Transcript: Track 20: Creatures
Episode 20 posted July 16, 2021
Transcript by goldenraeofsun
Links to all fics mentioned can be found on the main episode post.
[Intro music]
Ellen: Hi everyone, welcome to the 20th episode of the Mixtape Book Club Podcast. My name is Ellen.
Mal: And my name is Mal.
Ellen: As I just said, it is our twentieth episode, can you believe that? [laughter] We made it all the way to twenty.
Mal: Wow.
Ellen: Yay.
Mal: I can’t believe anyone wants to listen to us that much.
Ellen: I know, you guys you listened to our rambling for twenty episodes. That’s amazing! Thank you so much. I want to say thank you to everyone who’s listened and left us comments or, you know, squeed with us on social media or shared our posts and that. We really appreciate how excited you are and enthusiastic you are, so thank you. We’ve had nearly 7,000 downloads of our podcast now which is just blowing my mind right now, so thank you, thank you very much.
We actually have some transcripts available of some of our episodes now. There’s only a few at the moment but we’re gradually working our way though and adding some more because we really would love to make this as accessible to as many people as we can. So if you’re hard of hearing or you struggle with, you know, listening to a lot of audio or English is your second language and we talk too quickly for you because I know that’s a problem for some people, sorry! [laughter] There are a few transcripts available so you can read about what we’re talking about just go to the Track List page on mixtapebookclub.com and you can see the ones that are available there. And we have to say thank you to the people who’ve helped us with that thatpeculiarone, missmelodypond, kateaintbehavin, aleatoricWren for helping us with that because it’s quite a time consuming job, and we really appreciate it. And if anyone else wants to help us out with that, please let me know because I would love it if we could get all of those episodes up for a transcript as well.
So back to the topic at hand, we’re going to – in this episode we’re going to discuss fics in a genre that’s a fan favorite and also our – all of our – personal favorite and that’s creature fics.
Mal: Yes, we all know I love a creature fic.
Ellen: Yes.
Mal: And to discuss one of my favorite creature fics Trustworthy for Such Work we would like to welcome the author sharkfish also known as Julesy. Would you like to introduce yourself?
Julesy: Hi! I’m Julesy/sharkfish. It’s great to be here.
Mal: Yay!
Ellen: Lovely to have you. Hooray! So the other fics that we’re also going to talk about today because these are all quite short. So we’ve got four plus. We’ve got Dragon in a Cup by aishitara, Friends with Benefits with Tentacles by andimeantittosting, and we have the you shook me all quarantine long series which is by goldenraeofsun, which is made up of four short fics.
Julesy: These are my favorite length of fics. They’re between like 5 and 10k. I love it.
Ellen: Yup.
Mal: Just enough to sink your teeth into but not too small. As always, links to all the fics that we’re going to talk about today will be available in the episode’s post on mixtapebookclub.com and also included in our collection on AO3 so you can browse through that collection to look at any of the fics that we’ll be talking about today or we’ve discussed in the past.
Ellen: I guess we should start by saying that in our fandom we’re in a great position with creature fics because there are so – there’s such a wide variety of creatures that exist in the canon universe. Like, Castiel himself is not human so, you know, we’ve got – we’re not actually going to include wingfics like angel-type fics in this episode just because we’ve already done a wingfic episode. So if you wanted to hear more about angels and wingfic, then go back and listen to episode 7. But for now we’ll just talk about some other creatures.
Mal: Yes and there are other creatures that have wings so we’re not excluding wings necessarily. [laughter]
Ellen: That’s true [laughter]
Julesy: That’s true. I would love to see more demon fics with wings. I think that’s really fun. Like, batlike wings.
Mal: Yeah that’s a nice – yeah, get some of that kind of leathery action going on.
Julesy: [laughs] the tiny little claws, that’s the best part.
Ellen: Maybe we should – at this point I might just say that we are going to be talking about not safe for small ears and/or work topics so just listen on at your own risk. We may also –
Mal: If that wasn’t clear.
Ellen: ‘Cause these are only short fics we’re probably going to be spoiling some of them as well. So if you haven’t – you know, if you don’t want to hear spoilers then maybe just skip over the bits [laughs] that you haven’t read yet. Okay.
Mal: I will try to be on my best behavior. [pause, laughter] No I won’t.
Julesy: What does that mean?
Ellen: Don’t do that.
[Laughter]
Mal: No.
Julesy: Am I supposed to be on good behavior?
Ellen: No, absolutely not.
Mal: So, because of the nature of the fandom we are quite blessed with creature fics in general in this fandom. And because in canon, Cas is already not human, most of our creature fics do involve Cas, so currently on AO3 there are 264 Castiel Creature fics that are tagged. We just had this discussion before we started recording actually, that there are probably a lot more than that out there, it’s just that they may be tagged with a specific creature and not the creature fic tag as well. So that might be something to think about as well for the writers out there because there are plenty of people that go around searching for creature fics that will browse the creature fic tag so don’t forget it. If you’re wanting people to find your creature fic.
Ellen: It’s hard to remember to put all of every – you know.
Mal: It is.
Ellen: You don’t want a tag list to be five miles long but – yeah.
Mal: Yeah, tagging is the bane of my life. [laughs]
Julesy: It is really rough and especially with this kind of thing that’s really wishy washy if you tag every single tiny thing.
Mal: Yep.
Ellen: Yep.
Mal: So we have 264 Cas, but we also have 110 Dean creature fics, which is quite fun because it’s nice to change it up. There are episodes in canon as well where we have Dean, you know, almost becoming a vampire I think.
Julesy: It is a vampire thing, yeah.
Ellen: Yep.
Mal: So that’s something that comes from canon as well. Plus, it’s just fun to change things up, do an AU, flip things on its head, basically why not is the basis of most fanfic in the first place, [laughter] so…
Julesy: That’s how I approach it. Like why not? This sounds ridiculous, but why not?
Mal: Exactly.
Ellen: I think actually all of the fics that we’ve chosen to talk about today have ended up being Cas as the creature, inadvertently.
Mal: That’s okay, I can mention some Dean ones later.
Julesy: Okay, good
Ellen: Okay, well shall we get right into it or…?
Julesy: Yeah
Mal: Yeah
Ellen: Alright, well the first fic we’re going to talk about is Julesy’s fic Trustworthy for Such Work by sharkfish which was published in 2018, and it is just over – just about 7.5k words long and it is explicit. Julesy, would you mind reading us the summary?
Julesy: Sure!
“Lately, Cas has been wondering what Dean tastes like. His mouth, the markings on his chest, his cock. Does Dean know the ways Cas has touched himself, wishing it was Dean?”
I went straight to explicit right with the description.
Ellen: [laughs] Yes! It’s a short and sweet one.
Mal: Gotta let people know what they’re getting in for.
Julesy: No misunderstanding about what’s going to happen here. I can’t believe it’s been two and a half years since I wrote this. It still feels like one of my more recent works to me. I think about it all the time.
Ellen: Yeah?
Mal: I think about this fic all the time too [laughs]. I’m trying not to sound like a pathetic fangirl about this fic, so please someone else say something sensible so that I can squee afterwards, okay?
Julesy: That makes me so happy because I feel like – I don’t know why – but I feel like this is one that is really special to me and then maybe doesn’t get as much recognition as some of my other stories, so I’m so happy that you love it. I’m so happy!
Mal: I think this one deserves a lot more recognition because, first of all, stand out creature fic just by itself, brilliant, because not only do you have both of them being separate creatures and you can see that – we always see them having to bridge the gap between someone being a human and a creature, but then you get to understand that it would be no different if it was two different types of creature, really. It’s just two different worlds, no matter what type of worlds those may be. But in this one you also have a whole language that you created for them to use which is amazing, and I absolutely love. [laughter]
Julesy: I forgot about that
Mal: It’s adorable
Julesy: That was really fun, and I was overly proud of myself for it. I have to hype this website that – let me make sure I get it right – it is a fantasy language generator. It’s vulgarlang.com. And it designs the grammar, everything for you. It’s amazing. I basically just stole words from one of those, but then I kind of designed the grammar myself because I didn’t like how theirs looked. So [laughs] I basically spent way too much time for my handful of lines of djinni in this story.
