(no subject)

[bedlamsbard]

I feel like writing Peta/Caspian. Prompts, please?

Also, argh, because I switched out my contacts...before I realized that my boxes of new contacts aren't clearly labeled which set is right and left, and my eyes aren't quite equally horrible. (Close, but not quite.) I think I have them in the right eyes, but they kind of hurt, which is, uh, bad.

ETA: Never mind, I'm wearing glasses today; I don't feel like screwing around with these until Everything Is Resolved.

ETA: Wow, you guys are in the mood for domesticity today. I was thinking porn. *bemused*

Comments

[bedlamsbard.livejournal.com]

Part two is Peter's POV, so skip forward eighteen years, although Peta and Peter are both back to being twenty-one. (I may have to screw around with the ages in order to make the dates line up, though.) Peter's stationed with the RAF in Burma, we know this part of the story, he and Peta start sleeping together, he says that if she wants to go back to England, then she can marry him; it'll give her legitimate citizenship. (Must look up British citizenship laws in the 1940s.) Peta demurs. Peter goes off into battle -- and gets shot down. And is MIA for three weeks, at which point he strolls out of the jungle and Peta slaps him and says she'll marry him. (And then there's a letter that one of Peter's mates sends to Edmund, which we'll hear about later.) Wedding, wedding night, eventually they go back to England, where there's a fun and exciting reunion with the Pevensies where Peta looks pale and Edmund yells at Peter for sending him that goddamned letter. And then there is a scene where Peter gets all the Narnian Pevensies and Co. together -- including Eustace and Jill; maybe the Professor and Polly, although that might be a little...I don't know -- and talks about Peta and her Narnia. And there is some Peta and Susan stuff, and somehow they decide to go to Peta's Narnia to win it back for her. I have no idea how or why, and this part is a little thin and very exposition-y. I could do flashbacks, I suppose, because I want to cover the Telmarine conquest of Narnia, mark two, somehow. But I'd be more comfortable doing it from Caspian's POV than from Peta's.

Part three is the Pevensies back in Peta's Narnia, and then there is some scurrying around the woods, and somehow they figure out the Telmarines -- meaning Prunaprisma, her son, and Sepaspian, who may or may not have married Prunaprisma (who was living in the Telmarine castle with the Petaverse Pevensies) after taking after Narnia (and I've talked about this bit elsewhere) -- are keeping Caspian alive for...um, reasons of their own? Something to do with the succession? Anyway, he's chained up in a tower somewhere, so of course the answer is to break in and get him. Which they do, of course, and then they all skedaddle back to the woods, where Peta and Caspian have sex and hiss at each other angrily and lovingly. Then they get set on by the members of the Narnian resistance, led by a, uh, familiar face, who are a little (understandably) confused, because everyone is dead and who the hell is this Peter guy, anyway? And why is the High Queen younger? *cough* And then they all go over to the Narnian camp, which is basically a treehouse village. (I HAVE NO WORDS. NO WORDS AT ALL. I JUST WRITE WHAT THE VOICES TELL ME.) Then there is plot, and sex, and they attack the castle, and regain the throne, and there is some confusion where the Pevensies prepare to return to England, and then there is Peter/Caspian/Peta sex. And then the story ends on a more or less happy and recovering Narnia, and the Pevensies returning to England -- or the implication that they may be doomed to wander the Narnian multiverse forever.

ANYWAY, the third section will probably end up being either Peta's POV or Caspian's, maybe Peter's -- I suppose I could do all three, but I'm kind of hesitant to do that. And I want to put in the last days of Narnian before the Telmarines took over again, but I'm not sure where to put that in, and flashbacks are so messy, and I don't think they'd work well anyway. Maybe an interlude between part one and part two?

Er, one may notice that my method of babbling is basically to spit everything out and wait for a reaction.

[ineptshieldmaid.livejournal.com]

I like your babblings, I do.

Hum. does Peta return to England with the other Pevensies?

Peta and Caspian have sex and hiss at each other angrily and lovingly
have I mentioned how much I adore them?

[bedlamsbard.livejournal.com]

Of course not; she stays in Narnia with her husband and her, uh, person she knows who led the resistance (I am trying to be cagy here!) and her country and all those people she has to behead for high treason. And she still has to find her son! This is her place, after all; she has no reason to leave and every reason in the world to stay.

Peta and Caspian are so totally worthy of adoration. *hearts them*

(Oh, the conversations back in England.
Edmund: You slept with Caspian? So did Peter!
*pause*
Peter: Oh, thanks, Ed, tell my wife that I slept with her husband in another world.
Edmund: You married Caspian?
Peta: I slept with him first. You slept with Caspian?
Peter: Not recently.)

[ineptshieldmaid.livejournal.com]

That is a fabulous conversation.

Me, I'm looking forward to getting my Edmund home to Peter. Oh, the awkwardness all round. I suspect Ed's going to have a stroke of mixed nobility and insecurity and tell Peter that he and Caspian were fucking like bunnies in Narnia while Peter was stuck in England studying. Or, alternatively, Edmund will say nothing and spend the rest of his life wondering why Peter turned Caspian down and if Peter would think Edmund unworthy as a king if he found out.

[bedlamsbard.livejournal.com]

Shortly followed, a few beats later, by Eustace staring at Peter and blurting out, "You sleep with men? You slept with Caspian?"
"Would you like to say it a little louder?" Peter says, annoyed. "I don't think my commanding officer heard it over in Suffolk." "And the last time I checked," Edmund adds dryly," Caspian was a man too."

