Masterpost: March-Stalkers Mighty

[whit_merule]

 

March-Stalkers Mighty
by whit-merule

Such a pair       they have sometimes seen,
march-stalkers mighty       the moorland haunting,
wandering spirits.
(Beowulf c. ll. 1347-1350; Gunmere translation)

A Fox and the Hound fusion in a Beowulf-themed world.
In the middle of the barren monster-ridden marches, there is a wall. Encircled by the wall and all its ancient protective symbols there is a small town: a few farms, a few orchards, a few herds of cattle and sheep, a few hundred humans who know that nothing outside the wall is anything but an enemy. The second-worst of the monsters that inhabit their lands are the demons; the very worst are also the most newly arrived, and they are the angels. Dean and Sam Winchester have buried the memories of the silent boy with blue eyes and black wings whom Dean had used to play with as a child, down by the wall, years before any other human ever saw an angel. But when one of the regular travelling pedlars turns out to be hiding wings; when Dean encounters a face he’d stubbornly forgotten for years sneaking into their village at night; when Sam gets hit by a curse that takes his human form away, and Bobby sustains an injury that makes him (by his own rules) less than human, and the behaviour of some humans begins to reveal a darker side, Dean isn’t the only one who will have to struggle to redefine the boundaries between humanity and monstrosity.

Word Count: 150 000.

Pairings: Castiel/Dean, and Gabriel/Sam friendship or pre-slash. Background Ellen/Bill, Bobby/Jody, Anna/Charlie, Demian/Barnes.

Spoilers: Fantasy AU, so no direct plot spoilers. Supporting characters from all seasons (from Missouri to Charlie). Events, character interactions, aspects of relationships, quotations, etc, do mirror and allude to some canon events (Mary’s death early in the boys’ lives, Castiel talking about bees, etc).

Rating: Explicit.

Written: March-August 2012.

Warnings, kinks, and tropes (more detail, potentially spoilerish, in mouse-over text for potentially triggerish or distasteful tags): Dehumanisation, including by narrating character. Moderate PTSD (not in narrating character). Ignorance of homosexuality, struggles with one’s own attraction to member of the same sex (no true homophobia). Mild wing-kink, including passing mention of preening oil as lubricant. Temporary animal transformation. Minor character deaths. Hinted child neglect. Interspecies sex. Virginity and confused virgin sex. Fight scenes, mildly graphic treatment of injuries. Angels as biological creatures who eat, age, reproduce, etc. Large dollops of hurt!Cas, because he will keep getting into trouble, and occasional hurt!Gabriel and hurt!Sam. Also the Impala is now a dog.

AO3 link, for those who prefer that format or want to download it.




Chapter links.

Introduction.

Prologue.

Passus I:
Pes dexter. --- Pes sinister.

Passus II:
Pes dexter. --- Pes sinister.

Passus III:
Pes dexter. --- Pes sinister.

Passus IV:
Pes dexter. --- Pes sinister.

Passus V:
Pes dexter. --- Pes sinister.

Passus VI:
Pes dexter. --- Pes sinister.

Passus VII:
Pes dexter. --- Pes sinister.

Passus VIII:
Pes dexter. ---

(Requies.)

--- Pes sinister.

Passus IX:
Pes dexter. --- Pes sinister.

Passus X:
Pes dexter. --- Pes sinister.

Pedes conjunctim.

Author’s notes, and readers’ questions answered.

Extras (timestamps, timelines, and deleted/unfinished scenes).



This piece of art by the amazing jo_yumegari. Click to see full size.