See also:
The Story So Far
Dropped Ideas
The End
StoryGrail
Grail challenges
The Green Knight Sequence
Dean and Castiel
Sam's Motivations
Possible titles
Chapter titles
Epigraphs
Aliases
Timeline
Monsters
Locations
Music
Resist the temptation to put too much stuff in this. ONE mythology is plenty. Sam can refer to as much lore and as many stories as he likes, though; and of course, Dean’s seen the movies.
Sam & Dean usually get involved because of a strange death, so it should start there: the Grail Guardian is murdered (while transporting the Grail to a new location, since they know Lilith is after it), and a gangster/small time criminal steals the Grail . . .
Remember Ruby said 34 seals have been broken: this could be one of the last ones, if not the last one.
The Grail itself is either a plain clay cup or a mutable object that always has some symbol on it so that those who know can see it for what it is. Should it glow?
The Grail Guardian could be one of the Knights Templar, or just a Guardian. Not sure I want to get into that mythology.
I do want Grail maidens: someone almost-but-not-quite of this world, who appears when she’s needed to be a help and a guide. She’s the keeper of the Grail, the one to whom the Guardian was bringing the Grail, and will always be where the Grail will be safest.
So, the boys are fighting both demons and criminals who want the Grail for its life-extending properties? Whoo boy, double jeopardy 
.
(The criminals take “and you shall have eternal life” literally, not realizing it’s in a spiritual sense. Perhaps one of them should pursue the boys to the end and learn at the temple that “eternal life” does not mean never dying.)
So the boys become Grail Guardians, basically, once they recover the Grail from the criminals and are charged with bringing it to its new temple. (Why can’t the supernatural beings do it? Because it’s a quest for humans, that’s why.)
In order to keep the seal from being broken they have to first rescue the Grail from criminals and then transport it to its new resting place, while protecting it from the criminals on their trail and from demons who want to bring it to Lilith.
It’s a road trip/protect the girl/hide the treasure kind of deal. With demons. And pie.
Basically, the boys are sent on a Grail quest: they have to find clues to the location of the grail, then find the grail and then take it to its new resting place, all the while keeping the Grail Maiden (or not, I’m still deciding) and themselves safe from demons and Lilith and gangsters.
So I need to research mysterious places and Grail lore, as well as modern perceptions of the Grail to debunk.
Are there any parallels to the Grail myth in the SPN verse? Is Dean The Fisher King in this story, or is he Perceval? And am I using the Sam-is-Lucifer idea or not? (Probably yes.)
I want Dean to make jokes about the Grail-shaped beacon.
The question in traditional Grail stories is “Who does the Grail serve?” So who does the Grail serve in this story? (The answer is the one who needs healing: the Fisher King traditionally, Sam and/or Dean in this story.)
This will be a very Dean-centric fic. if I got with the Sam-is-Lucifer aspect, part of the story will be chasing him, too; and Dean will have to decide whether to destroy Sam or destroy the Grail–or the third option he’ll realize at the last minute, to heal Sam with the Grail.
They all think possessing the Grail will give Lucifer power, forgetting that the main power of the Grail has been to heal. ”’Something holy can’t be corrupted when it’s used out of love.”’
So this will be a power-of-love fic, too. Dean’s love for Sam saving Sam, Castiel’s love for Dean giving Dean strength, even Sam’s love for Dean being a chink in his armor. Even Ruby’s love for Sam (if we go that way–still not sure what her motivation is) can give her power for good.
To use Waste Land imagery or not? I’m thinking yes.
I think this will be the first time the Grail is used in Apocalypse prevention.
A story in four parts? Based around the seasons or the Celtic year–certainly in standing with other Grail lore (though the legends seem to be centered more around Easter/Pentacost.)
Do I need a Grail maiden? Maybe just one who helps along the way instead of the actual goal?
Maybe also Bobby and Pamela, etc, turn against Dean more and more as Sam gets more demonic, until only Castiel is on Dean’s side.