Ellen: It’s amazing. So I guess we have to say before we start squeeing about it all for anyone who hasn’t read it, Cas is a dragon and Dean is a djinn or a – okay so how does the plural here work? It’s one djinn and multiple djinni?
Julesy: I think so.
Ellen: Djinni?
Julesy: I could be wrong.
Ellen: An ifrit, I guess they’re also called. So Cas is like – he’s like one of a triplet which I guess – I guess nest-mates or something in the dragon world really ’cause he’s got Jimmy and he’s got –
Julesy: That’s so cute!
Ellen: And then Dean turns up, and they’re all there, and he’s just like, “What’s going on here?” That is so cute. I loved that.
Julesy: I loved the idea that Cas didn’t want to say that he was a triplet, that he was just like, “my brothers” because he felt so unsure that Dean might actually like his brothers better than him. And if they’re identical, then, you know, what’s Cas got to offer is kind of what he felt like. It was fun, it’s always fun to write Jimmy. I like to drop Jimmy in wherever I can [laughs] so I really enjoyed that even though it was just a quick scene.
Ellen: And he starts – Cas starts collecting things of Dean’s because one of their kind of mating ritual type things is to create a horde, which I thought was brilliant. What a great idea.
Julesy: I don’t know how that happened, like I don’t know how I created that idea. I just like the idea of sentimental objects in general in life and I just have a lot of things that remind me of people and things and so I like the idea that Cas was just collecting all these little Dean-reminders to surround himself with ’cause we was just so pathetically in love.
Mal: I love that part. I think it’s such an awesome twist on – ’cause obviously we have the normal kind of concept of dragons hoarding something like books or gold or something.
Julesy: Gold?
Mal: Yeah and just this awesome little twist of it being something that was – like without completely spoiling it for everybody – like so intensely personal to Dean in a way.
Julesy: Mm hm
Ellen: Mm hm
Mal: While at the same time being such a random collection of objects. [Laughs] That it was actually quite funny
Julesy: Yeah, if you know he was on Amazon buying copper vases, so like that’s such a random weird thing and he’s got all kinds of just various knickknacks in copper color around him that he has no use for other than reminders of Dean.
Ellen: It’s just so sweet
Julesy: It is very sweet.
Mal: I think you – there’s a line at some point where you mention that in his room there’s a set of pots and pans [laughs]
Julesy: Yes!
Mal: Of just copper pans just in his bedroom.
Julesy: [laughs] Yes! He’s just like in Target grabbing everything copper-looking, yeah. Just piling it in his room.
Ellen: The other thing that you’ve got in this one is Dean as an addict, which is an interesting kind of twist on a – I guess we don’t really see – like, you don’t actually mention him using or anything in this fic, but you don’t sort of make it very clear what he’s addicted to, which is fine, it fits fine with this story, I’m just – so is he addicted to like drugs or is it just the blood thing that—
Julesy: No, it is – you know how a lot of the fae are said to react negatively to iron? So I was thinking in the Teen Wolf fandom, they use wolf’s bane as something that the werewolves can get drunk on and it’s the only thing that works. So my thought was that there’s some product/drug out there that involves iron. He was injecting, probably.
Ellen: Right, okay.
Mal: Mmm
Ellen: Interesting!
Mal: See, now we get the behind the scenes knowledge.
Julesy: Yeah, that is like – I didn’t realize none of that is mentioned in the actual story but that’s what it was in my head.
Mal: It’s not relevant really
Ellen: Yeah
Julesy: It’s not like a big plot point. It’s just one of those things that popped up. It just kind of wrote itself. I was like, okay this is something about Dean then.
Ellen: Okay, Mal, you can squee now.
Mal: Yay!
[Laughter]
Mal: This fic basically just takes a bunch of my absolute favorite tropes and then squashes them all into like – what is it – less than 8k words. It’s amazing [laughs]
Julesy: Yeah, there is a lot in there for not very many words.
Mal: Yeah, so it takes dragon!Cas, and then it takes alternate universe so it’s modern but with magic, which I love.
Julesy: Me too.
Mal: And then demisexual!Cas as well, mutual pining… oh! friends to lovers – love that one as well.
Julesy: Me too.
Mal: Just putting all my favorite things and squashing them in to all of these words at once. It was just like, mwah! Amazing. Also my quite possibly, my favorite irreverent tag in a destiel fic ever.
Julsey: [laughs]
Mal: Which is –
Julesy: I know what you’re going to say.
Mal: Which for anybody who – yeah, if – for anybody who hasn’t enjoyed it yet, the tag is mentions of Daniel Radcliffe’s farting corpse [laughs] which is extremely relevant to the fic, so…
Ellen: It’s a very specific reference that Castiel would not understand [laughs]
Julsey: This, and I don’t think that anybody has seen that movie to even know what I’m talking about, but don’t watch the movie basically is my advice. Don’t see it. Don’t know what I’m talking about.
Mal: So the thing is I haven’t seen the movie, but I’ve seen enough PR and interviews about the movie to feel like that I’m intimately aware of that movie [laughs]
Julesy: Yeah, there was just like a lot of Daniel Radcliffe’s farting corpse – was really that was the movie for an hour and a half.
Ellen: Oh dear.
Julesy: That’s the movie. Yeah, it’s good.
Mal: So, yes, A+, brilliant, fic. Thank you for writing it. Love it.
Julesy: Thank you! Thank you, thank you for loving it.
Mal: Yay! Should let people know there is a very brief kind of blood-drinking type scene in this fic. It’s definitely more intimate than gory I would say, but it is there, so if anybody is particularly bothered by that, then they should be aware of it.
Julesy: It’s like a paper cut.
Mal: Yeah, it’s really, you know, nothing. Only fair to let people know.
Julesy: Yes, agree.
Mal: It’s much more of a kind of intimate thing than a kind of gory thing in any way when you read it, so please read this one everybody I love it! [laughs] This is – this is one of those stories that I want to shove at people and beg them to read.
Julesy: Me too, honesty. If someone asks me what to read of mine, this is the one I shove at them.
Mal: Quite right, too.
Ellen: I wonder if we should keep going because we have lots to get through today.
Julsey: Yes!
Mal: Okay.
Julesy: Okay, I guess we’ll talk about tiny dragons now.
Mal: I’m okay with that!
Julesy: I would love to talk about tiny dragons.
Mal: Yay, tiny dragons!
Ellen: Okay, alright let’s go on then. So, Dragon in a Cup is by aishitara. This one was published in 2020. It’s 22k words long and it’s mature and the summary goes like this:
“The fuck…?” he grumbles to himself, pulling the carafe of hot coffee out of its holder with his right hand and steadying his mug on the counter with his left. He looks down into the mug and yelps, surprised to see something white and wriggling at the bottom of his cup.
“What the fuck!” he yells, spilling hot coffee all over the counter, when the wriggling shape resolves itself into something resembling a miniscule white snake.
With wings.
There was… there was a goddamn dragon in his fucking coffee cup.
Julesy: I love this fic so much. [laughs]
Ellen: So do I! I can’t believe I have not read this one before now ’cause I love dragons. They’re like my number one favorite creature and this was – I was reading this, and I was making all sorts of squeeing noises while I was reading. It was just so adorable.
Julesy: It’s so fluffy and sweet, and the funny thing about this one is that I kind of have a squick about one of them being tiny. I just really hate it. But I read the story, and I loved the story. So I’m glad I gave it a chance.
Ellen: I mean, it’s not very clear from the summary but the dragon is Cas. [laughs] and he’s a baby at the beginning, but he does grow up very quickly and, you know, grows out of the coffee cup size.
Julesy: He does.
Ellen: And as he’s sort of growing and becoming like, I guess, bigger he gets very sort of cat-kind of vibes to him. He’s like curling up under Dean’s chin and likes scratches on his head. It’s so sweet.
Julesy: And mischievous
Ellen: Yeah
Mal: I love the difference in the two dragons between the previous fic and this one because the previous fic was a very kind of hyper-intelligent humanoid kind of dragon whereas in this one, at least in the beginning of the fic, without spoiling the end of it, it’s very much more of a creature dragon at the beginning of this one.
Julesy: But a really cute creature
Mal: Yeah, I want one.
Julesy: Me too!
Ellen: Me too [laughs]
Mal: I do. He’s so cuddly.
