Transcript: Track 38: Musicians

Episode 38 posted March 3, 2023
Links to all fics mentioned can be found on the main episode post.

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[Intro music]

Ellen: [00:00:00] Hi everyone. Welcome to the 38th episode of Mixtape Book Club podcast. My name’s Ellen.

Mal: And my name is Mal.

Ellen: In each episode, we take an in-depth look at a different trope or subgenre in the huge variety of fanfiction about Destiel. And in this episode we’re gonna talk about fics where either Dean or Cas, or sometimes both are musicians,

Mal: and to discuss her fic, Standing Where the Lightning Strikes, we would like to welcome author Casloveshisfreckles, also known as Mel. Hey!

Casloveshisfreckles: Hello.

Mal: Hi Mel. How you doing?

Casloveshisfreckles: Thank you for having me.

Mal: It’s gonna be a little confusing with a, a Mel and a Mel, so I apologize.

Ellen: Yeah, it might get a bit confusing, but we’ll, we’ll work with it.

Casloveshisfreckles: I’m, I’m the only one [00:01:00] without the accent like you guys

Ellen: So apart from Standing Where the Lightning Strikes, the other fics we’re gonna talk about today are Appoggiatura by… and here’s where I’m gonna get this name wrong. See… No, I don’t even know. See it in there for that? Is that right?

Mal: See, aint here for that. See ain’t here for that?

Ellen: See ain’t here for that! (Ceeainthereforthat) Oh, thank you for that.

Casloveshisfreckles: Yeah, that’s how I was reading it.

Ellen: That makes way more sense. Okay, thank you. And then we’re gonna do Tennessee Whiskey by TrenchcoatBaby and Take the Lead by JinxedAmbitions

Mal: and links to all of the fics that we’re gonna be talking about today will be available in the episodes post on mixtapebookclub.com and included in our huge collection on ao3.

Ellen: And first before we start talking about this musician stuff, and we just have to say thank you to everyone who’s supported us on ko-fi. We’ve just used some of that money to pay for our website [00:02:00] stuff and all sorts of things. So thank you. Your, your support means a lot to us. And you can join in with that by going to ko-fi.com/mixtapebookclub if you’d like to. Thank you to all of our supporters. Yay.

Mal: Thank you. We love you!

Ellen: All righty. So musicians… We are very, we are blessed in this fandom to have one of our OTP who is an actual musician, like an actual rockstar. How good’s that?

Mal: And isn’t that amazing to say? Because yeah, like even a few years ago, Jensen would not have done that, and I think that’s just such a wonderful journey that we’ve gotten to watch them vicariously through watching him get over his, like fear of playing in front of people essentially to being somebody whose album was it, like number one on the iTunes chart this week at one point?

Ellen: Oh my God. Yeah. So proud of that guy. And his buddy.

Casloveshisfreckles: It makes you so proud.

Ellen: Yeah. And [00:03:00] I guess it really helped too with you know, the cons, having his supportive… like having Louden Swain there and being like Rob being supportive and all that and like, all of the cast, you know, get pushed into singing at one time or another. Right?

So yeah. Very musical bunch.

Casloveshisfreckles: Thank goodness. Thank goodness. We got so lucky.

Mal: Yeah, and we, he’s got a really supportive fandom behind him as well. Even if he had sounded terrible, which he definitely does not. Clearly, clearly he sounds amazing and that’s why he’s doing so well, but I just feel like he’s, you know, even if he’d have sounded terrible, he’s got such a supportive kind of fandom family there with him.

But it’s been lovely to watch him do that. But anyway, onto the fake musicians as opposed to the real ones.

Ellen: Yeah, that’s right. I mean, we’ve got basis in canon a little bit because we know that Dean did learn how to play the guitar at one point, and he was, you know, having [00:04:00] some rock star kind of dream at some point.

Obviously it got, you know, beaten out of him by the hunter lifestyle. Unfortunately.

Casloveshisfreckles: he, he did say he wanted to be a rockstar. Yep. Yeah, in that flashback episode,

Mal:  It just, it really fits the character, I think, and mm-hmm. Supernatural as a whole, not even just Dean has always had so much connection to music that I just think it’s, it just feels logical.

So I love seeing, AUs where he is a musician. I also love seeing anything canon where he has time to like, you know, pick up the guitar again or something like that. So, there aren’t a lot of those, but I’m just putting that out there into the universe, that I wanna see more of it. Give me that retired dean on the porch of a cottage playing his guitar fic, please.

Casloveshisfreckles: Yes,

Ellen: yes. There’s gotta be one in the bunker somewhere, right?

Mal: Oh, there’s gotta be.

Casloveshisfreckles: Yeah, there has to be one out there.

Mal: We’re [00:05:00] steaming towards 115,000 fics, I think. Like we’re already like a hundred… Oh no. I did look the other day what the exact number was, but it’s a lot. There’s gotta be one out there already.

But you wanna give me another one? I’m not gonna complain.

Ellen: No, I meant like an actual guitar. Probably like, like a, a cursed one that like, oh, oh… I’ve just come up with my own idea for a fic now,

Mal: there you go. That sounds like a way you need to write .

Casloveshisfreckles: I guess we’ll have one soon.

Ellen: No, no, I’ve got enough to write.

Mal: It’s, it’s a cursed guitar that every time he tries to play a song, it comes out as a love song no matter what he does.

Ellen: Oh, oh my gosh. .(laughing)

Okay. File away this crack. We have to write it later. Oh, that would be so good. Anyway. [00:06:00]No, I think we’ve chosen actually in this, this collection that we’ve got here for this episode a real variety of different types of musicians that they can be, like we’ve got you know, in Standing Where the Lightning Strikes he’s a music teacher, and then we’ve got Appoggiatura  is the classical musicians, and then we’ve got the rock stars.

So, you know, we’ve got… there’s so many different types of ways that he can embrace his musical career. So yeah. Shall we get stuck right in?

Mal: Let’s do it.

Standing Where the Lightning Strikes

Mal: All right. Would you, would you like to read the summary of your fic for us, Mel?

Casloveshisfreckles: Sure. So the summary goes as:

When Sam gets his life together and fucks off to live in a hippy-dippy self-sustainable commune in Costa Rica, Dean never considers following suit. That life isn’t for him. But after years of being away from his brother and withering his own life away at his monotonous, soul-sucking job, Dean finds himself caving to Sammy’s pleas, accepting a job offer he can’t refuse, and boarding a plane to the exotic island.

It’s nothing like Dean could have ever imagined, full of vibrant life and color, foods he’s never heard of, and animals he’s never seen. It’s a tropical paradise… a paradise that becomes a hell of a lot more interesting when a dark haired, blue-eyed commune native catches his eye. After a rather upsetting first meeting with the grumpy stranger, Dean must continue to navigate life on the island, his new career as the school’s music teacher, and the ultimate feat of dislodging his foot from his very big mouth.

With a community of characters as familiar as his brother and as wild as a capuchin monkey with a flair for mischief, Dean will discover that maybe it wasn’t just Sam’s life that needed a reboot.

Still, the question remains; will Dean be able to win over Casa Nova’s most reclusive resident?

Ooh, that was a mouthful. . .

Ellen: That’s a great summary! Okay. So this one was published for Pinefest in 2021, so it has some absolutely gorgeous art by Kay Rose Bee.

Casloveshisfreckles: Yes, yes, yes. She got very generous with her art and I mean, it’s just, [00:08:00] it’s throughout the fic and it’s beautiful and I love it.

It’s some of my favorite art still to look at to this day.

Mal: Yeah, I absolutely adore her art. I have followed her online for like years now, , and I’m always just drawing over her art. It’s just so pretty. So yes,

Casloveshisfreckles: she’s amazing.

Ellen: It has a really kind of soft style to it. It’s lovely.

Casloveshisfreckles: Yeah, I got, I got totally spoiled.

Ellen: So this is 54,000 words, long and explicit, just adding that in there. So what I was gonna ask first was have you been to Costa Rica? Like, why did you decide to to set it there?

Casloveshisfreckles: No, I’ve never been to Costa Rica, but I, in my little notes in the beginning, I kind of explained that , it’s really stupid, but the idea of this fit came to me when I was watching a show on Netflix – Zach Efron did an adventure show. I don’t know if you ever caught that, but he goes around the world and he looks at all of these like different [00:09:00] places. Like he goes to just random places where they’re like doing things like this. Like it’s literally a self-sustainable commune in Costa Rica that he visits.

And that’s one episode. And it just, I don’t know what it was about it, it was so charming to me. The idea of it was so charming to me and I just immediately saw them there. So yeah, I was literally just watching that episode and I was like, Hmm, there’s a fic here.

Ellen: That’s what happens to writers, isn’t it? Like you’re just looking at something random and you go, “I can write a story about this for sure.”

Mal: Yes, nothing is safe.

Casloveshisfreckles: I think… it’s, it’s the thing, right? Like, that’s what me and my friends call it. The thing, like, we’re doing the thing, we’re watching something, but we’re making it about Destiel.

Mal: Everything can be Destiel if you try hard enough and most stuff doesn’t require trying.

Casloveshisfreckles: Right, everything can be Destiel if you try hard enough.

Mm-hmm. No, you could watch any rom-com and [00:10:00] say, okay, I know which one of you is Dean, and I know which one of you is Cas. Like, that’s pretty, you know, if it’s good enough story, you you’re gonna do the thing. Yep,

Ellen: yep. Well, it’s a very evocative environment for creating a story out of, like with the, the rainforest and the, you know, the animals and , all that.

Love it. That’s great. The rain…

Casloveshisfreckles: It was a lot of fun. It was a lot of fun to take all those different elements and like put them into the story and put these two characters into them, that element like into that environment.It was a lot, it was just a lot of fun and I think I, I tend to do that.

I put them in weird places that you wouldn’t expect them to be because I want to either go there or have been there and I, I get that a lot with this fic of “when can I move to this commune?| And I’m very good at saying…

Ellen: It does sound very good.

Mal: I’d like to sign up too, please. [00:11:00]

Casloveshisfreckles: I mean apparently it’s just gonna be a Destiel writers’ one, and we all gotta figure out how to get like clean water and stuff.

But I think we could figure it out.

Mal: Yeah!

Ellen: Sure! We’re good at research.

Mal: I mean, Destiel fans are a smart bunch. We’ve got this

Casloveshisfreckles: Exactly. We’ve had so many years of GISH training that I think we could figure anything out at this point.

Mal: Exactly.

Ellen: as long as we’ve got electricity for our laptops, we’re fine.

Casloveshisfreckles: Right. Yeah. I mean this commune had wifi. They had Charlie, so they had wifi, they had, they were set up,

Ellen: they had Sam with this like, you know, go-anywhere wifi,

Mal: Yes. Right, exactly.

Ellen: Awesome. And this commune also had, I was, I was delighted to find that it also has, one of my favorite things, is that Jimmy was there as well as Cas and they, he had like that double-take moment.

Mal: Yes, people confusing Jimmy and Cas is, It’s, it’s, it’s just like a, can’t even call it a trope really. But it’s just like a minor little thing that shows up in fics sometimes that I just [00:12:00] absolutely love. Especially if it’s just, you know…

Casloveshisfreckles: so much fun.

Mal: Dean being confused cuz he’s just like, wait, this, this guy’s an asshole now. He was so nice a minute ago!

Ellen: “I just met him and he was really nice. What happened?” Yeah.

Casloveshisfreckles: It’s so much fun. It’s such a fun trope to write. I I, I haven’t really written it very often. I wrote it in another story and he, I just love playing with Dean’s perspective of there being two of them. like, he’s just gotta get over that. Like, there’s two of you and I always like to play with was is the grumpy one. No, my other story, it’s Jimmy that is like, has the issue with them. So Dean’s like, you know, this is the evil twin and like, It’s just, it’s fun. It’s a really fun, it’s a really fun like family trope to play with for Cas.

Ellen: Yes.

So you got real kind of enemies to lovers vibe going with this one because they, they kind of hate each other at the beginning, and then they gradually work out what’s going on and, [00:13:00] you know, Cas realizes that Dean’s actually alright. And Dean realizes that Cas isn’t actually really grumpy all the time.

It’s a lovely progression.

Mal: They try to be enemies. They’re just not very good at it.  

Ellen: they’re both too good looking.

Casloveshisfreckles: That never lasts very long.

Ellen: Yep. I loved it.

Casloveshisfreckles: I love, I love a grumpy Cas trope. That’s, it’s, it’s always fun, but, you know, he doesn’t, he just cannot hold onto his resolve. You know?

Ellen: Yep. He just can’t resist.

Mal: something about being around Dean. Whatever could it be ?

Casloveshisfreckles: And in this particular fic I had so much fun when it was the animals that got him. He was just like, mm. He saw Dean with his animals and he was like, yep, that’s it. I’m, I guess, I guess I’m done

Ellen: you must be alright after all!

Mal: as a fandom. I think we are obsessed of having these guys interact with animals of some kind.  [00:14:00] Because there’s so many…

Casloveshisfreckles: Mm-hmm. Yeah. Not my first fic I’ve written them to have an animal.

Mal: Yes. I think one of the first ones I read of yours was the one with, was it a miniature pig? I think it was. I think that was one of the first ones I read. So I was

Casloveshisfreckles: yep. I love Pug! Yeah. Yeah. That one was really fun. I wish I would’ve like, and, and I love writing musician Dean, so I wish I could have been able to squeeze that in there somehow, but I couldn’t.

There was so much in, in that fic already as it was. He loved music, but he did not play it.

Mal: Yeah. Sometimes we can’t put everything in the fic that we want to. But we want to!

Casloveshisfreckles: Right. as much as we try

Ellen: well, you’ve managed to squeeze in quite a lot of canon references. Like you’ve got you know, Dean always thinking he’d be a good dancer and there’s a few other lines that are straight out of canon, which I love.

But yeah, really nice. Actually there was one in that particular scene, I think it is, no, [00:15:00] I’m not sure I’m getting confused… this beautiful scene where he’s first playing where after he first realizes that, that he might have a thing for Cas and he goes back to his cabin and starts playing his guitar and it’s a really beautiful kind of romantic scene, soft, and he plays, “I Wanna Dance With Somebody”, which is like really beautiful.

And like, this is just me and I, Aussie listeners may relate, but there was this . So we’ve got Australian Idol on at the moment. And I know that you’ve got American Idol and you’ve got, there are other idol shows around the world, mm-hmm. . And, but, but it started in January and back, way back like the start of December.

They started showing ads for this show, right? And they kept showing this guy who was playing the guitar, he was playing that song. And, you know, he was, it was, he was one of those sort of audition things where he’s really nervous and he’s just playing it like really quietly. And, and they showed the ad for like almost two whole months.

Like every [00:16:00] other night when I was watching the news on the TV or whatever was on, and this ad would come on. So when I’m, I’m reading Dean playing this song, I’m like, “stop. No, I don’t want to hear that about the guy . I just wanna hear Jensen singing this song so beautifully and getting all misty about it” but anyway. Oh, I was really annoyed at myself. But no, that scene is just, So beautiful.

Casloveshisfreckles: Thank you. I love that scene a lot. There’s on like 90% of my fics, I always have a playlist. So there is a playlist linked onto this fic. And it has a beautiful cover of that song that I kind of imagine is how Dean is singing it, like the slowed down version. It’s, it’s lovely. So I would recommend anyone listen to that. with that one.

But yeah, the canon references are my favorite thing to do. Yes. If I can slip one in, I will do it. Absolutely. Every single time, like without [00:17:00] shame, and I, and I, my new, well not my newest, but the last story that I published is like full of them.

As many as I could get in there. There’s cockles references. There’s Dean/Cas references, there’s everything. And like even my betas were like, you’re crazy. This is too much. This is a lot. And I’m like, they work though. Every single one of ’em works. They’re like, yeah, how do you do that? But it’s literally one of my favorite things to do.

Ellen: Yes. The beauty of writing fan fiction. You can just put whatever you like in there and it works

Casloveshisfreckles: Yeah. I could make anything fit. I could make it fit. We’re, we’re doing this, it’s gonna happen. If it makes you think about something in canon, it’s probably like if it pings your brain a little, probably from canon, because I’ll put stupid things in there.

Dumb things ‘cause I rewatched the show so much and I have dumb, you know, dumb facts so it’ll just, these stupid things don’t, don’t mean anything. But somebody said it [00:18:00] offhandedly in canon once, so I was like, wrote some notes. I could make this into a fit this into a fic

Mal:  Yeah. Cuz I mean we’ve got like, if you think about it, 15 years worth of dialogue to pull from and there’s so much of it.

And sometimes I write things and then I look back like a couple of paragraphs later. I’m like, why does that seem familiar? Have I written that before? And then I’m like, no, no, no. Somebody else wrote that on the show. That’s why (laughing), and then sometimes, yeah, sometimes I’ll lean into it and then like tweak it to make it deliberate.

Or sometimes I’m like, no, I’ll, let’s rewrite that my way. But it’s, it’s nice to just have so much to pull from.

Casloveshisfreckles: I like those little nods. I like to read when I’m reading fic and I see something like that, it just tells me you’re into the source material. You know? Like, It’s just a special little it, I like to, you know, they’re Easter eggs, right?

They’re kind of like Easter eggs.

Mal: It gives me that same feeling that you get sometimes where you’re [00:19:00] like, “oh, they said the title!”  Does anybody else get that? Or am I just… When I’m reading a fic I’m like, “oh, there it is!”

Casloveshisfreckles: Yes, yes. “He said, he said, he said the line!” Me and my friend say, “he said the line!”

Yeah. That’s fun. That’s always a fun part of, of any fic is like, you can find a little Easter egg. I try to put them into my stories, like the same thing. If you’re reading all my stories, you’re gonna pick up on some of the same things, like throughout my own stories. So like in this one they lay on a blanket for their picnic and I have that same blanket in like a lot of my other fics.

So kind of some little things like that. It’s so fun. it’s fun. It’s a fun little treat for your readers, right? That’s how I feel.

Mal: one of, one of my absolute favorite things about this, and I was so glad that there was art [00:20:00] of it. I’ll, I’ll say “it” without like spoiling it ahead of time, but one of my favorite things was Crowley in this fic.

Ellen: Yes?

Mal: How, how spoiler are we going here? I mean, it’s only a minor detail. It’s not like a huge plot detail necessarily. Well, technically it’s a plot detail. Okay.

Ellen: Just skip forward like 30 seconds.

Casloveshisfreckles: It’s just, yeah. It’s just a little fun thing, you know? It’s like, it’s a little fun twist.

Mal: Yeah. So the scene, the scene where Crowley steals Dean’s toothbrush. And we got art of it, which is just amazing. Like we, we got art of the toothbrush and everything. It was so good. So good. And it’s such a little detail, but it’s just so believable. Like somehow adding that detail in, managed to take what could have just been a generic bird into actually a hundred percent being that character being believable as that character.

And I loved it. [00:21:00] I really loved that. And how it actually ended up adding to the story and not necessarily just being like a fun details were like, oh, he’s a bird. Ha ha ha. But it actually ended up being a part of the story giving, you know, Dean and Cas another opening for a scene for progression in their relationship.

And it was great. I loved it. So yeah, big props for Crowley and his toothbrush stealing.

Casloveshisfreckles: I really love Crowley. Yeah. Yes,

Mal: me too.

Ellen: I loved how slowly they… well, not slowly, they, they, right at the beginning, Dean was like, knew that he was attracted to Cas, I guess. But I loved how he gradually kind of talked Cas into being… you know? Oh, I guess he didn’t, Cas just showed up at the school and stuff and just, you know, they started getting closer right away.

But oh, he was just so gentle and loving.