Bringing in the Waste Land: when the Grail guardian is killed this is reflected in the weather; or while the Grail is lost it’s an unusually long winter and cold spring.
Should one of the boys have a Fisher King-like wound? I would like to include the Fisher King somehow–or that’s how the Grail guardian is killed in the beginning?
The boys have to be tested along the way
*The true quester cannot be too much of the world
*The virgin knight, the holy fool and the ordinary man are the only ones in to find the Grail
Whom does the Grail serve? It serves the wounded king, but in this context it should mean Sam or Dean: it serves whoever needs its healing power.
Water flows again after the king is healed: it rains as the boys leave the grail temple, or the land blossoms–the long winter is clearly over.
Dean could have dreams like Percival along the way: of Castiel, to give him advice and comfort, and of the Grail maiden, too.
Also, the Grail allows itself to be found. Perhaps it feels it needs to be out in the world–perhaps it has a will of its own like the One Ring.
What part does Ruby play in this? I don’t want to demonize her and say she’s been deliberately trying to lead Sam astray, but she’s not on Lilith’s side or Heaven’s, exactly. It’s like she’s working for her own ends, but she doesn’t have enough foresight to know what her means will bring.
Say Azazel’s plan all along was to make Sam into the new Lucifer, while no one in Hell knows that Lucifer is a title, not a person; so Lilith is working hard to give unlimited power to someone she hates and ”doesn’t know it”.
The boys are tested to prove their own worthiness, and his failure in one of these tests is what causes Sam to turn his back on Dean. His failure at the test should be devastating to him: he hits his lowest point here and then basically shifts into his own shadow.
*What should these tests be? Fairy tale stuff? Things adapted from the original stories? Both, maybe?
**Asking the right question
**Giving help where you wouldn’t normally
***See "Instructions" by GNeil
Maybe a Green Knight figure? Jack o’the green, even? And a lady of the lake, who gives them help and weapons?
The murdered Grail guardian looks much younger than he is.
Dean’s sense of self worth: he has to believe that he’s worth saving but also that he’s capable of saving; he has to believe that he’s more than just a bargaining chip or an object of sacrifice. He has to believe “my love is enough to save you.” This is what Castiel gives him: a sense of his worth separate from Sam.
Should I use the House of Leaves? A mixture of real and invented places, maybe? Or the the world tree somehow . . . as the new hiding place for the Grail, since it’ll be safe in there . . . though that’s probably bringing too many mythologies into it, and maybe I should just stick to a strictly-Grail-focused framework.
Of course, Labyrinths is a fine old fairy tale tradition, too. Maybe as one of the grail challenges along the way? (Though if they are to have challenges, what are they seeking along the way?)
The Grail gets its power from the person who wields it, not the other way around.
Something else to keep in mind is the relationship between the boys, Dean’s uncertain faith and Sam’s wavering one–it’s possible at this point that neither of them are certain of their value except how others can use them. But they’re also pulling against each other, because Dean trusts Castiel and Castiel doesn’t trust Sam and doesn’t hide it. When Sam turns it’s kind of a “I’ll be evil, that’ll show ‘em.”
So, there will be reoccurring Tarot motifs throughout to guide them along the way and help them know who to trust and who not to; and both Bethany Sophie and Castiel show up to guide them; should Castiel tell them Bethany Sophie is trustworthy?
Which opens the question, what about Castiel and Dean’s relationship throughout? Dean trusts Castiel and Castiel loves Dean in an angelic way…is there romance between them or would that just get in the way? I want this to be a power of love kind of story, and certainly romantic love has as much power as familial. See Dean and Castiel.
The grail is in a briefcase–have to justify the title somehow–and that’s what the boys are initially told to take?–then they open it and see the cup and are confused as to why this is so important. Then either Bethany Sophie or Castiel come to tell them what it is. Or Lorcan catches them in the act and does a Bond villain explanation.