Julesy: Yeah! Especially the size he’s described as is a great pet size.
Ellen: Yeah, and he doesn’t sort of grow – like as I was reading it on, I was thinking is he going to get like really big like is he going to grow out of like a – I don’t know, we’re going into spoiler territory here, but I wasn’t sure if he was ever going to be like a human. I thought he was just going to be a dragon the whole time. I’m like, well this is super sweet. It’s rated mature, and I’m not really sure why at this point. Until we got to the part where, you know –
Mal: Where it becomes mature.
Ellen: He does end up becoming a human because he, you know, basically falls in love with Dean and decides this guy is his mate, and that is just the mating rituals involved in that, like all the little gifts and he also builds a little hoard and stuff. Just very imaginative and gorgeous.
Julesy: Yes, it is very unique
Mal: A very common trope within creature fic that I do love is the whole like mating ritual gifts kind of thing that we have going on. Like, whether it’s little stones coming from bird type creatures or like all kinds of wild different things. But, I don’t know, it kind of tickles the same itch as the hoard thing, almost [laughs]
Julesy: Yes! Well and Cas did keep – he was hoarding some of Dena’s things. I remember he had like a button, and he was keeping some other things in his little mug later on.
Ellen: Yeah
Julesy: So he had his own little hoard, little Dean hoard. Cute. [laughs]
Ellen: I think that one of the most fun things about this was Dean trying to work out exactly what was going on. He got Sam on board pretty early and kind of, you know, told him what was going on which is a new thing. Usually it’s like he doesn’t communicate with anybody, but Sam was pretty much on board the whole time.
Mal: I really liked that, and I think I had spent some time thinking about that with this one actually, and I think it’s specifically because Cas was not human, so it just didn’t occur to him not to communicate about Cas because he didn’t have that same level of hang up that he would’ve had if Cas was human.
Ellen: Yeah. And I guess also that dragons in this world seem to be real, like they’re a thing that is around. That it’s not a secret that he has to hide him or anything.
Mal: Yeah
Julesy: I love that kind of world where they’re not secrets, and, you know, he’s surprised because you don’t expect to find a live animal in your coffee cup in the morning, but he’s not like what the fuck is this. He knows what a dragon is.
Ellen: Yeah, he knows it’s a dragon
Julesy: He says fuck, but he knows it’s a dragon at least not what the fuck that.
Mal: It’s just like finding some really weird, rare creature, but something you would recognize just lurking in your kitchen in the morning when you’re trying to get to work.
Julesy: I don’t think it has to be that rare. I’ve found a possum in the bathroom before, but I didn’t enjoy that at all [laughs]
Mal: No mating bites with the possum, okay?
Julesy: No, no, I got rid of the possum. Oh god.
Mal: You might need some shots after that.
Julesy: I’m afraid someone is going to write up a possum creature fic right now and it’ll be my fault. That’s too far.
Mal: Look, if my friend Jess is listening out there, we did once come up with a racoon creature fic. [laughs]
Ellen: Oh my god.
Mal: So I’m just saying, one day. One day, it might happen. Anyway – [laughs]
Ellen: I’m not sure how to move on from that. [more laughing]
Mal: Where were we? Dean’s a baker. Baker Dean. I love a baker Dean.
Julesy: Well, I love this one in comparison to a lot of creature fics. There are often very porn-based. There’s a lot of porn without plot fics. And then this one is just so fluffy and sweet. It’s like the complete opposite of that. It’s just a warm cup of tea or whatever is comforting to people. That’s what it is.
Mal: I love it when I can find a fluffy one or one with some really good plot to it. Not that I don’t value the porn ones as well. That’s absolutely fine. I love those, read just as many of them as the next person.
Julesy: Love them, value them.
Mal: [continuing] But it’s really nice to find something – yeah, exactly, lovely to find something different as well.
Julesy: Just get so delighted when I read something that’s really unique and unexpected and I get just so excited about the ideas, and my brain starts spinning about different ideas just shooting off from this, and I just always want to just pick through the writer’s brains to find out how they arrived at something so unique and special. And I think this is one of those unique and special stories.
Ellen: As well as being completely adorable fluff.
Julesy: Yes.
Mal: I’ve actually already read this one multiple times because I read it a little while ago. I came across it, read it, enjoyed it, bookmarked it, and then we came up with the idea of doing the creature fic episode, so I immediately went straight back to it to read it again and then read it again shortly before we recorded.
Julesy: I read this one when you asked for creature stories. I thought, tiny dragon in a mug.
Mal: It’s a really good length for me because I read pretty fast, so like a 20-22k fic like this is a nice lunch break kind of fic for me. So I can just sit there and read at my lunch break. It’s great.
Ellen: And it’s only recently published. Like, one thing that I found really interesting about it, was that at least the few chapters in the beginning were published around the time in November when the final episodes were airing, so the author notes are all like being excited about 15×18 and then being horrified by what came next.
Mal: God yeah.
Ellen: And all the comments sections are full of people commiserating or whatever. So that was an extra interesting – it’s like a time capsule of what was going on around that time as well which is really interesting.
Mal: It’s like a roller coaster when you see any fic that was posted around that time or like a longfic that was posting throughout that month. Like, a little roller coaster to go through
Ellen: So I kind of wish I read this as it was being posted because it would be nice to have something so fluffy and warm while we were going through all that.
Julesy: It’s exactly what everyone needed this story right here
Ellen: Yeah, yeah.
Mal: That soothing balm. And there are plenty of people out there at the moment who will only read AUs because, you know, that’s what their heart needs right now. In that case, go read this one. You’ll love it.
Ellen: Definitely, this is the one for you. It’ll help.
Julesy: I think all of these are the one for you. To just soothe everyone’s soul with porn and fluff. I think we’ve got it all here
Mal: I think we really do. With that, should we move onto the next one?
Julesy: Yes.
Ellen: Yes.
Mal: Alright, so the next fic that we will talk about is called Friends with Benefits with Tentacles, and it is by andimeantittosting. It is about 7.5k words and it was published back in 2019 which is suddenly making me realize how much time has passed because I beta’d this fic, and I honestly thought it was last year but apparently-
Julesy: Wow.
Mal: But apparently it was not.
Julesy: Time flies.
Mal: Pandemic, yeah. The pandemic has done things. The summary goes like this:
Dean’s never been embarrassed about his porn collection before, but that was before he found Cas holding his prized copy of Sweet Princess Asuka and the Tentacles of Pleasure. Dean finds himself sweating bullets—because this is Cas, sweet, nerdy Cas. Cas, his friend. Cas, his roommate. Cas, his—only slightly out-of-control—crush.
Cas, with his big, blue eyes and muscular arms and perpetual sex hair.
Cas, with his tentacles.
The last thing he expects is for Cas to suggest they experiment together.
Jules: Oh, I love everything about this.
Mal: So this fic is basically everything that I have ever wanted. [laughs]
Julesy: This is the tentacle fic.
Mal: I adore this fic. I shamelessly encouraged this fic. Just absolute – a hundred percent.
Jules: Thank you for doing that. Thank you.
Mal: It was entirely self-serving. Like, the second I heard even an inkling of this fic. I was like, yes, you will write this, and I will encourage you every step of the way. I will drag you if I have to. So thank you, Sting! Appreciate it.
Julesy: Thank you for doing that for us. I really appreciate it.
Ellen: So in this one Cas is actually an alien.
Mal: Yes!
Ellen: There is an interplanetary thing going on but they’re on Earth. And Cas is like an exchange student. And I loved that because it did mean we still had the culture shock type thing like he didn’t understand any of the references. It was very canon in that way. But yeah. Tentacles.
Mal: Yeah!
Ellen: It’s one of those things that you sort of think about it, and go, oh, I don’t know if i want to read about that and then one of your friends drags you by the arm and goes, try this out, and you’re like okay, actually this is kind of hot. [laughs] and here we are.
Julesy: I just really think that Dean deserves all the dicks and like dick-like appendages that he wants at the same time, and eight is a lot of options, so [laughs] I love that for him.
Ellen: Yeah, and he has like two dicks he can use at the same time.
Mal: We just want the best for him, we do.