Casloveshisfreckles: He kind of coaxed him like along, right? Like [00:22:00] he, he showed up. He was, he was kept surprising Cas, like, one of my favorite scenes is when they’re at the bees, when Dean stumbles on Cas’s bees. Yes. And Cas is like, are you, you can’t read. Like, do they know they hired a teacher who can’t read?

Did you not see the signs? Are you, what’s wrong with you? And Dean’s just like, I didn’t do anything to your bees. But Cas is just like, is what’s wrong with him? Like, but he can’t help it. You know what I mean? He can’t help but get like smitten by this charming idiot who just wants to talk to him about his dumb bees.

Like he’s just… Like he can’t get over the fact that he keeps bumping into him in this charming way where he is just like, you are not the annoying person that I thought you were going to be. Yes. I think [00:23:00] is what kind of disarms him.

Mal: And it’s such a good study of the characters in general really, because like you have all these like “caution bees” signs and stuff and Dean being Dean reads that sign once he notices it and is just like, “oh, curious. Like what’s, what’s going on ? I need to find out.” And then Cas is just now like, “are you illiterate?” Like what? So yeah. It’s such a great study of the, the two characters. I love it.

Casloveshisfreckles: they’re, they’re so much fun to work with. I mean, it’s just so fun to like put them against each other this way and then just kind of have them both chip away at each other’s, you know, issues and walls and whatnot. Cas, especially in this fic, he’s very cautious. And then it, but it just goes back to the animals. He’s, when Dean brings that treat for…

Ellen: Yeah! I was gonna say he brings [00:24:00] presents.

Casloveshisfreckles: He, he’s, he’s done. Yeah. He’s, he’s a smitten kitten.

Mal: Oh yeah. He may have resisted up until that point, but then it’s just like, Nope, that’s it. Hands in the air I give up.

Ellen: Well it’s only, you know, 55,000 words, but I could have read an extra, like couple hundred thousand about this. They’re so, they’re really nice together. I love them.

Mal: Yeah. This is one of those facts where I wish there was a hundred k like or 200 even. Just cuz the, the world and them together is wonderful.

And yet when I was reading it, it only felt like about 20 because I was just enjoying it so much. I was like, wow, that planned already. I just read 50,000. How?

Casloveshisfreckles: Yep. I really wanted to write more. I wanted I wanted to flush out the school and the commune a little more. And I had to cut, you know, I had to cut things for time because, you know, when you’re doing the Pinefest kind of [00:25:00] on the deadline, and I’m not good with the deadline, I do a lot of writing like right up until it’s due, pretty much, you know?

Ellen: Oh, yes. Like a lot of people who write bangs (laughs)

Mal: we’ve been there

Casloveshisfreckles: So to meet my deadline, I had to cut like a chunk out that I really wanted to do more with. But you know, I, if I, I wish that I had the time. I, you know how we are, we are writing a hundred things at once, but I’ve always had more ideas for this little universe and I wish I could write sequels for everything that I write.

But it would be one that I would wanna do in the future. Like something else, timestamp maybe, or there was a lot of things that I left open ended that I could address that I wanted… You know what I mean? You know how when you write and you’re like, “if I could write something more about this later down the line, this is how it would go.”

Yeah. I think I left a lot, a lot there that I could work with later if I wanted [00:26:00] to. So I try to leave myself that option.

Ellen: Yes, please.

Casloveshisfreckles: Especially if I like a verse like this one, I really enjoyed working in this universe a lot.

Mal: Well, I would definitely read more if there was any. Just say it . Yeah, you do.

Ellen: I’ve got a list of a list of worlds that I’d like to go back to you sometime, but that’s, there’s just not enough hours in the day

Casloveshisfreckles: What about all the new ones you wanna write that’s the problem?

Mal: Exactly. They’re always competing and there’s only so much time . Mm-hmm. . ,

Ellen: why can no one pay me to write fanfic?

Mal: Right. Even when people wanna pay you to write things, it’s not about Dean and Cas. So rude. (laughs)

Casloveshisfreckles: Right?

Ellen: I know! God.

Casloveshisfreckles: What else is there to write about?

Mal: These idiots occupy all of my brain space. All of it.

Is there anything that you would like to share about this fic specifically that we have not [00:27:00] covered?

Casloveshisfreckles: no. I mean we, we talked about it so much, but I just, yeah. I love, I love the two of them.

Oh, one thing I really liked about this fic that I kind of wanted to talk about was Dean and Sam’s relationship. I feel like I always go a little hard on Sam, but I kind of was like, you know what? I’m gonna have you be a little hippy. And I really enjoyed their relationship like, They were brothers, they were, you know, giving each other shit and acting like brothers do.

I mean, I’m, you know, I’m an only child, so I can only imagine that this is how siblings act giving each other shit all the time from what I hear. But that’s what I liked about them. They were, they really liked each other while also, you know, being brothers at the same time, and still having that Sam and Dean closeness that we know and love.

[00:29:00]

Mal: Yes, that’s what I was gonna say. I love that they are close in this and that Sam is very, not even just supportive of Dean coming to the commune, but I mean, encouraging him in the first place, like being the one who wanted him to do it. But at the same time, he’s still just kind of a little shit. wants to and wants to tease Dean.

About, about certain things and things, things that are happening. In the story and I love that. I feel like without that kind of like teasing like element it, they just, it wouldn’t feel like them as much. But this one, this one really does cuz they do have that, and I think it’s great

Casloveshisfreckles: and I feel like we got robbed of that. Like, in actual Supernatural, they didn’t treat each other like brothers. Like, like this, [00:29:00]  you know, like goofing off and yeah. Whole tail.

Mal: There’s a few good… There’s a, there’s a few episodes. Yeah. There’s a few episodes where we get like, some of that really good like brother content like that, but they’re Yes.

Are not as many, especially increasingly like as the show went on, I feel like they just didn’t have time for that anymore. like, no

Casloveshisfreckles: but wouldn’t they still have a little bit of time for that? Like, you know how we would just get little glimpses of it, but I like it. It was like seeing the stickies on the back of Sam’s jacket. You know, it’s like those moments, they really robbed us of those in exchange for…

Ellen: like, they live together, like do everything together. So why would they not? Just because they’ve grown up a little bit doesn’t mean they’ve stopped doing it.

Mal: Yeah.

Casloveshisfreckles: Right. They, they portray them like super boring.

Mal: I mean, I feel like no matter who you live with, they drive you insane. Eventually.

Casloveshisfreckles: Exactly. Or like when Chuck showed up and they just got annoyed and he, you know, they were just like sniping back and forth at each other. We needed more of that, I think. In, in the actual canon, but so, you know, let’s add it to as much fic as we can. Make them actually brotherly and not constantly, we just weigh down with all their trauma.

Mal: Well it’s one of the great things about fic [00:31:00] we can. Put whatever we want in it. . Yeah. And no one, no one’s giving us a 40 minute time slot limit once a week. We can put whatever we want.

I did want to mention just without filling in the details of what happens in that scene, cuz it will be kind of a major spoiler, for somebody who wants to read it, but the cliff jumping scene, I’ll say that much, I just absolutely loved how you did that because it could have been a scene… You know, we’ve, we’ve watched Dean and Cas’s relationship kind of slowly progress as they work each other out. And it could have been a very quiet moment, like it didn’t need necessarily an epic setting or anything like that. And it then people still would’ve eaten it up because of the moment being what it is.

But putting it in the place where you did, having that background and everything going on, having like all the conversations that they have and everything as well. Like, it just builds. And I, I even when I had finished the fic, [00:31:00] when we read it specifically for the podcast, it was one of those scenes where I immediately went back and read it again. And I just loved it. I loved it cuz it was so like, visual the way that you did it. Like I could picture all of it. It was fantastic. So I had a lot of fun with that scene. I loved it.

Casloveshisfreckles: Thank you so much. I, I loved writing that scene. It was so much fun. They’re so much fun when you just let them have fun. You know, like, that’s what, that’s one of the things like I, cuz I, I haven’t, I don’t think I’ve reread this story since I really wrote it.

I think I kind of skimmed it a few times, but I actually reread it before this podcast and I was like, “geez, this is fluffy. But oh my God, I love it.” I want, I, it’s such a nice little break to see them communicating and being soft and, you know, talking to one another and enjoying [00:33:00] one another. Like, that’s kind of one of my favorite things is just, you know, giving them that connection.

So I love when it comes through in the words, like what I’m feeling like, oh, I like, you know, putting them in that moment. And you know, it’s always kind of comes back to adding in the musics, which is appropriate cuz we’re talking about musicians, but there’s the title of this song, or of this fic, is, oh, after a song called “Once in a Lifetime”.

And I think I was listening to it on repeat while I was writing this. So those emotions are, you know, they’re just all adding into the crescendo of the, of the scene. So I’m, I’m happy that it translated. Yes, it is.

Ellen: Yeah. Very effective. Yeah. and then they go back to the cabin and take off their unsexy Velcro, and

Mal: Unsexy Velcro sandals, [00:34:00] (laughter)

Casloveshisfreckles: poor sandals. They’re bright yellow.

Mal: Yes. That’s the highlighter-colored sandals.

Casloveshisfreckles: I actually had somebody in my comments go, I have three pairs of those sandals and they’re hideous. You’re absolutely right.

Ellen: I used to have a pair of those that I took all over Europe with me one time and they were great.

They were so comfortable. They looked stupid, but they are extremely comfortable. They weren’t yellow. I’ll put that out there.

Mal: [00:35:00] I just love picturing Dean in them though, cuz immediately they go into the same category as like Dean and shorts. Like you just know that Dean wouldn’t be seen dead in that. Right? Until circumstances dictate that really, he has to and often say he’s not gonna say no to Cas. So,

Casloveshisfreckles: and he, and he admits it to himself in the fic. He’s like, you know, of course I’m doing this at the, at the, you know, at the behest of my [00:34:00] crush. Like I have to put this fucking shoes on. And then, and then Sam and Eileen walk by (laughing)

Ellen: Yes, that’s right.Yeah.

Casloveshisfreckles: The shoes so good. Oh man, it’s so funny. It’s just so funny.

