containing the stories we’ve discussed on the podcast so far.

As always, Mixtape Book Club contains fic spoilers, swearing and discussion of adult topics. Please listen at your own discretion, with attention paid to any little ears that might be nearby!

A transcript is available for this episode.

Our guest: carnationqueen (aka Lily)

Lily publishes her Destiel works under carnationqueen on ao3.

Other works mentioned:

Mixtape Ko-fi

If you enjoy our podcast, you can now support us on ko-fi to help us cover our hosting and production costs, either through a one-time donation or a membership basis. Members will have access to our discord server. Check out our ko-fi page for more information: ko-fi.com/mixtapebookclub

Flight (sequel to Forgotten) by NorthernSparrow (08:30)
Published in 2014-15, 319k words, M

Sequel to Forgotten. A/U from mid season 9. Castiel is human and wounded, and Dean and Sam need to get his grace back – and his wings. Things do not go as intended and Cas faces a difficult road.

Long case fic with strong emphasis on Team Free Will friendship/family bonds. Will get serious and angsty and lonely. ALERT: There will be two versions of this fic, Destiel and platonic. This version (Flight) is the Destiel version. Slow build and mostly pre-Destiel. The platonic version will be called Broken and will be posted later.

  • Broken (platonic version of Flight) (170k words but incomplete, T)

What’s a Little Dying Between Friends? by carnationqueen (00:39:10)
Published in April 2023, 27k words, T

Castiel – stabbed by Ramiel with Michael’s lance, is dying. Slowly.
It will take days, maybe weeks, but die he will. It is, apparently, inevitable.

Neither Dean, Sam, or Rowena can find a way to save him. They’ve tried everything. Crowley hopes a slow motion, inevitable death may make Dean and Castiel remove their heads from their collective asses because really. Everyone is over it.

He’s a bit smug after all, having Lucifer as his prisoner, and is feeling a bit magnanimous in his hubris.Will impending death make Dean examine how he feels a bit more honestly?
Bring tissues.

On Drowning by domesticadventures (00:52:50)

Published in 2015, 29k words, T

The absolute last thing Dean would ever admit, after saving Cas’ life, is that it was all thanks to the unhealthy amount of time he spent reading about drowning on Wikipedia.

Not that he’s not grateful, but what he really needs is an instruction manual for everything that comes after.

Lights by LoversAntiquities (01:05:37)
Published in 2018, 2671 words, M

Dean can’t breathe.

Try as he might, he hasn’t been able to suck in a deep breath in the past hour, not with bruised ribs and the associated pain. Blood continues to drip from his nose and eardrum, probably busted. With shaking hands, he struggles to wipe it away, his attempts all in vain; the motel will probably hate him after he leaves, whenever that is. The least his father could’ve done was leave a note, a map—something telling him where he was, not just dumping him in a nondescript location with a collection of gashes and bruises he can’t even treat, not by himself.

Other recommended fics and links (01:18:00)

Other Northern_Sparrow fics mentioned during discussion:

Other fics:

Other links

Got a fic to recommend? Please let us know, we’d love to hear from you!

Our new intro music is a remix of “Angel with a Shotgun” by Jake Lionheart.


Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *