oh, I think I'm going to have to write

[bedlamsbard]

Ahahahaha, realpestilence, guess what I'm reading about now in my theatre book:

Befitting their patron deity, all the Dionysian festivals involved drinking enormous quantities of wine. AT the Anthesteria, each participating man, woman, and child began the festivities by tossing down a two-liter jug at a single sitting. Wine drinking continued throughout the three days of this festival, which also included bull sacrifices and dismemberments, the consuming of hallucinogenic mushrooms, and the ecstatic dithyrambic dance-chants, led by a group of fifty goatskin-clan, phallos-bearing priests. The dithyramb concluded with a sacred marriage ritual in which drunken women danced around the phallos, adorned with a bearded mask, after which the tribal queen was "given" to "Dionysus." Although we don't know exactly how this gift was delivered, historians believe that real sexual intercourse took place, accompanied by cheers from the rhapsodic throng.

I feel so inspired.

Comments

[realpestilence.livejournal.com]

AND SO YOU SHOULD BE!!! You realize this makes Edmund the "tribal queen". *rotflmao*


I find it interesting that this is something that both men *and* women participated in-even children (who had to chug-a-lug 2 liters!). The animal sacrifices now...bulls...I'm thinking Minotaur, for some reason. *coughs*

But yes, this is EXACTLY what I was thinking about, just spread out over 3 days, instead of an evening's ceremony. Which would make it worse for Peter and Edmund, you know, because they'd be *thinking* about it the whole time; and then the actual "wedding" bonding thing would be very hallucinogenic-Bacchus as "High Priest".

By that time, Peter's had at least one lover, probably more. But has Edmund? How traumatic it would be, if it were his first time...keeping in mind the later Witch/Narnia possession/fight story arc...and I'll be talking more to you about this, probably, after work. I've got to get back to it, damn it.

I feel strangely gleeful. How am I supposed to concentrate now?!

*grins*

[bedlamsbard.livejournal.com]

And it makes Peter Dionysus, which is hilarious.

Hey, I've been debating all along if the Narnians are going to use their drugs/hallucinogenic substances (they have to have them, and we haven't even gotten into what that book says about satyrs) on Peter and Edmund. Or Edmund, at least. I think they want Peter clear-headed.

I'm still screwing around with exactly when in the timeline this is -- I am this close to buying whiteboards to put up on my dorm room wall, only I'm not sure how disturbed by roommate would be or if she'd just throw up her hands and ignore it -- but with an estimation of four to five years in, Peter's had several lovers (hell, by the time of "In A Dry Month", he's had two), and Edmund has probably had more. All female, though, most likely.

It was in my theatre textbook. Message from the gods or just coincidence?

[realpestilence.livejournal.com]

This was MEANT to be, bedlam!


I think you're right in that they'd use the hallucinogenics on Edmund but not Peter. They'd want to loosen Edmund's hold on himself for Narnia to move in, for one thing; and Peter would need to be in control to some degree, so nobody would get *physically* hurt, any more than necessary. (He might end up being the only clear-headed person present, perhaps.) It would add to the nightmarish aspect of it for Edmund, for sure, to be trapped in his own body but unable to control it, while an alien entity took over. And anything that adds more guilt to Peter is...well, a guilty pleasure. *laughs*

I think it's important that Edmund *not* have had any male lovers, at least. He's mostly straight, you said; so this would be something he'd be uncomfortable with, even if it weren't his big brother who was going to be taking him-first time sex, in public, etc. To have it spin out of control in an orgiastic frenzy would NOT add any pleasure to it for him.

Whose pov would you be using,Peter's? Or would you have it be third person, omniscient? Just curious. Would you include the sacrifice part-like I said, I keep thinking of the Minotaurs, and how would it be for them to have this traditional role in the welfare of their country, to provide a Sacrifice for the royal wedding to the land...their blood spread out over the crops in the field, a proxy sacrifice for the king or something. Dunno if it would work, but *any* sacrifice, animal or other, would be potent, in these circumstances.

I think I might find your theater textbook interesting.

[bedlamsbard.livejournal.com]

Well, my theatre textbook kind of makes me want to kill things with fire, aside from this bit.

Oh, man. Yeah, definitely. They wouldn't want to get Edmund or Peter too drunk, either -- just, you know, a little bit. The ritual cup, or some such. And Narnia wants Peter to be in control, wants to be dealing with him, and not anybody else. Trauma, trauma, trauma, trauma for everyone...

(I think if/when I do write this up, I am going to interweave it with the faked betrayal plot, because that adds just the right touch of bitterness.)

*nods* I don't think he would. I mean, he may have kissed a few boys, just to try it, but -- he'd probably figure out pretty fast that it's not really his thing. And he sleeps around more than Peter, but that's with girls -- boys are something different altogether. And Peter is Peter.