Mal: and because of that relationship they have and those brother moments you get, you just immediately know that Dean is never living that down ever.

Casloveshisfreckles: nope, nope. And that, and that was something else that I loved about this Dean in particular was like, I tried to send him there still really like buttoned up.

Like, he even tells Sam “no check flick moments.” “I don’t do shorts.” Like he says it all throughout the beginning, like, here’s my lines. Like I’m, I’m here, but I’m not doing that. And then Cas comes and he’s like, “what? Okay, let me go change”

Mal: “back in a minute with my shorts. Don’t worry.”

Casloveshisfreckles: Yep. He falls so fast. He’s just like, yeah,

Ellen: they, they open each other up, don’t they? In, in a figurative sense and literal as well. But yeah, they kind of they, before they were both quite reserved and then they just encouraged each other to take part.

Mal: yeah. Then, and then fluff . Now, I, I love, I love my angst. I love putting them through it when I write, I love reading when they’re going through it as well. [00:37:00]But there is a lot to be said sometimes about the fact that these are clearly both my very innocent babies that have never done anything wrong in their entire life. and they just deserve the fluff. They do, yes.

Casloveshisfreckles: Blankets. Wrap them in blankets. What they deserve.

Mal: Must protect.

Casloveshisfreckles: haven’t they been through enough? If I wanted to see them in pain, I would just watch the show!

Mal: Yeah. Like, well, we had, we had a lot of that.

Casloveshisfreckles: like, I’ll just turn it on. I’ll just turn on my [00:36:00] tv. But I wanna see them kiss. I wanna see, I wanna see cute things. I wanna see them snuggle.

And if I have to write it, then I guess I have to write it. But like, yeah,

Ellen: someone’s gotta do it.

Mal: someone has to make them mash their faces together. Unfortunately for everybody out there, it’s gotta be us. So

Casloveshisfreckles: We have to do everything around here.

Ellen: Oh, well, you’ve mashed their faces together in a really beautiful way here.

Mal: Thank you. Gorgeous fluff. Gorgeous mashing. We approve? Yep.

Casloveshisfreckles: Excellent mashing. (laughing)

Appoggiatura

Ellen: [00:38:00] do you wanna move on to Appoggiatura next?

Mal: Yes. Let’s get the chunky boy out the way.

Ellen: All righty. So the second fic is called Appoggiatura, and it’s by ceeainthereforthat. Now that we’ve worked out how to pronounce the author’s name, I’m so sorry if you’re listening to this. It was published back in 2014 and it is a little longer.

It’s 121,000 words. And it’s explicit. And I feel like Mal, you’ve mentioned this one a few times on the podcast already, and I’ve been trying to get around to reading it, but at least now I’ve had the excuse to actually sit down and read it

Mal: Was choosing this trope, at least in part, an excuse to get you to read this? maybe

Ellen: Okay. The summary goes like this.

Castiel leaves the religious commune of Heaven Farms to study classical piano after winning a full scholarship paid for by the Deanna Campbell Memorial Foundation, and answers an ad in the campus newspaper: 1 bedroom to let. Meals provided. 50mb wifi, quiet odd music student preferred.

That’s it. There’s a hell of a lot more involved in this story than just that little snippet, but that’s the beginning. He turns up at Dean’s house that he’s you know, renting out a room for and plays the piano. Dean is a cellist and Sam is like a professional violin player. [00:39:00] So and Cas is the one who’s attending university. So I guess that it feels like they’re all quite young in this one.

But it just has the most beautiful, like, okay up front. I’ll say I was a cellist in my school days and after and I also play the piano. So this… and I’m also like a, I listen to classical music all the time when I’m working and whatever. So this is my thing. I was reading it going, “oh my God, why have I not read this before?” I love it. So thank you. Thank you for recommending it.

Mal: See, I, I knew this fic was gonna be your thing, but it’s one of those things like, you recommend someone to read a fic and then they see that it’s like over a hundred thousand words. So it goes on the marked for later and you’re like, “no, no, no. I need you to read it now.”

Ellen: Yeah. I mean, it’s really obvious that the, the author is a musician or has studied music because the you know, all of the music they talk about is just beautiful descriptions of [00:39:00] how it all sounds. Like, you know, they’ve got some links scattered throughout the fic, but I think because it’s a slightly older fic, some of the links don’t work anymore. Like they’re to garage band sites or whatever. So they don’t work. So I, being the big nerd that I am, I actually put together a Spotify playlist of some of the music . So I’ll, I’ll chuck a link in because it’s a public one, but but yeah, just listen to it and go, “oh, I can imagine Dean playing this.”

Mal: Yes. I think, yeah, I think the, the, the best thing about this fic, I mean obviously the Destiel is wonderful. The plot that turns up almost unexpectedly cuz I mean, you can get halfway through this fic and you could be fooled into thinking that there’s not gonna be that much plot. You not

Casloveshisfreckles: I was like, I’m really surprised.

I was like, wait, I want more soft boys in the kitchen. What’s going on?

Ellen: Is it right that this was originally just posted as like a series of one shot type things on Tumblr?

Mal: I [00:40:00] think so, yeah. And for a while it was being posted to both places. So it was being posted on Tumblr and to ao3 and I think Tumblr would, you know, get it first a little bit.

Like they’d have it for a couple days before it went up to ao3. So right back in the days of like Tumblr fanfic supremacy.

Ellen: Yeah. So maybe the author never meant for it to be like a like such a plot arc, like a, you know, cohesive story. Or maybe they did and they were just doing the fluffy part up first, you know, because it is fluffy for quite a long time.

Mal: Luring us in.

Ellen: Yeah. Yeah. And then all of a sudden it’s like, bam. Bit of angst.

Mal: So, yep. So there is a little angst chunk in the middle. Well actually think about it. It’s probably more than a little chunk, isn’t it? There’s a decent, bit of angst. But then you do have a, a wonderful, like the, the happy ending is there and it is written out and it’s right there in front of you.

So that’s, that’s nice to see. It is worth getting through it for the people who maybe aren’t so into the angst, it’s, it’s bookended with fluff. I’ll put it that way. [00:43:00]

Casloveshisfreckles: It’s not bad. It’s not terrible angst.

Mal: It’s frustrating. It’s worth it. It’s frustrating as a reader because obviously we can see the big picture and you just want to grab people and bang their heads together and be like, don’t listen. Do what you need to do, .

Ellen: I mean, they don’t have their communication issues for that long. Yes. Like they work out…

Casloveshisfreckles: It’s nice though that it comes outta left field, right? Like Yeah. You’re just coasting along with this fic, because like, here’s the thing about it is, it’s, it’s daunting because 121K is a lot, but it’s broken…

It says 70 outta 70 chapters. That’s scary. But they’re really short. They’re short chapters and they read, they read quick. And so you’re just coasting along here like, this is nice. Oh, I love this progression. Mm-hmm. And then you’re like, bang, what’s going on? So it’s kind of nice because you’re, you’re not really expecting it and it’s this, it doesn’t feel like a dreadful leadup to something happening.

Mal: Yeah. Which is kinda [00:44:00] reinvigorates you like halfway through the story. where you’re just like, oh, okay, we’ve had all this stuff, like relationship, things are happening, this is great.

Casloveshisfreckles: I can do another 40 chapters of this softness, but yeah, this is, okay, something’s happening and it, it does move the story along, I think a lot.

Ellen: Well, the other thing that happened, like with, that caught me by surprise was cuz I, I’m like terrible at this. I don’t look at the tags really before I start reading a fic that’s been recommended to me. Like I, I usually, like, I knew that it was about musicians, whatever, and I knew that there was like this cult kind of, you know, not, not cult, but religious commune, whatever.

And then when the first inklings of the shibari, like the ropes and that sort of thing came in, I was like, “Ooh! I didn’t know this was here!” (laughs)

Casloveshisfreckles: that was, that’s why, that’s why it stayed interesting because every time you’d be like, Hmm, hold on. Oh, something new is happening. .

Mal: Yes.

Ellen: And then all of a [00:45:00] sudden Cas is like “well, can you do that to me?” And Dean’s like, “Ummmm, are you sure about this?”

Casloveshisfreckles: Brain offline

Ellen: and then Cas’s like, yeah, you’re tieing me up, but it’s setting me free. I’m like, oh my God, this is such beautiful writing. I just . the whole thing has just got such a beautiful style to it. It’s like, you know, lyrical style.

Casloveshisfreckles: Yes, it is. It’s very lyrical.

And it, and it it, the author describes the music like you. Yeah. Like you said, you can tell when somebody is obviously a musician who’s writing this because you’re writing it from a different perspective than anybody else has Completely. because you’re absolutely reading it as somebody who’s like, you’re you, you get immersed from that.

I think I appreciated that a lot, even though I didn’t know what, what she was talking about, because I’m not a musician. It still felt really nice.

Mal: That’s the one thing about this, I think, is it’s written in a very [00:46:00] almost lyrical way. Like a lot of the ways that the music is described and listening to Cas and Dean talk about the music, like even when Cas is talking about his lessons and things like that, it’s written in such a way that I think it is accessible for people that don’t, you know, know a lot about this music necessarily.

But it’s also just written in such a beautiful way, like the, the fic itself is almost musical sometimes, like when you’re reading it, it just, you can feel the music even if you’ve never heard it. I think it’s just, it’s. It’s beautifully written. It’s one of my favorite things about this story is just the, the actual way that it’s written.

Ellen: yeah, one of the things that, like, not so much musical, but when the first time he’s trying the coffee in the way that Dean makes it, like he’s using like a, you know, one of those Keurig pod machine things, but he puts some extra stuff in it. I don’t know what he, how he does it, I can’t remember exactly, but the way that that is [00:45:00] described and, and Cas like trying coffee and just basically orgasming over this coffee is just so beautiful.

Yeah. And he describes it as like the first few chords of this what the, the Passacaglia or whatever. I’ve, I didn’t recognize that reference. I don’t, I don’t know the reference. But then I went and found the music and I listened to it and went, “oh, yeah, yeah. Yeah, that’s good.” But yeah. Beautifully described.

