Track 24: Time Travel
Welcome to episode twenty-four of the Mixtape Book Club Podcast.
In this episode, Ellen and Mal welcome author unicornpoe to discuss fics involving time travel. Fics include Psalm 40:2 by unicornpoe, Strandlines by aeli_kindara, So Much Tangled Thread by imogenbynight, and Jack to the Future by gothyringwald, among others.
You can find our Mixtape Book Club Ao3 collection here, containing the stories we’ve discussed on the podcast so far.
A warning: This episode contains spoilers for these fics – we do warn before mentioning spoilers.
It contains swearing and discussion of adult topics. It also contains some negative opinions regarding John Winchester (sorry not sorry). Please listen at your own risk.
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Our Guest – unicornpoe
Eden goes by many different names around the fandom, but you can find all of their Destiel works on ao3 under unicornpoe. You can also find them on twitter as C0WBOYLIKEME.
Eden’s WIP discussed in this ep: gardens of babylon (rated M)
Anniversary Giveaway
Congratulations to Jeannine, Leah, Rissa, Ana and Maggie! And a great big thank you to everyone who entered the giveaway and spread the word.
Featured fics
Psalm 40:2 by unicornpoe
Published 2021, 45k words, E
“How the fuck do you know my name?” Dean hisses.
The man doesn’t look scared. He is watching Dean like there is nothing else worth watching, lips a little parted, eyes a little soft. And blue. Real blue, like the ocean on a postcard.
The ice spreading down Dean’s spine makes him shiver.
“I suppose you could say I’m your guardian angel,” the man murmurs. His breath fogs pale between them. All of him is unnaturally warm, like Dean’s touching somebody with the sun sewn up beneath their skin. “I have known you, Dean Winchester, for a very long time.”
Dean meets an angel who says he’s from the future. It all gets a lot more complicated from there.
Strandlines by aeli_kindara
Published 2021, 40k words, E
It’s September 18, 2008. Castiel is being deployed to rescue Dean Winchester from Hell.
He lands in Dean Winchester’s motel room in 2003. Things go from there.
together in eternity by mangolipgl0ss
Published 2021, 12k words, M
“And somehow, within the loop, he feels freer than he’s ever felt before. It’s like some of the pressures on him that had existed for so long he didn’t even notice them had eased up and he could just breathe and be more freely. For once, absolutely no one watching him — except maybe Chuck, and fuck that guy. It feels almost like being a demon again, in a weird way. Not the same lack of morals, but a lack of inhibition.
His whole life, he’s always needed to be a certain person. He’s known exactly what lines not to cross, what he was and wasn’t allowed to do. He knew his role in the world, he knew how to move and contort himself to always stay inside of that box. Pretend to be that guy, pretend that it just came naturally in the hopes that one day it would. Straying outside of those lines had never brought anything except punishment. From his dad, from the universe. He’d thought that was just the way of the world, how it went for a guy like him.
But right now, there are no consequences. Right now, he doesn’t need to be anyone.”
Dean goes to bed the day Cas dies and wakes up trapped in a time loop reliving the same day.
So Much Tangled Thread by imogenbynight
Published for Pinefest 2017, 37k words, E
Art by Sketchydean
In 2008, Dean takes over his late grandfather’s tailor shop in Normal, Illinois, and discovers an old leather flight jacket in the attic. A hand-painted set of wings on the back, the name Novak, and a three-quarters sewn circle of red cotton are the only clues he has to the jacket’s origins, and he enlists his historian brother to help him find the owner.
It doesn’t take long for Sam to trace the jacket to Lieutenant Castiel Novak–a pilot who lived in Dean’s apartment until his mysterious disappearance a few years after WWII–and what little information they find about him is fascinating. The guy was a stone cold badass. A stone cold fox, too, if the grainy old newspaper photo is anything to go by.
It’s to be expected that Dean idly wishes he could have known the man as he closes the annoyingly unfinished circle of thread on the jacket.
Less expected, however, is that wish coming true.
Jack to the Future by gothyringwald
Published 2021, 3800 words, T
When Jack accidentally travels back in time, meeting younger versions of Dean and Cas, Dean learns some things about their future selves that just can’t be true…can they?
Other Time Travel Fics
- a turn of the earth by microcomets (95,274, M) – see Episode 1 to hear us discuss this fic
- together in eternity by mangolipgl0ss (11,594, M)
- the unspoken rule by Spnhell (14,205, E)
- Broken Road by thegeminisage (109,629, M)
- Along for the Ride by brittyelaine (1136, T)
- Lights by Loversantiquities (2671, M)
- A Face In the Water by sharkfish (1789, M)
- heard from your mother (she don’t recognize you) by Schmuzz (243,273, M)
- Outrun My Gun by misachan (33,070, E)
- Face to Face With the Skies by quiddative (42,168, M)
- Remember Me as a Time of Day by triedunture (4790, M)
- Crazy Diamonds by pantheon_of_discord (24,872, E)
- time has come today by teen_dean (35,150, T)
- In Due Time (Dean Winchester is Saved) by caelum_writes (11,419, T)
- A World As Yet Unseen by Dogsled (17,839, E)
- Turn Back Time by Mistyeyes73 (182,378, Unrated)
- Crossing Lines by sometimeswelose (146,941, E)
- There and Back Again by Briston (6043, M) – Contains underage non-con, please read tags and warnings
Other links
- Love Destiel? Join the community of readers and writers at the Profound Bond Discord server. We have a Mixtape Book Club channel there!
- Our RedBubble shop is here. Any profits will go directly to Random Acts. (We just wanted our logo on a mug!)
What’s your favorite time travel fic? Please let us know, we’d love to hear from you!
Our intro music is “Angel with a Shotgun” by The Cab, arranged by Ellen.