Of course, if Lorcan–presumably, the sorcerer in this scenario–catch them, that leaves the question of how they escape, though I can probably figure that out when I get there. And of course he doesn’t have to be a particularly ”good” sorcerer . . . but it does make it easier to explain how he knows how to chase to get the Grail back.
They break into his house, find the briefcase, steal it (with or without lecture) and escape, and the next time they stop Bethany Sophie or Castiel tells them they’re the new guardians and have to bring it to a new hiding place. Only she doesn’t know where, but she has a name and a city and thinks this other person might know.
How early do the demons enter into it? Lilith hears the grail is no longer hidden and decides to get her hands on it, too–Ruby or Castiel, probably Ruby, warns them about this, possibly after some demons attack them and try to get the Grail–maybe even the boys get separated and Dean starts suspecting Sam isn’t being completely honest with him about how he got away . . .
In Parzifal, P doesn’t ask the question about the Grail mass and wakes up alone, the castle gone. Could use this.
Use the image of Dean shirtless and wearing Castiel’s raincoat, because OMG HAWT.
So, plot: a Grail guardian is killed. The boys are sent on a quest, either by Castiel or another source, to find the Grail and return it to the Grail maiden/temple. But Lilith is also searching for the Grail and they have to stay ahead of her–but once they have the Grail, Lilth convinces Sam to use its power to become the ruler of hell and Earth. So Dean has to decide between protecting the earth or protecting Same–and realizes (due to Castiel?) that he can do both with the Grail.
So in the beginning chapters Sam and Dean are fighting more and more, and Sam is blaming Castiel (“you trust that angel more than your own brother”) and Dean blames Ruby–until finally Sam is broken enough and angry enough to believe Lilith that the yellow-eyed demon’s plan all along was for him to become Lucifer. And who knows, maybe she’s telling the truth.
But the power of the Grail isn’t what Lilith thinks it is–maybe “what was broken shall become whole” she thinks means all three realms will be united, but it’s a reference to the Grail’s healing (inventing lore, whee!)–she thinks it will give her the power of heaven, but it’s holy and healing and powered by love–when wielded with hatred it has no power at all.
I want the climax to take place at Grace Cathedral in San Francisco. Labyrinths!
Joseph Temple is killed
*the criminals are referred to as Slim and Hulk, and work for a man named Lorcan. What I need to figure out how Sam and Dean actually find Lorcan and get the Grail back–probably fake FBI? And some detective work combined with divine help.
*I may need some actual Grail texts for this–or just Tarot cards? “Look for a hanged man”?
Dean has a dream about the murdered man and the Grail; he and Sam set off to find out what’s going on.
*Dean’s dream should be biblical, like a vision. Castiel shouldn’t be Basil Exposition.
*Sam’s always been the one with psychic dreams: Dean having one would freak them both out. Though in this case it would be more like a vision, and Castiel will be there all along to guide him through it. Angels are messengers, after all.
*And the next time they see each other in the flesh Dean could yell at him for being cryptic, and Castiel could scold him about not listening when he’s awake.
*Dean’s hell-dream could shift from hell to the crucifixion to a Grail mass to Joseph Temple, and all the while Castiel is there in his raincoat. Tarot imagery here, too?
**Or, he has these dreams during the story, starting with Joseph’s murder, and gets various pieces and clues along the way.
*Then Dean and Sam fake being FBI agents to get information about the murder, but how do they find out about Lorcan?
**And what city does Joseph live in?
**And how much convincing will Dean have to do to get Sam to go with him in the first place?
*There would have to be a clue in Joseph’s apartment to guide them–maybe the {-Bethany-} Sophie Fisher/a grail maiden shows up to guide them as well? She poses as Joseph’s wife? Then they find out from the police that Joseph wasn’t married . . . or she could pose as a neighbor and they question her, and she puts them on the right path to finding Lorcan.
*In Joseph’s apartment the safe where the Grail was kept is hidden behind framed medieval Tarot cards. That path is a clue for the Winchesters, too.