Casloveshisfreckles: See, that’s good. See, that’s, that’s, you are doing exactly what she wanted everyone to do. Cause I loved that she put the links into like, I wish they were going to YouTube and not to that other site. Cause I was like, man, some of this stuff, I wanna hear what it is cuz I, like I said, I don’t have any idea and

Ellen: yeah, the, a lot of it’s the piano trio stuff that they… like the Voodoo Child and like the other songs that Cas and Sam and Dean play together and Yeah. She’s linked to, or they’ve linked to a garage band link or whatever that’s not working anymore and [00:46:00] it’s like, oh, really wanna hear them play that .

Casloveshisfreckles: But anyway, I was really happy to hear when I clicked over to “Moonlight Sonata”, that was Oh yeah, that’s one of my favorite, favorite pieces of music, classical music.

But I was like, this is nice. Like, I like to have that link from one to the other, but even with the broken links, it, it still, it still worked. Still worked really well.

Ellen: Yep, yep. Some of them still worked.

Casloveshisfreckles: Yeah, some of them still worked.

Ellen: The one, I think it was… oh God, now I might be getting this wrong, but the one where they’re, they’re doing that, they, like, they go to Cas’s family for the Watch, that overnight thing that they go to.

And they’re, they’re playing a dance and it’s the one where Cas and Dean dance together and the music that goes with that, that, that link still works. And it’s so beautiful and I can’t, I don’t know what it is, what it’s called. They don’t, the author doesn’t mention what the actual name of it in the fic [00:49:00] and I don’t know how to find out what it is, but it’s so lovely.

Mal: Yeah. There’s such a variety of music in this fic. Really. Did you have everything from the, the kind of pop tunes that they reinterpret at one point. To, you know, very traditional classical music to more modern classical pieces. And then there’s, there’s like fiddling as well.

there’s like all kinds of. There’s all kinds of music in this. Like, it’s really not, you know, tied to one, even though you would say Yes. Obviously the classical music is the kind of overriding thing because that’s what Cas is essentially studying is classical piano, but there’s a lot of it here.

There’s so much variety. I love it.

Ellen: Yeah. I mean, I guess we should, like, we’ve kind of gone over the bits that we love, but we should probably describe it a little bit for people who haven’t read it so we can convince them.

Mal: People probably like that, huh?

Ellen:. Okay. Maybe I’ll put, cut this out and put it back in the beginning.

But so Cas is coming from a, people keep describing it as a Mennonite community, but it’s not it’s, [00:50:00] but it, that’s the kind of thing, like, it’s very insular, I guess. Like they’re protected from the outside world quite a lot and they live closely together and don’t have a lot of technology, that kind of thing.

So, but Cas, even though it sounds a bit like Cas is all innocent, whatever, he knows what’s up. Like he’s, he’s pretty on, on, you know, on the ball with working out how things work at the new school he’s going to.

Mal: he doesn’t get along with computers very well, which I just find very entertaining.

I, I enjoy that. Yes. Little detail. But yeah, he describes it as hippies that found God several times in this fic, which I think is is, is quite apt. It’s like if you imagine a slightly Amish leaning hippie and feel like that’s, that’s where this commune came from.

Ellen: And I mean, one of the things that is a big part of it is the protocols that he has to go through. That he and Dean kind of have to go through to [00:51:00] accept Dean into the family. And, you know, I guess that Cas has to deal with when he is leaving there kind of thing. Like, it, it’s very strict in that way. I guess and Dean just leans right into it. He is perfectly willing to accept these are the things he must do in order to woo Cas.

Yeah, interesting.

Casloveshisfreckles: I I love the progression of that too, because like, like you said, it’s kind of its own weird community that they’re kind of making up close to, you know, other things that we know. But the way that Cas brings that into Dean’s house, like with when they come to the house and visit and, and it’s like, they’re very structured and they say things like, “I have stones between us,”

And when they’re like, “oh, will you make time for me at the watch?” And like, “yes, I’ll make time for you. Do you have things to say to me?” And they’re like very formal about it. And, and the [00:50:00] thing I love about this fic was that Dean just slipped right into it. He was like, he understood that he had to respect their traditions in order to be accepted by them.

And the way that the author writes it is so interesting and it’s so respectful of, of whatever they have going on there. And you don’t even really know what it is, but you’re just like, this is nice. Like, this feels nice. It felt nice, you know, to, to watch that exchange and watch Dean immerse himself and be able to respect it and slip into it, I, I like really appreciated that.

Mal: Yeah. And I think it was always obvious, even without it being explicitly said, like the way it was written was so respectful and the way that that Dean entered into it, it was always obvious that Dean’s not doing this for himself. Dean’s not necessarily interested in their way of life necessarily, but he would do all of this and 10 times more for [00:53:00] Cas and he won’t even question it. he’ll just do it. He’s because that, cuz that’s Dean. That’s just who he is. Yeah.

Ellen: Yeah, yeah. It’s nice.

Casloveshisfreckles: I like them a lot. I like them a lot in this fic. I love when Dean gives with Cas clothes and he starts getting his own little style going. That’s really cute.

Mal: Yeah. Yeah. And Cas soon kind of clocks onto the effect that certain items of clothing have on Dean and will a hundred percent put on certain pairs of jeans just to manipulate him at certain points.

Just like, yes. Guess you get it.

I don’t know what else to say about this one without just spoiling all the best parts of it, but I will just say that this fic is an experience. Like it’s not just a fic, you just, you have to just go and read it and experience this fic. it’s, it’s, yeah, considering it’s an older fic from 2014 and it’s, you know, a relatively popular fic if you look at, like, [00:52:00] I know air quotes don’t carry through the airwaves, but I’m just saying it’s popular in terms of the numbers, which we all know isn’t always a good measure of fic for various reasons.

But yeah, I feel like I never hear anyone talking about this one, which is weird to me because to me it’s like one of those big, like key fics in the fandom that everybody should read. But I just don’t ever hear anyone talking about it. So go read, tell your friends. Yeah. ,

Casloveshisfreckles: it’s fresh. I mean, even for being 2014, there was thing like, I love, one of the things I love about fic is when we read one and you’re like, is this foreshadowing?

How, when did this fig get written? Because this happened. And, and there’s things in this fic that they like say or hint at or allude to. And I’m like, wait, that happened after this fic came out? Which is things that I love about Supernatural fandom because there’s so much of, you know, content happening that we’re bound to hit the nail on the [00:55:00] head once in a while.

But like that, that’s what’s kind of nice about this one. Was it stayed fresh. It didn’t, it doesn’t feel like it was written in 2014. Which was a long time ago, unfortunately.

Mal: Yep. It’s an AU that could just have easily been written after the show ended and would still mm-hmm. still feel the same.

Yep.

Ellen: Yeah. Don’t be put off by the, the classical music part. It’s like. It is a, it is a big part of it, but it’s not like the story. is really what carries it.

Mal: And the story is Dean, Dean and Cas and the relationship. So yeah. If you like them, you’ll like this. [00:56:00]if you get to read this fic and then squeal about it with me, then please do.

Take the Lead

Mal: Alright. Shall we move on to Take the Lead in that case? This is the one I’ve got open here. All right, so Take the Lead by JinxedAmbitions. This one is a little more recent, kind of, kind of midway. This is from 2015. I think this was a DCBB, so it’s got some lovely art in it again by the-Dangerous-Ginger.

And the summary goes like this.

Castiel is one of the world’s biggest rock stars. Lead singer of The Garrison. He’s living a life of decadence, but he can’t come up with inspiration for their next album, and they’re supposed to be back in the studio in a matter of weeks. It’s no secret that The Garrison’s music is mostly about Castiel’s sex life, and the man experiments in lovemaking as often as he does with the band’s sound. Now, Cas needs a new sexual experience to inspire his music.

Dean Winchester is a Mixed Martial Artist with a reputation for being able to take a hard hit and being able to deliver an even harder one. Having a fight in Vegas is surreal for the Kansas native. Being propositioned by a rock star after the fight is equally surreal. First of all, Castiel is decidedly male with a reputation with the ladies as sordid as Dean’s own. Second, his proposition to be at Dean’s mercy in the bedroom is as ridiculous as it is intriguing.

So this one’s quite clear up front what it’s about.  [00:57:00]

Ellen: Yes. And I mean, they don’t mess around with like, they just get straight into that you know, BDSM kind of vibe.

Mal: Yes. Yeah. I should say it’s 66,000 words. So obviously a lot of that is smut, like There’s a lot of it here. They deliver on what they promise, that’s for sure.

Ellen: So I guess it does start out as a, an agreement between them for, you know, Dom/sub kind of action that and it, and it’s, it’s got like a week time limit on it.

So you know that there’s pain coming. Of, of the emotional kind.

Mal: Yes. This one is tagged as the old porn with plot. So that plot is coming.

Ellen: Yeah, there is plot. And they do, they, you know, as it goes on, they catch some feelings and they have some misunderstanding. and Yeah. But ah, yeah, very hot. ,

Mal: very hot. And does have a portion in the fic where you might want to yell at them a little bit. Not because they’re necessarily, they’re not. doing anything to each other that would [00:56:00] make you mad or anything like that, but you just want them to communicate, like at all. Not even that they’re communicating badly. You just want them to communicate at all,.

Ellen: Yeah. They’re very bad at communicating in this. They both, I think they both have different kind of ideas of what is going on. A little bit.

Casloveshisfreckles: Well, also they’re, they’re both like come from the world where they don’t have to communicate with anybody. Right?

Like they get told Yes. By everyone. Especially Castiel in this fic He’s a rockstar. So he’s got yes men surrounding him so they don’t have to communicate. It’s easy for them to hide away. Like, that was the thing. There was so much time that progressed and I’m like, they’re not talking. They could, they could text, they could call and they just don’t, but in the world that they’re in, I think it’s acceptable because they just don’t have that kind of communication between them, you know?