Julesy: Yes! That was interesting in this one they did go for a different spin on the whole genitalia situation, which is a serious thing to consider when you’re writing this kind of story. It’s difficult to decide. [laughs]
Ellen: Yes, we all know – we’ve talked before about the whale dick situation. [laughs] Interesting search histories going on. But yes, this is not just porn without plot. There’s actually a pretty amazing story that’s going along with this one too, which I thought was great.
Julesy: Yes.
Mal: Yes and I love a friends with benefits story anyway.
Julesy: But even though this is a lot of porn, the scene that I always think about, that I always remember, is the one in the diner, and I don’t want to give spoilers, but you guys know what I’m talking about. and it’s not part of the porn.
Mal: Yup.
Julesy: Like my heart falls apart, and that’s what I always think of.
Mal: Yes, Dean just shoving his foot further and further in this mouth. [laughs]
Julesy: He’s just so stupid, and I love him so much.
Mal: And the worst part was like reading that I can just – I can so clearly picture Cas’s face.
Ellen. Yeah, yeah.
Mal: It’s perfect. That scene is brilliant and painful and wonderful. It’s honestly – it’s probably to me the best scene of the fic. Love it.
Julesy: To be clear, the porn is really great also.
Mal: Not talking down on the porn here, that’s brilliant.
Julesy: I don’t want there to be any confusion about what I enjoyed and didn’t enjoy in this story. I enjoyed it all, especially the porn.
Mal: Consentacles is still my favorite tag on AO3. [laughs]
Julesy: I bet I didn’t use that tag on my tentacle one, so I should fix that.
Mal: You should because there are only 25 Destiel consentacles fics on AO3, and, yes, I do know that number off the top of my head. [laughs]
Julesy: Okay, well I can add three more for you, so I’ll get you three more.
Mal: Excellent, thank you.
Ellen: Wow.
Mal: It’s sad that I know that number, and I can also tell you three of them are mine [laughs]
Julesy: Lets just take over the tag, just me and you.
Mal: Yep, that’s it. We’ll own it.
Ellen: Please do.
Julesy: Yes!
Mal: This is a really, really delightful – like a perfect example of the trope, though really it is. It’s just so delightful, I can’t – this is one of those stories that I read it, and it just makes me happy.
Ellen: Yeah
Jules: I agree. And I love Dean as this person that studies porn, you know in an academic setting. And I just love that for him so much. I’m not sure why. Where did that come from, Mal?
Mal: I think that was one of the first pieces that she actually had for this fic, if I remember correctly. Definitely correct me if I am wrong on that. But as far as I recall, when she started brainstorming for this fic, that was actually one of the first pieces to fall into place before the rest of it did. So I’m curious as to whether that was something that she always kind of always wanted to write, just that kind of Dean characterization as somebody who was a porn connoisseur or whether it was specifically to make it work for this because that’s kind of cool if that was just a character concept that she had.
Ellen: I mean, it’s a great excuse to have your porn collection out on main, you know. Like, to have it all sitting there.
Mal: Right!
Julesy: Exactly! And it works so perfectly for this. It’s such a – it’s a perfect premise to set it up.
Mal: And of course you’ve still got him slightly grossing out Sam. Even though Sam knows that it’s some way academic, it’s still just a little bit too much for him. [laughs]
Ellen: This one needs the Sam brain bleach tag as well. [laughs] He gets extremely grossed out by the whole thing.
Julesy: Oh, poor Sam. Life is rough.
Ellen: He goes through a lot. I also thought it was great that when Cas discovers the thing and he goes, “You know, we should do it” and Dean’s just like, you know his brain’s gone on the loading screen. He’s like, “Whaat?”
Julesy: “What?”
Mal: “I’m sorry, what?”
Ellen: “You want to do what?” That was so funny I loved that.
Julesy: Yeah, and I loved how Cas was just so blunt about it. There was no shying away. He was like, yes, let’s do this. It’s fun.
Mal: I really liked the way that Cas kind of addressed the fact that – immediately as Cas found it, Dean brought up the fact that, you know, well, I guess this whole fetish that people have is more problematic now that we know that aliens with tentacles are real, and Cas, just baffled, is like why? It’s not problematic. It’s just possible now. [laughs] That’s what changed. It didn’t suddenly become a problem, it suddenly became possible.
Ellen: It’s a really interesting concept actually if you think about it. Now that you mention it.
Julesy: I love that as you mention Cas is an alien and there’s just mentions, just touches on about Cas being an exchange student type, and I love that that wasn’t overshared, that information about this world, that it was just kind of tiny little pieces here and there to put together the whole alien-human situation. I love that so much.
Mal: It’s kind of like that iceberg situation. Like, there’s a lot more there. We don’t need to know it but you really get that feeling that it’s all out there.
Julesy: Yeah
Ellen: I’m impressed by people who are able to put entire universes in a short word count. Like, I think that she’s done a really good job here of implying there’s a lot more involved in this story but only making it, you know, concise, I guess.
Mal: I think that’s something she’s really good at in all of her fics, actually. This one in particular is really well done. I was going to mention that one of the things I like in this fic, which is very subtle because there’s different types of tentacle fic and there’s different kind of levels that they go to with how explicit they are or what different things they like to include but one of the very subtle things that I like which some of them seem to skip over and just head straight for the very, very hard core stuff is the concept of sucker bruising on skin.
Julesy: Yes! That’s my favorite
Mal: Which for some reason, I don’t know why, that’s so hot, but it is. [laughs]
Julesy: No, I love it. I’m obsessed
Mal: Yeah, and it’s done to a nice effect in this one, in that it kind of takes them from it maybe being just a one night thing to possibly turning into something a lot more than that when Cas spots it on Dean.
Ellen: And Dean loves it. He’s like – he’s really into it, into them being there the next day, kind of thing. And he likes the bruises, which is really kind of hot.
Mal: Yes.
Julesy: And they’re so pretty! I can imagine them in my head, and they’re so pretty! I love bruises.
Mal: If we can have fics where Dean gets spanked and bruised and everything and people find that hot, then what is the difference, really, when you think about it?
Ellen: Yeah.
Julesy: No difference.
Mal: There’s just something about it. You know, like I said, there’s obviously different types of tentacle fic and different kind of things that they go for but I really do like that – there’s something like, I don’t know, intimate about it, like more subtle about it which is very nice, so I really like that that specifically was included in this one.
Julesy: I think you’re right. It is intimate. I agree that it was more intimate than what you see in a lot of PWP tentacle stories.
Ellen: If you’ve never tried a tentacle fic before, and you’re looking to give one a go and see what it’s like, this one’s a great one to start with for all the reasons outlined above. I’m pretty sure Sting has written some more tentacle – another tentacle – more tentacle things as well? Or maybe just a –
Ellen: Yes, she has.
Mal: – caecilia type thing with octopus like tentacles, but yeah, definitely worth checking out her other stuff too. More creature fics in her –
Ellen: A few one shots for tentacletober last year, I think.
Mal: Yes, that’s right. Tentacletober? [laughs] Oh my god.
Julesy: I really wanted to do that, but did not do it, but I really wanted to. I have all the prompts still saved.
Mal: Yeah, might make that a thing again this year.
Ellen: Those fics that she wrote for that, were like – I was reading and going, oh maybe I could do this too, but I never did, so maybe this year
Julesy: You should
Ellen: I’m often doing other things in october
Mal: Well maybe we should make it a thing again this year.
Julesy: Any month can be tentacle month.
Ellen: we just – that’s the tagline for this episode. Any month can be tentacle month. [laughs]
Julesy: It is true! Why do we need just a single month for tentacles? I want them all year round.
Ellen: Not just for Christmas [laughs]
Julesy: Not just for Christmas, no.
Mal: Brilliant.
Ellen: Let’s have a look at these quarantine stories, shall we?
Mal: Yes
Julesy: Yes
Ellen: The You Shook Me All Quarantine Long series is by goldenraeofsun. It was posted over a few months last year like during sort of quarantine lockdown times. And there are four short fics in this series, and each of them is a separate verse kind of thing. They’re all just under 10k words each, so nice, bite sized, so to speak, stories. All of them are mature rated except for the fourth one which is explicit.
I’m not going to read out the summaries for all of them. But, just… they all involve creature Cas and human Dean. So we’ve got one – that the first one is about werewolves, and the second is a witch thing. The third one is vampires, and the fourth is, I believe, incubus, is that right?
