The Lord of Misrule - spn_genbigbang fic Masterpost

[amberdreams]

Title: The Lord of Misrule
Author: amber1960
Artist: adrenalineshots
Characters / Pairing: Sam and Dean Winchester, Kali, Thor, Loki, various OCs. Gen
Rating: R for SPN-level violence and bad language.
Word Count: ~ 26k
Spoilers: None
Warnings: Warping of Viking and Native American myths and legends.  But hopefully in a good way.  No disrespect to any living belief systems is intended.
Type: spn_gen_bigbang 2012 Bigbang

Summary:  The action takes place immediately after Lucifer kills Gabriel.  Gabriel’s death releases the real god Loki from his thousand-year imprisonment, and he is out for revenge on the architect of his suffering - Gabriel.  Furious that the archangel is out of his reach, and discovering that his powers are weakened by this modern unbelieving world, Loki goes after Kali and the Winchesters.  The Norse god finds he has bitten off more than he can chew, but unfortunately the boys are caught up too, when Kali decides to teach Loki a lesson.

Acknowledgements: Manifold thanks go to my awesome betas tifaching and adrenalineshots for all their help and encouragement on my first big bang.  This story is much more coherent because of them and it goes without saying that any remaining errors are all mine!

Art!!   This being a big bang and all, the lovely adrenalineshots did some wonderful art to perfectly compliment my fic.  You must go and check out her art post here and leave her lots of love. 

The PDF version (which you can download here) has the art embedded but believe me, you need to see it large to really appreciate the colour and the humour and the sheer awesomeness.

Disclaimer: Sadly the Winchesters do not belong to me, all intellectual property of the CW still belongs to them; the surrounding packaging is mine.

PART1  PART2  PART3a Part3b  PART4a PART4B & Epilogue   Also on AO3

Author’s notes:

If you read this via the PDF, please do come back to tell me what you thought (and don’t forget to go and visit adrenalineshots’ art post too!)

I took some liberties here (ok, a lot of liberties!) with both the Beothuk and the Vikings, and with their myths and legends. 

The Beothuk sadly became extinct as a people in the 19^th century.  The last recorded member of the Beothuk people was a woman called Shanawdithit, who died  in 1829.  Because of this, very little is known about either their language or their customs, so I have ended up mixing up the small handful of known Beothuk names with Algonquin words (which from my research seemed to be the tribe commonly accepted as the Beothuk’s closest kin).

Thor in this story is supposed to be more akin to the Norse Thor than the Marvel one, hence the red hair, and also his significance to the Beothuk, who were said to have been enamoured of the colour red.  This fact was recorded in the Viking sagas about Vinland as well as by later European settlers.  (This is where the term Red Indian originated).

The happenings in the Viking settlement of L’Anse aux Meadows have been very much adapted to suit my story, so don’t expect to find much resemblance to the sagas here.  All the Viking characters I name here do appear in the Vinland stories, but at different times and phases of the Viking settlement.

The Beothuk were said to be paler skinned and taller than other Native American tribes, so I am now wondering if some of the Vikings might have either remained on the continent when their colleagues returned to Greenland, or that there might have been some interbreeding that was not recorded in the sagas.

The idea that Thor and Loki could morph into native North American mythological figures seemed to work for me – with nothing much being known about Beothuk beliefs, I have amalgamated names and myths from Plains tribes and elsewhere in creating this idea of Ksa before he became Iktomi (Coyote), and a Thunder god who is more primeval than later versions, so I’ve used the name Wak-Inyan.  These creations are not supposed to necessarily correspond to current recorded stories of the Native Americans, as these will have evolved over time any way.

Comments

[adrenalineshots.livejournal.com]

So great to see this up! I loved this story from the first time I laid eyes on it. And now, reading all those wonderful, subtle little changes that you've made I realize that, although it was already awesome before, you've managed to make it even more so!

The idea of grabbing Sam and Dean and, due to the circunstances in the story (which I'm trying not to spoil for others *g*), toss them into such unfamiliar grounds and watch them struggle to return home and still be themselves are themes that have always been dear to me. And you treated them wonderfully!

I know that everyone reading this story will chearish it as much as I do, because it's THAT good! thank you for sharing it with us *hugs*

[amber1960.livejournal.com]

(((hugs back)))
I might have squee'd just a little when you claimed it, it was a real compliment that you wanted to illustrate it when you had already read it (ie you weren't choosing under any illusions!).

You have been very kind about it - thank you so much!