[00:59:00] But it, but it’s a, it’s a such it is a very satisfactory ending.

Ellen: Yes. It’s definitely a happy ending.

Mal: Yes. The ending, the ending and way this all ties up is actually one of my favorite things about the fic because it does give you that really good, like, satisfying feeling at the end. I like, so,

and we do love a public gesture sometimes, and this definitely has I would say a, a pretty epic kind of public gesture happening towards the end there, which I’m a sucker for that on occasion. So it’s fun to read about. Would be mortifying to happen in real life, , but it’s, it’s fun to read about it happening to other people.

Ellen: Yeah. I think the, the there’s some really beautiful visual writing, not just in the, in the smut itself, which obviously has to be quite a visual writing, otherwise you just don’t understand what’s going on.

Mal: whose legs are these? Yes (laughing)

Ellen: But Cas is, this is basically endverse Cas, so he’s, I mean, I don’t think he’s doing [01:00:00] a whole lot of drugs while they’re there, but he does actually mention something about “banging a few gongs before you’re done.”

Kind of. He does have that vibe to him where he’s covered in tattoos and he is just like in piercings and whatever. He’s just like, I’m just gonna live my life.

Casloveshisfreckles: He smokes.

Ellen: Yeah, he does chain smoke quite a lot in this mm-hmm. and I think, I think Dean does a little bit too, right? Oh no, he’s not allowed to.

That’s right. Cuz of his training regime

Casloveshisfreckles: he’s not allowed to, he still smokes cigarettes. Yeah. And then he offers Dean a joint and then Dean cannot take the joint because of his training, but he does puff on Cas’s cigarettes a few times. He lights them for him, which is. chef’s kiss. If you’re gonna make one of ’em smoke, you better make the other one light the cigarette for them.

Mal: yes.

Casloveshisfreckles: You have to, you have to

Ellen: uhhuh. I dunno if it, I think there is some art in here of like Cas with his tattoos and everything, so

Casloveshisfreckles: Yeah, there is a few pieces of art, Which is really [00:59:00] great. And it does show Cas his tattoos. He has front and back tattoos and the, and they’re written very well. You can visualize them very well.

Mal: Yes. There’s actually, you know, a, a decent bit of description of these tattoos because he does have quite a lot of them. And as, as is often the case in fic you know, you get the feeling that they kind of tell a story. Not all of them, but Cas definitely has a story in this.

And I always love that part of a fic, where you know that both of the characters have a story, they have stuff going on, and even if they think they’re not in a relationship, they start just like getting little, little inklings of that. They start opening up to each other and, and sometimes it can almost be kinda like a flippant thing.

Like, oh, they’re talking about something else. And then like something will slip out and, and you’ll see a little bit of that background. And I absolutely love it when that starts happening. And it kind of happens a lot in this fic because they don’t think that there’s any kind of relationship [01:00:00] going on.

They literally just have this agreement so that Cas can write his album and that kind of stuff. And it’s like, okay, well why are you having these like, deep discussions then, dudes? like, just sort it out here. like, this was not, this was not in the agreement. So I love that.

Casloveshisfreckles: Yeah. But they’re so cute. They, they’re so cute about it.

Dean especially, he’s such a caretaker.

Ellen: Dean looks after him.

Casloveshisfreckles: Yeah. I really love that part of him

Ellen: Yeah. brings him food and like makes him eat it and puts ice on his knees and that kind of thing.

Mal: He is very good at it. And that’s actually one of the other things I love about this story is very rarely, I won’t say very rarely cuz that there are a, a handful of them out there that I could say off the top of my head.

But this is the story where you have as far as the BDSM dynamic, an inexperienced dom instead of an inexperienced sub, which is what we see more often. But Dean just fully commits immediately . He’s like, “all right, [01:01:00] I’m doing this. I guess as I’ve somehow ended up in this situation. I’m, I’m going in.”

Casloveshisfreckles: “I don’t know how I got here, but I’m all in.”

Mal: Yes. And he’s clearly loving it. Like what, whatever is that he’s telling himself, he’s clearly loving it. Yeah. And he is good at it. And he’s good at, you know, the extra pieces as well, not just the actual like sex parts. He’s good at everything else that is heavily involved in that.

And it’s just so fitting, like, just the fact that Cas basically saw him across a room and went, “you’d be good at this,” is… yep. (laughs)

Casloveshisfreckles: I, I always know some people have some concerns with like, you know, how BDSM is handled in fic, but I really liked the way this was handled cuz it gets into a little bit of the psychology of it and you know, it’s good, it’s respectful, it’s not, it doesn’t feel rushed or unknowledgeable like obviously if the writer is not involved in the scene, they did their research.

So [01:05:00] I always appreciate that, especially when it has a tag like that because this one has a lot of tags and they’re all legit tags, so, but they’re done in a really good way. You know, everything’s done really respectfully.

Ellen: Yes, they do get up to a lot of stuff in this one. They like one of the, this, this fic was like, I think we mentioned this back in our actual episode we did on BDSM with CBFirestarter.

We were saying that this is one of the first fics that we actually read. Like when we were first getting into reading fanfic, like back in probably when this was new, like in 2015.

Mal: Ooh, that’s an interesting one to start with.

Ellen: I know, I know. They, I just got given this link and went “here, this is really good. Read this.” And I’m like, okay. And wow, what a great start. But anyway, so I haven’t read it since then. This is a first time I’ve reread it. I think. I don’t, I’m not aware of having reread it again, but one of the scenes that, that stuck with me for six years or however long it’s been, seven years, no, like freaking eight years?

No, I don’t know. It’s been like a really long [01:06:00] time since then.

Is the scene with… I won’t spoil it because it’s, it’s worth reading just to get to the scene. But the one, the window one? The one where he’s like tied up in the window that, that stuck in my head like the whole time. I’m like, oh, that’s that fic with that window scene.

Yeah. (laughing)

Casloveshisfreckles: Anyway, yeah, that was, that, that, yeah. That’s, that’s worth picking this pick up for, for sure.

Mal: Yes, yes.

Ellen: Very good. There’s, there’s a lot of like a, a large proportion of this fic is just actually smut.

Mal: Yes. They’ve got, they’ve got that plot in there and it, and it is happening. And it’s one of those things where you can definitely pick up on tiny things going forward.

Like there was definitely kind of foreshadowing for certain things, but at the. You’re, you’re in the middle of their toy box with them. Like you are not paying attention until later on when you suddenly go “oh, right.”

Ellen: oh, to be in the middle of their toy box. . . [01:07:00] (laughter)

Mal: Yeah. Somewhere in there amongst the anal beads and the dildos, there is some plot.

Ellen: sorry…

Casloveshisfreckles: There are three different kinds of lube.

Mal: Yeah. And that thing that looks like a tentacle that neither of ’em are quite sure what it does, but they bought it anyway. (more laughter)

Casloveshisfreckles: and the, and the song that Cas writes about the dildo!

Ellen: The 15-inch rainbow dildo. Ah, this fic, Oh dear.

Mal: Yes. I love the fact that in this, there is a conversation about. The 15 inch rainbow dildo or whatever. And I love the fact that Dean just objects on principle. Like he’s not like in any way emasculated by this thing. He just objects on principle.

Like no, that is unnecessary. (laughs)

Casloveshisfreckles: He just literally says, he’s like, I will not be able to not laugh. See, I can’t. I will, I’ll just laugh. I won’t be able to not laugh. You can’t buy that .

Mal: [01:08:00] Yeah. Like I have no issue shoving this up someone’s asshole, but do not expect me to keep a straight face while I’m doing it.

Ellen: Oh, there was one thing near the, like, you know how we were saying how like in older fics that predict the future, like in this one I was particularly struck when I read again that… after they, they part ways and he goes home and you know, Jess and Sam, he’s living with them again and he hears the, the album…

I don’t, I’m I’m skirting close to spoiler territory here, but trying not to spoil anything too much. Yes. And then, and then Jess says something about how the, after she finds out that it’s, that Dean and Cas were together and she’s like, oh, he must love you because, you know, he wouldn’t write a song about this if he didn’t love you.

And then Dean was like, I don’t know if he can feel love in that way. He’s just, he’s really, he’s closed off whatever. And I’m like, oh my God. That’s. That’s exactly what happened at the end. like not in canon, even like this is Jensen saying, ah, Dean didn’t think Cas could feel [01:06:00] love like that. It’s like, come on!

Casloveshisfreckles: how dare you make that connection in my brain with this fic and what he opens his mouth and says about Dean and Cas. Okay. Rude. (laughs)

Mal: And this is the same thing again, where this was written in 2015. But yeah.

Ellen: Yeah. I was just like, oh my God. They’ve made that connection.

Casloveshisfreckles: really slaps you in the face when that happens.

Mal: Yes.

Ellen: Yeah. Anyway, I they worked it out in the end. So, you know, who knows what may happen in the future with Jensen “Fanfic” Ackles.

Mal: Jensen. Fanfic. Ackles, yes. Jensen F Ackles, that’s his name.

Casloveshisfreckles: And this one has this one has a what is it? An epilogue. [01:10:00] So it did get an update if you read it in 2015 and haven’t read it again.

It got, it got an epilogue in 2016, which is very well-written. Very, very sweet. It’s like a flash forward for where they are in the future. And I was like, more, more. I was like shaking. I was like, where’s the rest? more words, please. I want more of these adventures.

Tennessee Whiskey

Ellen: All right, so the last fic that we’re gonna go for is called Tennessee Whiskey. So this one’s by TrenchcoatBaby. And it was published back in 2019, so it’s a bit, actually a bit newer than all the other ones that we’ve, oh, no, yours was much more recent, Mel. But anyway, that one’s new. It’s, this one’s a nice sort of mid, like a shortish one, 21,000 words rather than , the longer ones we’ve been talking about.

And it’s explicit. And the summary goes like this.

Dean Winchester is a midwestern farm boy turned country music icon. Castiel Novak is a rising star pushing the boundaries of the genre, his fame reaching new heights. Despite never having met him, Dean hates Castiel completely, and one of those reasons is definitely not because Castiel is the hottest man on the planet. Nope.