Mal: Yes
Julesy: Yes, that is correct. I love every single one of these, and I’ve reread them all multiple times. My favorite quarantine stories.
Mal: So which was your favorite creature? That’s the question.
Julesy: I really liked the incubus one. Yeah.
Mal: The slightly incompetent incubus?
Julesy: Yes because I love that. I love when he’s incompetent. He’s incompetent at dating and sex. I love that. And Dean thinks he’s so cute anyway.
Mal: I think it’s probably tied for – probably tied for the vampire one. I don’t know why, just I have a longstanding weakness for Vampire Cas.
Julesy: I love the resurgence of Vampires in general. Like, we’ve escaped Twilight velocity and vampires are ours again.
Mal: Yes, like we’ve finally left that behind [laughs] We’ve reclaimed them.
Julesy: Yes. I love that. But I love the witch one too. I think that was a really unique take on witches, and it made me so happy Cas was so worried about Dean and just wanted to protect him and Dean was kind of a jerk at first, but he caught on.
Mal: That was very cute, that one.
Ellen: Well, they do share overall kind of threads going through them, I guess. Like they’re – one thing I noticed that at least in two of them, and possibly more, they’re always watching Jeopardy! on the TV. [laughs] Dean’s always turning Trebek down.
Mal: I think that’s in all of them.
Julesy: I love that kind of little easter egg thing sprinkled among a writer’s various works.
Ellen: Yes
Julesy: I didn’t notice that but that’s really cute. I love that they’re all roommate stories because I love roomate stories.
Ellen: They kind of have to be with quarantine, don’t they?
Mal: Roommate fics took on a whole new life when quarantine came around.
Ellen: Yeah, definitely.
Julesy: Yes.
Ellen: Okay so, the first one – we’ll just go through each of them and talk a little bit about them, I guess. So we’ve got werewolf Cas transforming into a wolf on the full moon and Dean finding out about it.
Julesy: In their apartment. Yeah.
Ellen: Dean has an element of freaking out when he realizes what’s going on. But one thing I love about goldenraeofsun’s writing in general is they always have little – clever little things in there that just – even if it’s not, you know, generally supposed to be funny, they always have little funny things that just make you laugh, and I love that. They do it a lot in their fics.
Julesy: Love their stories.
Mal: Something that I noticed in this story, which I think is a general thing when people make Cas any kind of creature, but I noticed specifically a lot when he’s any kind of wolf, whether it’s like a werewolf or like omegaverse shifter type thing or anything, doesn’t matter what Cas is, we always make him still able to roll his eyes. [laughs] doesn’t matter what Cas is, he will always be able to do that eye roll.
Julesy: An important character trait right there. You can’t get rid of it.
Mal: Yup. it’s even in the summary for this fic. That’s how important it is.
Ellen: And it’s how Dean recognizes him. Like, he does it, and Dean goes, Cas? [laughs] It’s so perfect. I loved that Cas was kind of a cuddly wolf too, like he decided to not be a psycho killer as he’s transforming and even though it’s very painful.
Mal: He’d rather just stay home and curl up and get some pets from Dean.
Ellen: Having said that, it is hilarious when he makes Dean go run with him.
[laughter]
Julesy: It is pretty funny.
Mal: Any situation where Dean is made to run is quite funny.
Julesy: I felt that in my heart as he was describing his run. Sounds awful. And then you’ve got your dog mocking you the whole time. Is the humiliation not enough? [laughing]
Ellen: Alright the second one is Magic Quarantine Ride that’s a witch Cas and one thing that I loved this was Cas’s cat whose name is Guinea Pig. That just tickled me so much. I loved that.
Julesy: I laughed so hard at that. It’s so cute. One thing about this story, I know a lot of folks are really sensitive to COVID-related stories right now, so I just want to say that I feel like this one, the witch one, is really the only one that addresses it in a way that might make people feel nervous. Like, in the others it’s just a vague background thing. But this one Dean’s a healthcare worker, and so it’s kind of front and center.
Mal: Yeah, that’s true. It’s much more a part of the story in this one.
Julesy: But he has Cas to protect him, so…
Mal: He does. Cas’s room was definitely my favorite part of this story, how that was done. I also really liked the fact that one of the points in the story is that Cas has always asked Dean never to go in his room, and even though there’s a point in the story where things are kind of coming to a head and Dean almost storms in and almost does it, he still respects that boundary and doesn’t do it until he’s invited to. Like, it’s so close, and he almost does it, but he still has that respect and that boundary and doesn’t do it, and I actually really like that ‘cause it would have been really easy to have him barge in and do the story that way, and I actually really like the author chose not to do that.
Julesy: I don’t – I think he’s the kind of guy that would try to respect those boundaries. Though with the way Cas was sounding I would have burst in anyway just to make sure he’s okay.
Mal: Yeah.
Julesy: But, Dean respected it, good for him.
Mal: I like that the author chose to do the story the way they did ‘cause there were definitely options there. There were options for the way that could have gone. I like that Cas makes Dean have a bubble bath and it’s pink [laughs] Dean protests but is clearly all along just going to do it.
Ellen: Okay so number 3, Hot Blooded Quarantine. This is the vampire one. There is a little bit of blood drinking in this one if you’re not into that.
Julesy: This is one to skip.
Ellen: After he finds out about the vampire thing, he does make Cas watch Twilight, which is just genius. [laughs] Very funny.
Julesy: It’s a cruel and unusual punishment, I think. Why has Dean seen Twilight?
Mal: And the fact that he makes him watch all four of them, not even just the first one. Like, he makes him watch all four.
Julesy: I’d be out of there.
Mal: What I would’ve given, to see Cas’s face during the last one with the weird robot baby thing going on.
[laughter]
Ellen: Yeah, no.
Julesy: Okay, I haven’t seen it
Ellen: I haven’t either.
Julesy: So this robot baby thing is new to me. I didn’t know there was a robot in there.
Mal: Well I hope it was a robot, put it that way.
Ellen: It was like just a CGI thing, wasn’t it? ’Cause the kid is growing up really fast, but it’s still a baby, and it talks? I don’t know. I don’t know; I’ve only seen the first one.
Mal: It was very creepy looking.
Ellen: I saw the first one and just went, um, you know what, I’ll just stick with the books.
Julesy: No thanks, no thanks. Cas does not glitter in this story, which I think is really unfortunate
Ellen: [laughs] It’d be funny if he did.
Julesy: I think glittering should be a requirement.
Mal: There’s a lot of back and forth discussion in this story about which kind of elements of vampire mythology are and are not true. Dean’s just firing on questions at Cas while he’s like trying to work and do other things, and probably 50% wanting to know the answers and 50% just wanting to irritate Cas a little bit.
Julesy: He’s definitely fucking with him a little bit, yeah. And Cas is so snarky back. I love it.
Mal: I love it. [laughter] I’m assuming that this won’t be like a serious trigger warning for anybody, but you never know, I guess, but there are definitely discussions of poop in this fic.
Ellen: Oh yeah!
Julesy: Oh yes, that’s true.
Ellen: I forgot about that.
Mal: Which, yeah, I thought was quite funny. It was a really interesting way of handling it. That, yes, Cas can handle eating human food. It will just mess him up for a while.
Ellen: And Dean’s like, yeah, that’s fine you can just use the bathroom. You can have the bathroom for the night, that’s fine. And he’s talking about it like Sam eating bad burritos and stuff. It’s very canon.
Mal: My favorite part of this one though is that when – obviously ‘cause it’s quarantine Cas has been trying to stay in the house, and he pushes himself a little bit too far at the beginning, ends up running out to feed, kind of being a little bit too crazed and messy with it, and when he comes back, he has like blood splattered down his shirt, and Dean’s reaction to it was just hilarious to me because once he’d worked out what had happened, and Cas had explained, they’d broken it down a little bit, Dean’s reaction basically breaks down to, well, could’ve been worse. [laughter] There’s clearly an element of shock happening in his brain, but it’s just still very amusing the way he rationalizes it down to like, well, could’ve been worse things. This is fine.
Ellen: Well, he’s just discovered he’s not about to be brutally murdered. So I guess, there’s a bit of relief there.