**I wonder if I should name the chapters after the major arcana instead of things from Grail mythology, or just mix it all up.
*And Dean gets broody over the Devil card, and recognizes images from his dreams in the cards.
**Note to self, add card definitions to the Research section in Tarot symbolism.
*Bethany Sophie guides them to Lorcan by telling them Lorcan wanted to buy an antique Joseph wouldn’t part with.
The boys break into his house and steal the cup back. This puts Lorcan and his thugs on their trail.
*And of course, the boys can’t believe someone would kill over such a plain little thing as the cup until they’re told, probably by Castiel, that it’s the Grail.
**Or stone or dish, if it’s a shapeshifting thing. Or, in ordinary times it’s a plain clay cup, and when it’s at its full power it changes to something rich and precious.
***The boys may be wary of something that changes shape, too.
The boys break into Locan’s house and find a demon there. There’s a fight and Sam stabs the demon with Ruby’s knife, waking up Lorcan. They grab the briefcase and flee. When they get back to the motel {-Bethany-} Sophie is there, and she tells them it’s the Grail. All the Grail guardians are dead, killed by Lorcan or Lilith.
Maybe a scene of Lorcan and Lilith? She offers him the Grail in exchange for Sam? She’ll betray him, of course.
Bethany Sophie doesn’t know where the current Grail temple is. The Grail has a will of its own and wants to be out in the world, but the world isn’t safe for it so they must keep hiding it. She tells them where the last Grail temple was and there might be clues there about where to take it next, and maybe she gives them a weapon to defend themselves? (Excalibur is probably too cheesy, but something along those lines.) She also tells them that she’s over 1000 years old.
She tells them they are the new Grail guardians and God will watch over them, and then leaves. In the morning they leave for Mystery Hill, N.H.
Before they open the briefcase there’s light visible through the seams, but the cup looks ordinary when they take it out. Also in Dean’s dream it looked like a stone, and he expected it to be a stone when they open the briefcase.
Maybe they go back to Bobby’s first (Bobby lives in South Dakota), then {-Bethany-} Sophie comes? Also the Grail castle has a will of its own too and it’s never in the same place for long, which is why she doesn’t know where it is anymore.
Lorcan summons a demon to get the Grail back and Lilith comes . . . deep hurting . . .
Also, wasteland imagery . . . if Dean is the Fisher King maybe he should get injured in the beginning, and doesn’t realize the Grail can heal him until almost the end.
So there should be something about the weather, mist, rain, cold when it should be warm . . . the Grail stories are usually related to Easter, so it should be spring, but it’s a cold and dismal one.
Should Bethany Sophie be more mystical when we first meet her? Should she recognize, for example, that Dean needs the Grail? And he could get a physical injury in the fight with the demon, compounding his problems . . .
When they go to Mystery Hill, what should they find? how do they learn what the next location of the Grail castle was? More guides and prophets along the way . . . Tarot motifs . . . etc.
*allude to bad weather
*expand Dean’s dream
*more response to Joseph’s Tarot card artwork, esp. the Devil card
*Bethany Sophie less pragmatic?
**though when they talk she calls The DaVinci Code drivel
**also she wants to know who sent them after the Grail
*Castiel in NH? to give them further instructions?
When Sam presses Castiel as to why they had to get the Grail, Castiel tells him the Grail is holy but of Earth, not of Heaven: it has always been a matter for men, not angels. “We protect it, but we cannot claim it or take it away.” Or something like how it joins Heaven and earth but doesn’t really belong in either realm–it’s a threshold or a door. You can’t bring a door into a house.
The Grail will enter heaven when there’s no veil between the two. This is why Lilith want it, to ransom Heaven, basically, or hold Heaven hostage.
Drop the thing about it being a seal? No, going to need it if I’m doing the Sam-is-Lucifer climax.