[01:11:00] So they’re both, they’re both famous musicians at the start of this. I love this story. I forgot how much I love it. On the reread I remembered how much I love it.

Mal: And this one is the one that is probably the most Jensen I would say, in that we do have him being a, a country music icon here, but we love bad first impressions and sexual tension and we have those in spades. .

Ellen: Yep. So yeah, so they do, they meet in a bar actually. And, and Dean’s just like “do whatever you want. See ya.” And then leaves and Cas is just like, “what did I do?” Oh, so sweet. But yeah, they do end up having to being forced to play together in, in a concert, like in a festival that’s happening.

And eventually they do work out their differences and have some very lovely relationship building going on there. Eventually, I say because they do have, they [01:12:00] come close a few times and they get, you know, cock blocked at the last moment,

Mal:, we loved, we loved being literarily edged when we’re reading about these two. literary edging is beautiful. We love it. . As long as we get some satisfaction at the end, like, do not blueball me. Yes. .

Casloveshisfreckles: Like you don’t want the fade to black

Mal: No, no. Not after I’ve earned it, okay? I’m actually perfectly happy reading fics, like without any smut in them, but like at that point, don’t tease me, okay? (laugh)

Ellen: yeah, yeah. Well you had Charlie on your side in this one cuz she did eventually she was like, “look, you guys. He likes you. So just like, what is the problem here?” But yeah, they do work it out. I don’t know if there’s a whole lot more like. I, I don’t wanna spoil anything because it’s such a lovely buildup of you know, tension here.

Mal: So that is one thing that trench Coat Baby always does wonderfully in their fics, and it is the buildup of tension. And it is beautiful in this one. Yes, I love it. And there’s a scene in a hot tub. I mean, come on, can’t go wrong with that. Right?

Ellen: Absolutely.

Mal: There are not enough hot tub scenes in this fandom.

Casloveshisfreckles: yeah, that’s very true. Take the Lead had a hot tub scene.

Ellen: it did, yeah

Mal: Yeah, We could do with a few more!

Casloveshisfreckles: I think more than one!

Mal: “hot tub back 2023”, please. Think more than one. I need more. Is that more than what Yeah, yeah. No…

Casloveshisfreckles: I think they got in there twice.

Mal: Yeah. No, I think you’re right. Mm-hmm. .

Ellen: [01:14:00] Yeah. I think the thing that’s really cute about this one is that they’re both even though they, well, Dean says that he hates Cas, but you know, he really kind of has a bit of a crush on him, even from the start. But they both like really admire the other’s work. And then it’s like, you know how when you I, we’ve probably all had this before where you start talking to someone who you really admire and they’re like, oh, I know you, I know your work.

Like this is just within fanfic circles, obviously I’m certainly not at a level where anyone outside is gonna be recognizing, but it’s like you get that feeling where you’re like, “oh my God, mutual fan girl moment”. Ah, and this is totally Dean and Cas in this fit pretty much, Hey, I really like your work.

I really like yours, but yeah, not until after they’ve actually like worked out that they kind of have the hots for each other.

Mal: Yes. There’s even, I think in one of the first scenes where we first meet Cas, there’s even a moment where he’s just literally like thinking to himself like, oh, I’m an idiot for thinking that, like, someone like that would wanna be friends with me, And I’m like, yes. Yeah, yeah. It’s the mutual fan girl. We, we’ve been there .

Ellen: yeah. Yes. But then it turns out, no, then you become otp. No, I don’t think that works out for fangirl people. But anyway,

Mal: sometimes it doesn’t happen. I dunno. All I’m saying is it’s, am I open to it?

Ellen: I’m sure it happens! No, I just this actually [01:15:00] ends up being extremely fluffy by the end because they are like they then do get on stage and perform together and, you know, have a great time it’s so good.

Mal: and it’s so cute.

Ellen: Yeah. Definitely worth a read for feel good things.

Mal: Yes. And this is one of those like really good length fics where you can kind of start and finish it in one, in one good fix. And get all of the emotions. and as always, the smut is incredibly hot because TrenchcoatBaby always writes wonderful smut.

Ellen: Ah, yes, she’s great at that.

Casloveshisfreckles: I have to put this one on my two read list because I did not get a chance to read it, but I definitely wanna read it now.

Ellen: You won’t regret it. It’s great.

Mal: Definitely worth it. Yes.

Other recommendations

I’m going to suggest another of Mel’s fics, which I have read as we’ve got here. So I’m going to suggest… this is from 2018. It was a mini bang. And it’s Whenever I’m Alone With You. So this is a story with rockstar Dean and author Cas. And this is another one where I really love the [01:17:00] slightly unusual setting, I guess I can say. Yeah. Yeah. You’d call it a setting. Yeah. There’s, there’s a bunch of this that basically takes place on a houseboat , which is, it’s just very fun! It’s lovely… now, this is one of those fics where everybody has those authors where even if they put something out that you think, oh, that’s not really for me. But, you know, you trust the author, so you, there, there are certain things that you’ll overlook and you’ll just read it anyway because you know that writer writes things that you enjoy.

So this fic is like a secret relationship sort of story . So usually I do not read anything point blank, which has an established relationship at the beginning of the fic because to me, the enjoyment is seeing them meet and seeing them get to that point. So once…

Casloveshisfreckles: the buildup

Mal: yeah, I enjoy the buildup. That’s my favorite part. Once they’re together, eh. (laughs) Not, not to that point, but if I’ve invested that much, I want to see some payoff, but. But with this one, I was like, okay, no, I, I know I usually, you know, enjoy everything that this writer puts out, so I’ll go read it anyway.

And I’m so glad that I did because like I said, you’ve got a really lovely setting in this one. [01:18:00] You’ve got Rock Star Dean and author Cas. I am an absolute sucker for author Cas for some reason, don’t know where that came from, but , it’s, it’s a big one for me. . And you have this kind of secret relationship where you as the reader are trying to guess if other people know or not at the same time as Dean and Cas are basically trying to work out.

Like, “does Sam really not know like even after all this time?” like they think he doesn’t know, but part of them, part of them’s kind of wondering, like surely he’s noticed by now like, cuz it’s been, I mean you can probably correct me Mel, but it’s been like years for these two, right? Like since high school, if I remember right?

Casloveshisfreckles: Yes, yes. Very long, long time. They think they’re very slick .

Mal: They think they are. But as a reader you’re kind of in the same position cuz you’re just like, “But is there any way that Sam has [01:15:00] not picked up on this?” Like, nah, you must know right? So, so it’s, it’s a lot of fun to read because of that. It’s very fluffy.

I dunno, there’s much else to say about this. It’s about 22, almost 23,000 words, so I won’t say anymore on it and spoil it, but it’s a lot of fun. It’s very fluffy. And it’s got a great ending as well. We love a happy ending.

Casloveshisfreckles: Yeah. that ending of that one is really fun because it plays with that secret relationship trope of theirs, and I had a lot of fun with that. Like, I, the, I just like having, you know, the little twist or like you all, everybody figures out who knew what by the end. And that’s a lot of fun. Yes. Had a lot of fun with that.

Ellen: I was gonna say ask Mel if you wouldn’t mind, like I know that you’ve got another fic that’s in, involves a musician Dean, which is Closing Time.

And I’m sure I’ve read it. But I don’t remember enough about it at the moment to, to be able to, to talk about it. So would you, would you mind giving us a bit of [01:16:00] a rundown on that one?

Casloveshisfreckles: Yeah, they’re, they’re actually both, they’re both musicians in that story. Dean, Dean plays the guitar, Cas plays the piano, and they, it’s a fic where they…it’s like a flashback college to present fic.

So the chapter’s kind of very back and forth between now and then. We see the current time in Cas’s point of view when he’s returning to Lawrence and we see the alternate chapters in Dean’s point of view when they meet, when they’re meeting. So it’s kind of the best of both worlds. They’re not as Dean.

When I say Cas is coming back to Lawrence, it’s because we already know that he left 10 years. Ago and he’s returning. And the story is about them basically returning to each other. Cas comes back and Dean’s in a relationship, and he never left Lawrence. He pretty much lived out the [01:17:00] dreams that they had planned together without him, and that’s what he has to come back and face.

And they come back…Well, so the, you know, the past stories have them a really cute first kiss moment with music involved. And then when they come back, Dean’s running the roadhouse and he has open mic night and they sing to each other, coded messages of longing and, “I’m sorry I left you.” And, you know their way of coming back to each other.

And it’s, it was my first Like first real DCBB fic for the fandom. And it’s really near and dear to my heart. I love them very much. And yeah, it’s one of my favorites. It’s one of my first ones, but it’s one of my favorites still.

Ellen: Oh, that’s always good. I have to reread it now to remind myself.

Casloveshisfreckles: They’re so cute. They sing to each other. They sing in front of like, [01:18:00] it’s open mic night. So, you know, Dean’s like in this relationship that he’s not happy in and there’s no like infidelity or anything like bad like that. Like Cas, Cas is basically coming back asking for forgiveness.

Like “we were friends also. And I just, I respect that you’re with somebody, but also I would like to just be in your life” kind of. And Dean’s just completely still head over heels in love with him pretty much. Never stopped.

It’s great. It’s one of my favorites. And it has a playlist and it has all that kind of stuff. So like, it’s very fun if you open up the playlist, it has all the songs, they sing to each other and yeah, it’s fun and there’s a great… I wrote it as like a found family kind of f because Cas is, doesn’t have the type of family that Dean has.

He’s very supported where he is in Lawrence. [01:23:00] And like, I think that’s one of my favorite things too, is that there’s like so much found family and like that feeling of, you know, them choosing each other kind of thing. That’s, yes, we love one of my favorite things.

Yeah, it’s a good, good musician fic.

Ellen: Brilliant. Did you have another one, Mal?

Mal: I do. I have another rockstar Dean. fic, well, pop star Dean, technically, I think this one is this one has a, a slightly kind of different twist on it. So this one is called Dear Dean, and it’s by thatpeculiarone. It’s just over 30,000 words.