Mal: Well, could be worse.
Julesy: He’s like, he must’ve had a good reason.
Mal: Could’ve been a serial killer. It’s fine. Yeah, so I really enjoyed this one. I liked it. Vampire fics in general, I’m quite fond of. We don’t have a ton of them in this fandom. I think there’s probably more Vampire Dean ones because of that episode. I’m sure they’re out there.
Julesy: I don’t run into a lot of vampire stories in general, I feel like.
Mal: There’s one that I really enjoyed. There’s a Vampire Cas fic called Come on in by thereluctantshipper, which is just very well done. Like, it’s just a really entertaining story because Cas is just weird enough that for a while you’re just like, is he just a really weird person or is he this way because he’s a vampire? And you’re really unsure. Is this just him, or is this the being a vampire, which is it? And a lot of it you think is probably just him being Cas more than anything, which I like. I like that it’s just so true to him being him.
Ellen: I mean there’s also Love Bites, which I know you don’t want to talk about.
Mal: No. No, no… we don’t need to talk about it.
Ellen: I know you don’t want to talk about Love Bites, but I’m just going to say that if you, for some weird reason, you haven’t read Love Bites, and you are interested in vampire stories, then definitely go read that one because it’s adorable, and Dean is the vampire in that one.
Julesy: I can’t believe I haven’t read it.
Ellen: Oh! Well, definitely go and do that because Dean as a bat is the cutest thing that I’ve ever read, apart from maybe Cas as a dragon baby. It’s up there. It’s definitely up there. Anyway let’s not talk about Mal’s fic because she’ll never come back. She’ll run away, and she won’t come back.
Okay, so the fourth story is called Riding the Quarantine Out, and it’s about Incubus Cas.
Mal: Yes.
Julesy: Yes.
Mal: Virgin, slightly awkward incubus Cas. So, again, roommates and living together, and Cas has been getting by on kind of absorbing Dean’s energy from his hookups next door.
Julesy: Yeah, I thought that was really interesting that his just like this proximity to sex fed him. I thought that was really interesting.
Mal: Yeah, but now that it’s quarantine, and so Dean isn’t hooking up with anyone anymore, he’s not getting fed and things are getting not so great for him. And so he attempts to leave the apartment, and Dean’s not having any of it really. [laughs]
Ellen: I guess he can’t go out like in the vampire one, and just take someone [laughs] that would be a bit straying into the noncon territory.
Mal: Yes.
Julesy: But Cas can’t get anyone to do him anyway, so…
Mal: Yeah…
Julesy: Poor thing.
Mal: Bit awkward.
Julesy: He’s doing his best. He’s trying so hard, but Dean loves him, so that’s good enough.
Mal: Yes. There’s a line in there somewhere where he kind of half joking but not really mentions something about him holding a record for like the oldest virgin incubus. [laughs]
Ellen: Poor Cas.
Mal: He’s not doing so great, but it’s fine ‘cause Dean wants him anyway it’s just Dean had pretty much made the assumption that he was asexual by then. Which, you know, shouldn’t assume. Communication [claps] boys, come on.
Julesy: Yes! Most stories would not happen if these people would talk to each other, so it’s fine that they don’t.
Mal: Yeah, I mean, we like it that they don’t. It gives us stories, really. It’s what canon handed us.
Ellen: It’s pretty much a defining thing of their relationship that they just don’t communicate ever. It’s perfect. Makes for good stories even if they’re frustrating.
Mal: I’m just chuckling remembering a comment I got on a fic once, and they’re like, this is what I don’t like about fanfic, they don’t talk to each other. And I’m like I have no idea how you stand watching this show then.
[laughter]
Mal: Like, at least in fic you usually get some kind of resolution to that by the end.
Julesy: Yes, eventually they say something, yeah.
Ellen: So I guess out of the four this one being the explicit one we finally get that pay off that we’ve been building up to through all of them and there is actually some loving in this one.
Julesy: There’s some loving, and there are multiple orgasms, the whole magic no refractory period thing Cas does to Dean, it’s wonderful. They get it on enough for all four of the stories.
Mal: Yes, that incubus thing is used to good exent in this one.
Julesy: Yes.
Ellen: Excellent.
Mal: Do recommend.
Ellen: We need to thank goldenraeofsun for giving us such a lovely spectrum of creature fic in this series.
Julesy: Yes, thank you! These are wonderful.
Ellen: And I guess on the topic of incubus if you’re interested in reading more of those, there is an incubus Cas and or Dean tag as well, but there’s also – Ltleflrt has one called Addicted to You, which is the standard incubus fic that everyone loves. That’s a pretty amazing one. And I have an incubus fic too that I’m not going to talk about. [laughs]
Mal: Excuse me? You just made me sit here! Uh no, we’re a 100% going to link your incubus one as well since as you made me talk about – well actually I didn’t mention a word, but you talked extensively about my Vampire Dean fic.
Ellen: Okay, well, I know that we’ve probably each of us got other creature fics that we haven’t really discussed today that we’d like to mention as well. You guys want to mention any?
Julesy: Yeah, I’ve got two. I’ll contain myself to two because I love dragons. I don’t know how they say this or if they say Vipjuly or V.IP.July has one called Sparks that has Cas as a dragon.
Mal: I love this one.
Julesy: Ugh, it’s so good. There’s like fun mating ritual type things that I love. It’s great.
Ellen: I don’t think I’ve read that one. That’s terrible.
Mal: I love it.
Julesy: You definitely should.
Mal: There’s this really cool thing with a house and Dean like going to – you have to read it.
Ellen: Okay, I’ll put it on the list.
Julesy: It’s really cool, though. It’s really cool. And the second one is called Hold Your Breath by camwelgrace, and Cas is a merman in that one. It’s so fun. It’s so great. And I feel like I don’t see it talked about like I do some of these other fics so everyone should go read it.
Ellen: Well, we’ve got a wealth – quite a few mermaid fics around the place nowadays. I mean, obviously there’s Mal’s Fish out of Water, which I won’t make her talk about because we have already talked about it in a previous episode as well.
Julesy: That is a great one. I didn’t mention it because i was told not to mention it, so I didn’t.
Mal: Thank you.
Ellen: I’m definitely going to mention it. But also there’s – we can’t go past Out of the Deep by riseofthefallenone which is a long fic that’s like nearly 500k words, that one. And that’s definitely a creature fic in a similar way to Fish out of Water that Cas is in captivity, and Dean basically rescues him after a very long protracted period of, you know, looking after him in captivity. While it is extremely long, it’s a really incredible story, like brilliant world building and a lot of angst. Big angst in that one. But it does have a happy ending and worth reading.
Mal: This is my jam. I have a lot of different recommendations for this one. So, for anybody who has listened to the previous episodes they know that along with this one another one of my absolute favorites tropes is the murder husbands trope. There is a fic out there which brings together my two favorite loves into one beautiful harmonious piece of writing. It’s called Blood in the Water by Ltleflrt. It’s a 5k word story. It is beautifully written. It will pull you in. It is serial killer Dean WInchester and kelpie Castiel. It is fantastic. It is 100% dead dove, do not eat, do not go into it, read the tags, like, you know, take the tags seriously. However, it is beautiful. If you are somebody who can stand to read murder husands type stuff and it’s not gonna upset you, then this is a 100% a story I would recommend to anybody. It’s just fantastic the way it’s done. I love it. Cas is a kelpie. Dean is a serial killer who is taking his latest victim somewhere and finds an interesting new way to dispose of the body.
[laughter]
So yeah, that’s a great fic that brings together both of those tropes into one. But obviously very dark. Don’t go into that if that’s not your thing.
Something a little different, let me find one on my list which is going to be very different tone to that one. Convenient Husbands by Annie D.
Julesy: Oh yes.
Mal: This is a phoenix Cas fic. It’s also a kind of fake – not really a fake relationship, more a marriage of convenience – sort of fic where to survive Hunter Dean and Phoenix Cas have a soul bond marriage kind of deal to help Cas heal and then the deal is that once that’s done, they’ll never have to see each other again. Spoilers, that’s not how it works out. It’s a brilliant story. It’s just under 40k words. It’s really good. There’s a lot of plot going on in there. It’s really enjoyable. It will pull you in. It’s one of those stories that does not feel like 40k words at all when you’re reading it. I’ve read it multiple times and would recommend it to anybody. And obviously Cas is a phoenix and has all kinds of awesome powers and stuff. And they have like a telepathic bond in this story, which is pretty cool.