Maybe Castiel should tell them their mission, then, that it’s the last seal, and Bethany Sophie doesn’t show up again until the end at the Cathedral–or at other Grail castle locations to tell them where to go next. Should they collect things along the way? The spear, the bowl, etc? Even Excalibur, maybe?
Make it more fairy tale like? They have to prove themselves for each object?
Since Dean gets wounded in Lorcan’s house, Lorcan has his blood. Blood magic!
*Grail maidens: Bethany Sophie Fisher is just one of many, and these women show up along the way to guide the boys and give them help when they need it. Edit: Though they’re really more than that now.
**They’re always in the same place as a sign (something Tarot-related, like the cards on the wall in the Queenie’s Diner scene), and have a piece of jewelry to identify them. As in the myths, they’re beautiful young women, and could likely be warriors themselves except their job is to teach, not fight.
**At the moment the identifying jewelry is a gold wedding band worn on the right hand, though that may change; like a ring with a piece of malachite in it, or a malachite necklace.
**Could also do this as a triple goddess thing: a crone who puts them on their path, a mother who guards them, and a maiden who teaches and challenges them.
***Going this way, the maidens are the Fishers: Bethany, Lily Sophie, Celine and Maya.
“young men will see visions and old men will dream dreams”–should Bobby have dreams, too?
Sam’s dreams are dark and troubling when he’s near the Grail: his demon side doesn’t want to be near it.
Dean dreams of and sees images of the Hanged Man, and thinks it means he’ll have to sacrifice himself. It plays into the end: the Hanged Man isn’t dead in the deck, he’s waiting for wisdom. So after Dean hangs he knows how to use the Grail to save Sam.
The signs and clues are coming more from the Grail maidens than from Castiel: Castiel knows the Grail needs to be saved, but as he tells the boys, it’s not his charge. He just has faith the boys will be led to where they need to be.
The monster they face at each temple is the minotaur. Why? BECAUSE I CAN. They hear it growl and move, (and probably smell it, too) but don’t see it until the last labyrinth in San Francisco.
Malachite protects against bad dreams. Should use this somehow.
Add something to the prologue about it being spring equinox, to set the time.
More on the blood magic: not only does it help Lorcan locate Dean, it also makes it possible for Lorcan to prevent Dean’s wound from healing. He can also use the handkerchief to cause Dean pain by twisting or manipulating or even burning it, which should play into a climactic scene:
*Lorcan captures Sam and Dean and takes the grail
*he uses the blood to torture Dean, and hangs Dean by his feet
**bait for the minotaur?
*he takes Sam and the cup to Lilith
**I’m picturing all this taking place at night, during a fire
*Castiel rescues Dean
*Dean knows how to use the grail to save Sam
I’m thinking the Fisher women are less Grail maidens and more like the Fates, especially using the triple goddess idea. Maybe their eyes should be grey instead of hazel .
Dean should also crave fish along the way.
It’s 23 days from March 20 to April 12th.
Lilith can’t go to Medicine Wheel or inside Grace Cathedral because they’re sacred places. (Maybe don’t set apart her sections as interludes: just use asterisks to indicate POV change. And probably not her POV, either: Lorcan, more likely.)
Malachite: Lorcan comes after the boys in their dreams (or Celine does, either/or) and they tell Celine or Maya, and she gives them malachite necklaces or rings to protect them and put Lorcan off their scent. (And then when Sam is done with being a good guy, he takes it off to let Lorcan find them.) OR, Lorcan can’t find them in the physical realm so he comes to them in their dreams, they tell the Fishers, and they’re given the malachite. They have other means to protect them in the waking world: Castiel, their tattoos, various hex bags and amulets, etc.
The boys should encounter the Trickster on April 1, and he should remark on what a cliche it is 
.
*What should he do for them, though? Or to them?
*The purpose of a trickster is to punish the pompous, as it were, and to tell the truth. What truth would he know that the boys need to hear?
The Fishers’ home is a lot like the Chalice Well gardens at Glastonbury Abbey: lots of water and female imagery. This is where Castiel takes Dean to heal.