So Dean is a performer, he’s 30 years old. He’s kind of, you know, on tour performing all over the world. He’s very famous, doing great. At the peak of his career, we introduced to him according to the summary, and the concept in this fake is basically that Dean gets a box of letters delivered to him that… obviously he’s, he’s on tour and he has people [01:24:00] monitoring his mail and stuff like that, so he doesn’t get you know, a million tons of fan mail because you have people to go through it for you and weed out the crazies, right?

So Dean gets this box of letters, which are from Cas, and we are kind of having sort of flashbacks here. Like we look back and see how they met and what happened. It’s not a spoiler to say that this is a, like a parent Dean Winchester fic and a parent Castiel fic. Because that, that’s right there in the tags at the beginning. So, I’m not spoiling anybody on that.

But it’s more a kind of a look of how they got to that point and also what happens when Dean gets this pile of letters, which he has not been getting up until that point. So hopefully that gives enough hints as to what actually happened without like spoiling the entire story.

But I, Dean gets this box of letters and then has to make some decisions about his life essentially. And it’s, it’s really, really good. It’s just really well written. Like technically there are, [01:25:00] you know, like heavy topics here really, you know, with, with the, the kid being involved and stuff. But it’s written in such a lovely way that I just find this entire effect to be like really wholesome and heartwarming and I love it

So yeah, go give yourself a big mental hug and read this one. I think I did say the name of it, but it’s Dear Dean, in case I did not say the name of it. Yeah.

Casloveshisfreckles: Do we get to see the letters?

Mal: I think you do get to read some of them. Yeah. And there is a playlist for this story as well as we’re looking into the musician aspect today. There is a playlist out there, so…

Ellen: I am going to jump in with one that is, I think we’ve spoken about this before, but maybe not in as a main fic, I’m not sure. But anyway Syncopation. By K_K_tibal is about… It’s a soulmate one with like a soul mark type thing. And so [01:26:00] Dean just is living his normal life. I can’t remember what his, what he does, it’s not important.

But he, he discovers that his, his soulmate, like he sees that his matching soul mark on Castiel, who is a famous rockstar who… and he’s hiding, it’s hiding underneath, like around other tattoos, like he’s covered in tattoos. But the, soulmark is the same as the one that Dean has. So therefore he knows he must be his soulmate.

And so then the actual, a lot of the story is him actually trying to convince the people close, like firstly convince himself that he can actually try and, and approach Cas at all because he’s like, “I’m, I’m nobody, I can’t, how, how am I gonna get near to him?” And then trying to convince other people around, like his security and whatever that he, he actually needs to get in there and meet Cas.

And then once they do meet Cas is a bit sort of a, “how do I know that you’re not just pretending,” you know, like it, there’s a lot of obstacles in the way to actually them getting together, but there’s a lot [01:27:00] of hope in it and it’s really always this author always writes really a beautiful love story.

So definitely worth a read. That one.

Mal: Yeah, I have read that one, but it’s been quite a long time since I’ve read it. I think. So why have to go and give that one a little revisit?

Ellen: Yeah, it’s not super long. It’s only like 15,000 ish. So

Casloveshisfreckles: I just recently read that story. It’s really good. I do agree. It’s very sweet.

Ellen: It’s, the funniest part about it is that Dean isn’t really a fan of Cas’s music. It’s Sam who’s, who’s like a massive fan of him. So when Dean sort of wants to go to the concert all the time and Sam’s like, why? “Why? Why are you coming? All of a sudden” like, yeah, he’s, he can’t understand it and then eventually works out and he’s like, oh my God.

Yeah, it’s really cute.

Mal: Yeah. I love that aspect because it gives me that like early-season vibe of like when Cas was still very much an angel and Sam was like, “oh my God, he’s an angel.” [01:28:00] Yeah. And Dean was just like, “And?” . . Like, (laughing)

Ellen: that’s right.

Casloveshisfreckles: Dean’s like “I told you, they were dicks.”

Mal: Yes, yes. It gives, it gives me that, that vibe, I love it.

Casloveshisfreckles: It has really great descriptions of the tattoos as well, so that’s a bonus if you like tattoos in your fic.

Mal: Yeah. Yeah. That’s very popular trope. I feel like. I feel like we are a giant fandom of tattoo lovers. .

Ellen: It’s art associated with it too, right? I’m having a look. there’s like an Art Master post because it’s a

Mal: Yeah, it was a mini bang.

You think there is like a master

Casloveshisfreckles: of Cas’s tattoos? I think,

Ellen: yeah. I just tried to go to the, the link and like Tumblr is doing that thing where it just doesn’t go there. It just goes to the main page.

Mal: Ah, thanks, Tumblr.

Ellen: The Tumblr app is just a bit terrible sometimes.

Mal: Okay. It wouldn’t be the same if it worked.

I do have one more quick recommendation and I’m just gonna do it very quickly just cause I know that we have covered this one on the podcast before because it’s in our fic collection . [01:30:00] So this is Make You Feel My Love by caswatchesoveryou and sternchencas. It’s 24,000 words.

And this is Dean and Cas actually meeting at a music festival. But there is kind of some music playing and, and everything in this as well. It, it’s just a very fun thing to read. Like it really gives you that like festival feeling at certain points when you’re reading it. It’s like described in such a way that you can just imagine yourself at this festival surrounded by all these… all these bands and crowds and these two people meeting and falling in love or at least, you know, a one night stand in a tent.

You know. Although it does turn into more than that, obviously. There is a little bit of plot in this one and some really great side characters with the kind of friends that attend these festivals with them. So.

Ellen: Yep. And some tattoos.

Mal: And some tattoos. Yes.

Ellen: It was our tattoo episode that we talked about this one, right? I’m pretty sure. I think so.

Mal: [01:31:00] Ah, was it? Yeah, probably.

Ellen: It was only recently, It was only a couple episodes ago.

Mal: I do remember there being fantastic tattoos in this. Yes. So, yeah, I won’t give any more information into the other episode.

Casloveshisfreckles: and good side characters are like, just such a good bonus. Like of course you wanna read your story about Dean and Cas, but if the supporting cast is written well, you’re just like, ah, this is great.

You want you don’t mind the scenes with them.

Mal: Yeah, no, it’s one of the things that like turns a good fic into a great fic for me is when I fall in love with the rest of the cast as well. Yep.

Casloveshisfreckles: I agree.

Mal: We do have a list of a bunch of different fics, obviously we do a lot of reading around the, the tropes that we pick, so we will have that list on the blog. There’s quite a lot on there. [01:32:00] So yeah, anybody who wants to see any more, there will be a big list there of curated musician fics for you as always.  And there’s quite, there’s quite a lot of fics on there this time from, we’ve got some from from chaoticdean, There’s one on there from tricia_16. There’s a, there’s a lot. So please do go and investigate that because I’ve read some of them very recently and they are very good.

Ellen: Thank you so much for coming to talk to us, Mel. Lovely to have you.

Casloveshisfreckles: Thank you guys for having me. I really, I’m really happy that you asked me to come on and this was a lot of fun. I could talk about fic all day.

Ellen: Well, have you got more, have you got one coming out soon or that you, anything you’re working on that you can tell us about?

Casloveshisfreckles: You know, I feel like are, aren’t we always working on a bunch of fics?

Ellen: Are you doing Pinefest this year or no?

Casloveshisfreckles: I, I really, like I said, I have a lot of trouble with the deadlines, so like the last few rounds of fics [01:33:00] I’m like, I can’t, especially my, my life’s gotten more chaotic in the last year, so I don’t have as much time to write as I used to have, unfortunately. But you know, when, when there’s shenanigans happening in the fandom, it kicks my writing into gear. So like, you know, JIB just passed. So I’ve been writing a lot of words.

what it could

Ellen: Oh yeah! What a great weekend it’s been.

Casloveshisfreckles: they fed us this weekend. That’s all I’m gonna say. Especially we’re talking about musician? Hello, Jensen serenading Misha on stage? What was that about? I don’t even wanna get started on this cuz that’s a whole other podcast episode in itself.

Ellen: But that was amazing. I still can’t believe that actually happened

Casloveshisfreckles: I can’t believe that was real. That was out of one of the fan fics that we discussed. I’m sure of it. Like there’s no way that that was real. (laughs)

[01:34:00] But yeah, I, I’m working on a sequel to one of my DCBB stories. Now That I Found You, I really wanted to get it finished before I started publishing it because I didn’t wanna abandon it and then like, it took me a year to almost write a chapter. So, I’m getting back into it. So hopefully by the end of this year I’ll start posting that fic.

And it’ll, like I said, it’s a sequel to one of my other DCBBs. So we’ll see. Well, hopefully I find the time and I’m working on like two other small stories, but if I’m trying to avoid one, I’ll work on the other. So who knows what gets finished first?

Mal: Okay. That sounds familiar for sure.

Ellen: Yep. All right.

Well, as we mentioned, you can find links to everything we’ve talked about today on our website, mixtapebookclub.com, and you can get in touch with us. Tell us about any musician fics that we missed out or that you enjoyed recently. We’re on social media, mostly under mixtapebookclub and or you can [01:30:00] email us contact (at) mixtapebookclub.com or you can join the Profound Bond discord server where we have a channel there or our Discord server, which you can get into by becoming a supporter on ko-fi.

That was all I was going to say and now I’ve lost all place in the script.

Mal: That’s all right. I’ll pick us up,

Ellen: Okay, good. Thank you.

Mal: So come and join us again for our next episode when we are going to discuss Demon Dean. So anybody who knows me knows, I’m very excited for that one.

Ellen: Yes, yes. There’s some great ones out there.

Mal: Yes, and we are going to try and cover a variety of demon Dean fics because we’ve got a good crop of these out in the fandom. I’m gonna have so much fun doing the research for this episode.

Ellen: Thank you as always for listening, and we’ll talk to you again soon.

Mal: And as always, remember that the story isn’t over until we say it is.

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