Almost certainly Peter's. (I more or less, with a few rare exceptions, hate omniscient.)

I'm debating a blood sacrifice -- I don't think it would be the minotaurs, because all through the Golden Age they're the enemy (look how quickly Peter goes after the minotaur in PC!), and I'm fairly certain Narnia will only take a willing ritual sacrifice. With a willing sacrifice -- no one's blood is more potent than the king's, but that's obviously useful only in times of Really Big Trauma, so...I'm not really sure who would work. (And would the Narnians remember it, anyways?) Maybe a faked/dramatic sacrifice (seriously. blame that idiot book) rather than a real one.

[realpestilence.livejournal.com]

Oh, I meant a willing sacrifice-the Minotaurs may not be nice, good people, but it doesn't mean they don't love Narnia. It's just a different "Narnia" than the supposed "good guys" know. There's that whole layer of dark underside to the country, with the Hags, werewolves, dark dwarves, dark dryads, etc, that served the White Witch-they didn't come from nowhere. And the Witch was "all right" to *her* people, per Nikabrik. It's an intriguing idea to me, to think that perhaps these 2 ceremonies-the earth binding of the King and the wedding of the King to the Land via his Queen/proxy partner-might be something that all Narnians can share. Truce for the night, or the 3 days, that takes.


Yes, I think Peter's pov would be best here. I was thinking that this would fit perfectly with the faked betrayal sequence, too, if it came soon after.

Funny, this was a potent idea in the first place, back when we first started discussing it...but now, knowing that there's basis in truth, it's...goddamned FASCINATING. *shivers*

[burntcopper.livejournal.com]

....I'm almost too glad that my Edmund is too busy to do any of that and leaves it all to Lucy.

[bedlamsbard.livejournal.com]

And if that happened in my 'verse, we would have Lucy knocked up by Peter. (I'm still figuring out how that didn't happen with Peta.)

[burntcopper.livejournal.com]

... and now I have images of Tumnus giving Peter the death glare of death glares.

Peta probably made sure it was the wrong time of the month.

[bedlamsbard.livejournal.com]

Also, you have no idea how traumatized Lucy would be. Trust me. Traumatized. VERY TRAUMATIZED.

[katakokk.livejournal.com]

Uhhhhhhhhhh....*hides*

[bedlamsbard.livejournal.com]

Trust me when I say you do not want to know.

[franceica.livejournal.com]

Ahhhhhhhhh!

*Takes cover* *facepalm*

[bedlamsbard.livejournal.com]

YOU HAVE NO IDEA.

[franceica.livejournal.com]

I think I have a love/hate relationship with your Peter/Narnia. On the one hand it makes so much sense and it is so tragically beautiful and everything; but on the other hand it is so traumatic that I want to kill something. *screams*
OMG Peter. How did you survive?

[bedlamsbard.livejournal.com]

Well, when you don't see the fall coming, it's easy... And there was the amnesia, that one time. That helped. Unfortunately. And after that, he was too used to it to remember that the world was different once.

[franceica.livejournal.com]

To him it probably helped.

But I feel like I am completely traumatized by Narnia simply by reading about it. *facepalm*

Oh my god, Peter.

[lassiterfics.livejournal.com]

i'm glad to see i'm not the only one getting being inappropriately inspired by her homework.

[bedlamsbard.livejournal.com]

Well, at least it distracted me from wanting to kill my theatre book with fire.

[realpestilence.livejournal.com]

Oh, this isn't inappropriate at all! I'd say it's VERY appropriate. It's RESEARCH. \o/

[bedlamsbard.livejournal.com]

It's HOMEWORK.

[realpestilence.livejournal.com]

Twice the fun!

[realpestilence.livejournal.com]

I was re-reading your entry again...the "goatskin-clad, phallos-bearing priests" could be the satyrs (or fauns, if you consider them separate beings. It's not clear.) The goatskin is their own skin, the phallos the same-they're presiding, naked and erect. *gulps*

The drunken women dancing around would be the dryads...wonder how wine would affect them, since they don't usually indulge.

The more I think about it, the more I really think YES, a willing blood-sacrifice and a Minotaur at that, would work very well here, to show that the "dark" side of Narnia has an equal and important place in things.

Which makes the faked betrayal thing even harder, because there probably *are* dark Narnians/White Witch followers who *would* follow Edmund as better than nothing, if they can't have the Narnia they want. Maybe some thing he was bewitched by *Aslan*, in a reversal of what really happened, you know? So Peter has good cause to suspect him, IF he doesn't think about *who* is under suspicion, just considers the way facts add up on paper.

Or not. *yawns* I'm tired, I'm going to take a nap...see you in a few hours.