Maybe instead of going back to the motel after Lorcan’s, Sam takes Dean to a hospital and they meet Lily Celine Fisher there. (And is it too confusing to have two characters named Lilith and Lily? Yes, so she’s Celine now.) Keep Castiel in the dream-realm for a while, so that when he shows up in person at last it has more impact. This would also keep the explanations until later, but I think that could work out: Celine can give them some hints, too. And then in the morning they meet Maya and she sets them on the path.
*This will also mean it’s longer before they find out exactly what’s in the briefcase, but I think that will be a good thing.
If I need more days to fill up the timeline they can wander between clues: it’s part of the Grail story for the knights to have adventures along the way. Usual things like ghosts and vampire nests, and more of Lilith’s minions. They can also trail demons to see what Lilith is doing, but mostly the other jobs should just be mentioned in passing.
*And there should be some Dean/Castiel action, too.
Remember to include some scenes of pool hustling, etc. The boys need to earn their money sometimes.
What happens to Hulk and Slim? Will have to cover that at some point, too.
Castiel shows Dean the Fisher King so that he has a hint about how he has to ask for help to get it?
Lorcan tortures Dean not just with physical pain but also with bad dreams, until Castiel gives him malachite to protect him. He’s blessed it, as well, to make it more powerful–and since this is a Power of Love story, because it’s given in love it’s even stronger.
A scene with Lilth raging at Lorcan’s failure to to capture the boys? She makes peoples’ heads explode when she’s angry?
Need to have the tidbits more often, too. They should be often enough that they’re not jarring when they do happen.
Sam takes Dean to Bobby’s to recover, and he and Bobby leave for a few days to do a job. While they’re gone Dean is very weak until Castiel comes and brings him a malachite amulet (and perhaps some chunks of the stone as well), and when he can finally rest (remember it also has healing properties) he starts recovering.
*There should be some smoochin’, too, since they’re alone. Deepfelt Conversations and all that.
*When Sam and Bobby return they’ve got a hunter’s tale of a pub called the Green Knight (or the Green Man or the Hanging Man, maybe all three and more) in Chicago: “you can’t find it, it finds you”–and Sam and Dean leave to find it, or let it find them . . . leading to The Green Knight Sequence.
*Should Castiel come right away or should Dean be alone for a day or so first? Or, Cas comes, gives him the amulet and then leaves, Dean starts to recover, and then Castiel comes back . . .
Need to foreshadow the hanging man more. Dean should see something at Mystery Hill, and the Green Knight’s pub could be the Hanging Man–or some Tarot-inspired clues happen there? Maya reads their cards, and gets the Hanging Man for Dean, and the Wheel of Forture for both of them, and maybe something like the Tower for Sam? (And the lovers for Dean and Castiel .) (And if the Trickster is with them, he gets the Fool, of course.)
Solomon was believed to have a ring with a pentangle to give him power over demons. Could use this somehow? (Or another story someday…)
The hanged man: either Dean sees it but doesn’t really register it until Maya reads Tarot for him, or he doesn’t really see it until after the Tarot reading.
When Dean and Sam leave Bobby’s there should be some hesitation: they’re protected from Lorcan and the beast (and by extension, Lilith) at Bobby’s, but won’t be out in the big bad world, and they know it. Maybe they should question why they’re safer at Bobby’s? and he doesn’t know why either, since he’s got the same protections up that he’s always had and they’re not foolproof–and they learn later that the angels and/or the Fishers added a little something extra, which they can do because Bobby’s as close as they have to a home. Power of Love again . Family bonds protect.
I think in that case, then, there does need to be a scene where Dean leaves Bobby’s and gets into a little trouble because he’s outside the protective circle; so when it’s time to leave again he knows what a chance he’s taking (and still takes it, ’cause he’s Dean.)
And oh dear god I’ve just realized how much I want a scene of Castiel and the Trickster, so the Trickster can openly mock him.