Julesy: I actually don’t think I’ve read this.
Mal: It’s really cool. You should read it! I love it
Julesy: My mark for later list is so long, so I’ll just add another one, and we’ll see what happens.
Mal: Just add it in there, why not.
Julesy: I’ll just toss it in there, see what happens.
[laughter]
Mal: Okay, another couple of quick fire recommendations that I won’t go into the details of then. Another phoenix one then, Written in Sparks by Jemariel.
Julesy: Yes!
Mal: That one’s really good as well, 8k words. Loved that story.
Another dragon one, Little Blue Dragon by SaltnHalo
Ellen: That’s one of my favorites.
Mal: That’s kind of like a fantasy historical take on creature fic, which is fun.
One that is quite old now but I don’t hear getting recced a lot is a song by – a fic by elspethmcgillycuddy called 25 Cent Pocket Guardian Angels
Julesy: Oh yeah!
Mal: It is a story where Cas is a tiny little creature that Dean actually gets from a vending machine. It’s like a tiny – like, you know those little – you get a toy inside, little like… So he pays 25 cents for Cas in a vending machine.
Ellen: That sounds adorable.
Mal: It’s a crazy concept, but yeah. Very cute. But yeah, I never really see that one recced anywhere, but it’s brilliant and very unique, so I would rec that one.
Synchronicity by Castielslostwings if you liked incubus fics, that’s a really good one. A very hot explicit one with like a sex feedback loop kind of element to it, which is fun.
I don’t think we can talk about creature fics without at least mentioning The Graveyard Shift. I think we have to mention that one. It’s 620k words long so if you want the complete opposite to everything we’ve talked about today, I will not spoil what kind of creature Cas is in that one because it’s a very slow burn, slow reveal within the story, but that one’s out there. That one’s by riseofthefallenone and purgatoryjar. And it’s a creature fic slash coffee shop AU-ish modern magic type story.
Ellen: I’ve always thought that one sounded amazing. But it’s just so long that it’s a bit-
Mal: It’s a lot, isn’t it
Ellen: It’s a bit intimidating.
Mal: It’s commitment. Can I fit in a couple more? I can fit in a couple more.
Ellen: Yeah, go on.
Mal: Carnival Oasis by violue. This is a series rather than a fic. Might be a little bit of a spoiler to explain exactly what Cas is in this story because Dean himself does not know at the beginning but Dean comes across Cas at a carnival. He is definitely something not quite human. He’s very fascinating. It’s very interesting to learn with Dean. It’s in the description – at least some details are in the summary. Castiel is a being that feeds on sin. I’ll put that out there. It’s very interesting, very, very unique. I’ve never seen anything like that out there. It’s great. It’s really nicely written as well. I think it’s a series of four or five stories – no, it’s ten! Oh, maybe I haven’t read them all.
Julesy: Ten?
Mal: Ten!
Julesy: I don’t think I’ve read them all.
Mal: Yeah, I thought it was five or six – maybe I have read them all. I don’t know. I will definitely be checking when we’re done recording, don’t worry. What else…
Okay, one more mention – I will mention one author, two fics. I should mention unforth’s Halflings which is a very interesting fic because –
Julesy: Yes, I was thinking about that too.
Mal: there’s a lot of social commentary worked into that fic as well. It’s a story about Dean adopting halfling Cas who is this small creature kind of as a pet basically for his son. But, like I said, there’s a lot of social commentary and social justice kind of stuff worked in there. Like, there’s a lot more to it than just your basic creature fic. It’s very interesting. It’s very well done. Unforth never misses, really. They also have another one called Research Specimen 14652 which is a great Dean creature fic, which is tentacles with Dean as the octopus creature.
And then the last one I want to give – I said last one but I might be lying, okay.
[laughter]
So, I think we would probably be letting some listeners down if we didn’t at least mention the more extreme end of creature fic that is out there for those people that want to go looking for it. So we should probably mention the spider fic, which is Caught in a Web by TapBluesNLindyHopDancer. This is a story where Cas is a spider. Read the tags. It’s out there. How long is this? 13k words, I think. Sam and Dean are hunting down a mysterious creature. And Dean gets caught in the creature’s web.
And then there is another story with – actually several stories, so I’m going to shout out the author in general which is MissLV. She has all kinds of interesting stories with creatures of all kinds, so I will provide the link to her AO3.
Ellen: Jeez, you do have quite a list. Goodness me.
Mal: I know. I’m sorry. [laughs] I’m indecisive.
Julesy: There’s too many good ones.
Ellen: We’ll put all the links in the post on mixtapebookclub.com so go and have a look at that if you want to read – if you are interested in any of these.
Mal: Everyone listening is like, aw, Mal shut up.
Ellen: No! No, it’s great to shout them all out. Do you want to talk about any more, or…? You can keep going if you want.
Mal: Not quite, no. I think that’s part of the fascinating thing about creature fic, though, because it can encompass so many different things. Because there are some people who – like for example vampire fic, they would barely even consider that to be creature fic.
Ellen: Yeah.
Julesy: It’s like creature-like
Mal: And then on the other end of the spectrum you have things like the spider fic and the – I can’t remember the name of it – the one where Dean is a plant. Hm, I can’t remember it. I will find that one too and link that one as well. Though technically that would be – what?
Julesy: Flora fic?
Mal: I guess technically that’s not a creature.
Ellen: it’s slightly more serious than the cabbage one.
Julesy: He’s not human.
Ellen: The one with the lettuce. [laughs]
Mal: The lettuce crack fic! I recommended that to someone for the first time the other day and got to see their reaction to that fic.
Ellen: The one with the carrots, oh god.
Mal: Always a joy.
Ellen: Let’s not go there. That’s a whole other episode on random crack fic.
Mal: We’re going to have to do an episode on famous crack fics, aren’t we?
Ellen: Yeah.
Julesy: I think you will, yeah. I think that’s important.
Mal: But yeah, but what I was trying to say is that there is really a whole spectrum of things that creature fic can encompass. Things like tentacle fic type stuff are probably the most well known, but there is a whole kind of area of things that can cover it. I just wanted to give a variety that’s all.
Ellen: That’s great! That’s an excellent variety. We might even do – if there’s one that we find that there’s a lot of, we can do an extra episode just focusing on one of those species.
Mal: Yeah. ‘Cause I know that we’ve had requests before, specifically for vampire fics but there aren’t as many out there as I would like there to be.
Julesy: We need to get to work is the answer. We need to write tentacle fics and vampire fics, all of us, right now.
Mal: Alright! Let’s get going.
Ellen: Unfortunately, all the ideas are for dragon fics right now, aren’t they? We were just talking about that earlier.
Mal: I know. We all have dragon fic ideas.
Julesy: Yes.
Ellen: Yes.
Julesy: I think I have multiple dragon fic ideas. [laughs] And I have another tentacle idea or two. One I can think of right now.
Ellen: Excellent.
Mal: See, we’ll definitely have to do a tentacle fic specific episode in the future as well. Watch as the listeners go running to the hills.
[laughter]
Ellen: No!
Julesy: Just introduce a whole bunch more people to the gateway drug that is tentacles.
Ellen: I feel like people are curious about it.
Mal: I think it’s one of those things. People are either already into it or they just want to know why, so they will listen anyway.
Ellen: yeah
[laughter]
Julesy: Well, they want to know why, and then they find out why, and then we’ve got another recruit.
Mal: Yeah! There was a really interesting quote from somewhere which I wrote down the other day when we were talking about doing creature fic and tentacle stuff and all the rest of it. And they were saying that obviously, you know, the biggest sexual organ is the brain, right? And they were saying that obviously when you come to creature fic, monster fic, like monster fucking stuff so, when you think about it, the further from reality you get, so the further from your standard human form you get, the more you’re activating your imagination.
Ellen: Yeah
Mal: So for a lot of people that is specifically what draws them to it ‘cause the more you’re activating your imagination, the more interesting it becomes, the more stimulating that biggest sexual organ they have. So that’s why it makes sense for them. Which, I definitely never thought about it that way, but I was like, huh, okay, I can see that; that makes sense.