*falls over*

[bedlamsbard.livejournal.com]

Canonically (using the movie as canon) the satyrs and fauns are different creatures. Let me see if I can find caps...okay, here's a satyr (http://l.yimg.com/img.movies.yahoo.com/ymv/us/img/flickr/14/60/002455601460.jpg), and then Tumnus is a faun, obviously.

I suppose the question is how in the name of all the gods are they going to get the minotaurs to participate? Narnian doesn't have a cultural identity as Narnians, so much; the White Witch more or less destroyed it, and we've talked before about how little remains of the Narnian culture. If they don't remember the particulars of the earth-binding -- especially this particular ritual -- then how are they going to remember this part? Unless the minotaurs remember more than the rest of the Narnians -- hell, if the White Witch used this ritual...

Okay, if the White Witch used this ritual, or parts of it, or Peter even thought the White Witch had considered it, I think Peter would have flatly refused and suffered in silence.

Right. *nods* Because Peter would do that; I think it's very in-character. ("Which chess set?" indeed.)

[realpestilence.livejournal.com]

I'd certainly think the Minotaurs would remember *that* part of the ritual better than anyone, considering it has to be a willing sacrifice. Perhaps their blood is more iron-rich than others', or something, so that it literally *does* do the earth more good, being sown into the fields, and that's how it started-noticed after battles where they'd bled in places that bloomed well, after...logical reason behind it, then the mysticism accumulates, over the centuries.


I think each group would remember parts of it better than others. They'd know that, too, and maybe reluctantly be willing to listen when the dark Narnians sent an envoy to talk, when rumblings of them having done the earth-bond and that they're planning the wedding. You KNOW the centaurs would ramble on about the skies telling them blah blah blah.

No WAY would they ever tell Peter that the White Witch did the ritual. I definitely think she did both, the earth-bond and the wedding (in your verse it makes real sense), and that's how she gained so much control over Narnia for so long-it amplified her magic powers.

OH-I just thought-what if she found out about it due to meeting adult Edmund, in his time travelling fic...it might be why she wants him back. Nobody said the *Bride* had to be willing, and you said that having a bond to one partner wouldn't stop a bond to another partner being formed (like both Caspian and Peter being bound to Narnia)... no way would she want Edmund running around, knowing where she is and maybe feeling things that *she* was feeling, without being able to get her hands on him...him, being compelled to help soothe and care for her, because the bond pulled at him, feeling Narnia's misery... Erg. I don't know if you'd want to go that far, but it does make me feel creeped out, thinking that Jadis would rape both Narnia and Edmund that way...and think of the "possession" fight scene, after that, and the layers of freaked-outness that Edmund would have-no wonder Ed's a little touchy about being trusted when he *is* trustworthy-and then Peter finds out what was done to Edmund in the past and feels even *more* guilty about doing it to him in the first place, because that's where Jadis got the idea from, etc.

It wouldn't change history much for the Narnians-Jadis would have frozen their asses anyways, just probably not as long or thoroughly-and she'd have ruled, etc; but it means a lot to *Narnia*, herself. Maybe why she clings to Peter so hard, because he's good to her and loves her, washes away the cold touch of Jadis. And stuff.

I don't know if that's helping or too complicated...it just HIT me out of the blue...*facepalms*


Peter would want to DIE before he deliberately did something to Narnia that the Witch did, even if it was necessary or wanted by Narnia herself; even if *his* doing it put it back into perspective as a positive ritual. Maybe that's how they persuade him, though...the people *need* this, to help put their society back together, give them their history and culture back, and heal something that had been broken by the Witch. *muses*

[bedlamsbard.livejournal.com]

*muses* I'd think that once it starts getting around that Peter's going to do something -- and the wedding's going to start out as and turn into a big party, so everyone wants a piece of it -- those of the White Witch's Narnians who remember more -- the hags and the minotaurs, maybe? Probably not the werewolves -- are going to remember their own part. Because it's for all of Narnia. So, yes, they'd end up sending an envoy to Cair Paravel. I don't think Peter would necessarily agree -- the girls definitely wouldn't -- but Edmund would have a moment of -- actually, hold on, Peter might agree out of sheer practicality. "Who am I to protest if they want to kill themselves?" he says, and Edmund looks up from the sheet of parchment Peter's passed over. "You do realize the chances it's a trick, don't you?"

I don't think the White Witch would do either the earth-bond or the wedding, because the earth-bond's put in place to make sure the ruler can't hurt the land and the wedding will give Narnia a stronger hold over her. Both are disadvantages, and she'd be aware of that, especially if she'd been living in Narnia or on the outskirts of Narnia for some time before she tried to take over. Any other parts of the ritual, though, that would give her a hold on Narnia without giving Narnia a hold on her -- or give her a hold on the people of Narnia, since she's well aware that Narnia herself can't act without someone to act through -- and it's not like she'd hesitating at slaughtering one of her own people.