Ellen: I guess you’ve hit on an important thing with this creature fic, maybe tentacles in particular, because we don’t actually have something that’s real that’s like a visual thing. Like, if you’re writing a story about vampires, you already kind of know what a vampire looks like, I guess. But if you’re writing about an alien, for instance, that has tentacles, you have to really have to describe what you’re seeing here because otherwise your brain just can’t really comprehend what’s going on. Okay, there’s tentacles going in a few different holes or whatever [laughs] but it doesn’t make a whole lot of visual sense. Maybe that’s the way I, you know, understand fic as I’m reading it but, to me, if I can’t see something in my mind, then it’s not comprehensible. Does that make sense?
Mal: Yeah, I think that’s why I like the challenge of writing it, actually.
Ellen: Yeah
Mal: Because it’s not something that’s kind of instantly a visual that we have. Like, you need to put that effort into making sure that it’s something people can easily conjure up in the head.
Julesy: You can do so many fun things with tentacles because, I mean, actual octopuses do so many fun things with their tentacles as far as changing color and things like that. I’ve written it where Cas’s tentacles were kind of like a mood ring, and you could tell his different moods based on what color they turned which was really fun. And they can be glittery.
Ellen: Yeah, I had-
Julesy: I’m back to the glitter thing.
Ellen: I had Crowley as an octopus – cecaelia – I don’t know you pronounce that – octopus person with bioluminescent tentacles, which was a lot of fun.
Jules: Yes, I love that.
Mal: Yeah, I never know if I’m saying that right. I always pronounce it “ka-kalia”, and then I‘m like I don’t think that’s how you say it.
Ellen: Yeah, I don’t know either.
Mal: But that’s how it says it in my head. [laughs]
Ellen: I mean it’s a made-up word anyway, right? There’s no such thing as a real one, but surely there must be a way to pronounce it that’s Latin-ly correct. I don’t know.
Mal: Actually, technically, there isn’t because it was a word that was invented, I think, less than ten years ago, so it doesn’t have a Latin root. [laughs] So, uh… good luck with that.
Ellen: But it must come from an octopus-like genus or, you know –
Mal: No I think it – no, it was made up from a book series, I think. Hang on, I was reading about this the other day.
Julesy: I think you’re right.
[a beat]
Mal: I don’t need to Google this while we’re recording.
[laughter]
Ellen: So we don’t have to worry about how we pronounce it, in that case; just make it up!
Mal: Definitely Googling it while we’re recording.
Julesy: I can’t – I need to stop. I need to exit out of Google before I get really distracted by octo-stuff. [laughs]
Ellen: Been down that rabbit hole before with –
Julesy: Yes! There’s so much cool art.
Mal: So it’s modern internet parlance but it’s for – [sings] duh duh duh duh, duh duh duh duh – at least it’s telling us how to pronounce it.
Ellen: Mm?
Julesy: How do we say it?
Mal: Am I the only one who sees it written out where they’re telling you how to pronounce things, and it doesn’t really help me. [laughs]
Ellen: See-sale-i-a!
Mal: See-sale-i-a
Julesy: Yeah, that’s what I thought. That’s what I thought.
Ellen: Okay, good. Alright, now we know.
Mal: You’re right.
Julesy: I was right for once in my life. [laughs]
Ellen: We won’t be offending any cecaelias out there.
Mal: Apparently the word was inspired by a comic book character from the 1970s. So there you go.
Ellen: Oh, okay.
Mal: There you go.
Ellen: Brilliant, okay! Thank you for the-
Julesy: Tentacle related trivia.
Ellen: Etymology lesson for today. No, not entomology, no, that’s a different kind of creature fic.
Mal: So the full word can be traced to a wikipedia page first created in March 2007.
Ellen: I love this internet sleuthing. Yes, okay.
Julesy: I love the internet.
Ellen: Yeah.
Mal: Yeah.
Ellen: What would we do without the internet?
Julesy: It’s all so weird.
Mal: History in action, folks. Anyway! Where were we before –
[Laughter]
Mal: I took us down that – [laughs] I don’t know where we were, sorry.
Ellen: We had a cecaelian tangent. A tentacle tangent.
Mal: Tentacle tangent? Yeah!
Ellen: Well, we’ve got one shoutout that we need to do before we finish today, and that is the twitch streamer DakaraJayne who – she streams about different TV shows, she’s been doing a rewatch of Supernatural or maybe a watch for the first time? I’m not sure if this is the first time she’s watched it, but she’s also getting into –
Mal: I think it is actually the first time, actually, from what I’ve seen, and somehow she has remained miraculously unspoiled this entire time.
Ellen: Amazing.
Julesy: Wow.
Ellen: Amazing. Well, she’s been doing – getting into fic as well, and one of the things she’s doing lately is starting to read fics aloud on her streams. So she just started recently reading Mal’s fic, A Fish Out of Water, so if you’re interested in listening to that one, you can catch – I think she usually streams live on like a Saturday evening UK time. But she also posts the streams on youtube as well on her account, so we’ll put a link to that if you want to hear Mal’s fic read out loud.
Julesy: That sounds awesome.
Ellen: That’s a favorite of a lot of people, including me.
Julesy: Yes! It’s a beautiful story.
Mal: Thank you.
[laughter]
Mal: I will say it has really, really beautiful art by lizleeships in it.
Ellen: It does. It’s beautiful. Love it.
Mal: Massive shoutout to Liz for that one
Julesy: Just great all around, I think, is what we’ve come to.
[growling from mal, laughter]
Ellen: Alright, so we’ll say a really big thank to you Julesy for coming to talk to us today.
Julesy: Thank you for inviting me!
Ellen: Are you working on anything at the moment that you’d like to give a shoutout?
Ellen Apart from all the things we’ve given you ideas for?
Julesy: I have, I think, over 30 boxes in my WIP folder, so I’m working on a lot of things [laughs]. But I’m kind of really trying to work on my story for the ace mini bang.
Ellen: Oh yeah?
Julesy: The first challenge I’ve ever done, so I’m pretty excited if I can actually finish my story
Mal: Oh, that is exciting.
Julesy: Yeah!
Ellen: When will that one be publishing? Later in the year I’m guessing.
Julesy: Yeah, I think it doesn’t publish until fall, like September or something like that. But that’s gonna be, in COVID time, like tomorrow.
Ellen: Yeah.
Mal: True, yup.
Ellen: Time is elastic.
Julesy: It’s a flat circle.
Mal: I’m amazed we managed to record for nearly two hours and not mention anything explicit about tentacles and buttholes. So proud of us.
Julesy: I did.
Ellen: We sort of did, kind of. We talked around it.
Mal: Right around the rim.
Julesy: Would you like to talk more about tentacles in buttholes?
[Laughter]
Mal: No! Just surprised it didn’t come up more actually, we were fairly intellectual all things considered [laughs]
Julesy: Intellectual is the word I would say, yes.
[laughter]
Mal: We kept it academic. We can save the filth for the tentacle episode that we’ll now have to do. The specific tentacle episode.
Julesy: Yes, the tentacle and butthole episode.
Mal: That’s what we’ll call it.
[laughter]
Julesy: I think you should, obviously.
Mal: Somehow I don’t think that one is going to get listed in the apple store.
Ellen: Hey, it’s marked as explicit, I mean. We can put whatever we want, right?
Mal: True! Links to the fics and all of the other things we’ve discussed today, every single one of them I’m afraid, can be found on our website mixtapebookclub.com
Ellen: Yes, and there you can find links to all the other ways you can get in touch with us on social media or through email. Our email is contact@mixtapebookclub.com, and you can send us your favorite creature fic, or tell us what you thought of any of these fics we’ve talked about today. And you can also do that if you want to come and chat with us on Discord, we’re on the Profound Bond discord server in our own channel there.
Mal: Next week on our 21st episode we’re going to be discussing Dean’s panty kink.
Ellen: Yay! Thank you Ben Edlund.
Mal: There’s so many of those out there. This is going to be a fun research week. [laughs]
Ellen: So, thank you everyone for listening, and we’ll talk to you again soon.
Mal: And as always, remember the story isn’t over until we say it is.
[outro music]