Peter turned Caspian down? Oooh. (Uh, trust me to focus on the relevent parts, here.) My Peter would blink at Edmund, say absently, "At least one of us was getting laid," and then say, "I got called up. I'm shipping out in a week."

[ineptshieldmaid.livejournal.com]

Yup, my Peter turned Caspian down. For various reasons, including
a) My Peter's, well, bi with a statistical preference for woman. Which is FINE, in Narnia. Except I think it was emotionally complicated even there- I suspect he may have cared more about the men. Anyway, when he got back to England, a secondary preference for men becomes a problem, when you're in a 1940s boys boarding school. So I think he had a bit of a sexuality crisis for a while there.
b) Caspian is *screwed up*. I haven't untangled his relationship with Peter, yet, but I doubt his fixation on the High King was any more healthy than his fixation on the Just King.
c) Telmarine attitudes to sexuality are at odds with Golden Age attitudes. Telmarines accept m/m sex, but only in a pederastic set-up. There's always either an age or power imbalance, possibly both. That's what Caspian knows and understands, and as far as I can tell at this stage, he offered himself as Peter's catamite. (Dr Cornelius will have very sharp words with him about this. And then Susan will force him onto the dance floor and threaten to strangle him with her bowstring if he doesn't leave Peter alone- all while smiling and curtseying and dancing him around the place.) Anyway, I suspect that Golden Age Peter would've found that power imbalance repulsive, and English Peter is just reminded of screwed up boarding-school antics.

At any rate, Peter told Caspian that that sort of thing does not befit a King of Narnia. Which didn't help with Caspian's screwed-upped-ness at all.

[bedlamsbard.livejournal.com]

Huuuuuh. *intrigued*

[ineptshieldmaid.livejournal.com]

*I'm* intrigued. It's not like I work these things out in advance- I think of something, and then they react to it, and then I have to figure out WHY, and then they react to THAT... It's fabulous and fascinating. But it does mean my earlier stuff doesn't have the same depth as the later. Edmund, particularly, shifted an awful lot in the space of two fics.

[bedlamsbard.livejournal.com]

Oh, I know what you mean. The Peter of "In Constellated Wars" is a whole lot crazier than the Peter of "Long Forgotten Wars", and there's a big difference between Caspian in "In Constellated Wars" and "Long Forgotten Wars", despite the fact that they, uh, take place within about twenty-four hours of each other.

[ineptshieldmaid.livejournal.com]

Grr. And I just don't know what I'm doing with Edmund and Caspian. I think I need to sit down and figure out what they each need to learn (although I'm fairly sure Caspian DOESN'T learn his lesson, whatever it is, because I have an overlapping plot with Ramandu's Daughter, and he's twice as useless there. A good king, but crap at human interaction). *Grumbles, stomps her way around* And the story keeps sprawling out all over the place, Heroes and Queens and my VOTD stuff have gone into a nosedive spiral so that what I write for one gives rise to a new plot in the other.

OH AND I JUST REALISED I HAVE TO MARRY LUCY OFF. Despite swearing never, ever, ever to put Lucy in a sexualised situation. Lucy has to marry, and she has to marry Corin.

[bedlamsbard.livejournal.com]

And don't we all know what that's like. *bemused* Meanwhile, I have come up against the block that's stopped me writing a lot of fic: without very much trouble at all (probably), I could file the identification numbers off "Be Like Water" and make it an original novel. It's certainly going to be long enough. *sigh* (The only way I get the other stuff done is because I kindly tell myself it won't be that long. If I'd realized that "In Constellated Wars" was going to be around the 40K mark I probably wouldn't have written it. I keep stalling on "Old Timber" because I think it's going to be around the same length.)

*raises eyebrows* Are we going AU here?

[ineptshieldmaid.livejournal.com]

Ahaha, at least I get to write mine in 2-4000 word bites and pretend that's it. Sucks to be you :P

No, no AU. Corin is the younger brother, not the one who marries Aravis. Lune and Cor, much as they love him, need him out of Archenland so that he can't be a focus of dissent. And I've got this problem in Narnia, which is that I've defined Narnian attitudes to sex as dominated by the Talking Beasts: they don't care who you screw around with, as long as you produce children. The Four have not been producing children, and it's starting to damage their control. The Beasts have always had a weird thing about Lucy: they revere Peter and will follow him anywhere in battle, but you get the idea they really think it's Lucy who's the High Queen.

At any rate, they've been making noises about heirs for years, but Susan's the only one interested in marriage, really. Unfortunately for her, she's nearly wiped herself off the marriage market by insisting, especially after the Rabadash fiasco, on a matrilocal marriage. Oh, and there's the fact that she's known to be sexually active- and Edmund was using that for a while, making her seduce various people for his own spy-like reasons.

The Beasts bring a deputation to the court in which they basically put their paws, hooves and claws down and say "you have to give us an heir, and it has to be Queen Lucy's child". Peter is one part miffed and one part protective of Lu, and suggests he marry instead. The Beasts look bemused and explain that if Peter brings in a wife, no one will ever be *quite* sure that the child is his, but you always know who a child's mother is. Peter bristles to the defence of the honour of his unknown wife, but Lucy, who accepts immediately that she must do whatever the Beasts ask of her, drops a little bombshell and reveals that the country all think High King Peter is infertile. Which is a reasonable assumption, given that he's been screwing around and producing no bastard offspring.

So we need a husband for Lucy, one who will accept a matrilocal marriage to a woman who rides around fighting bandits. The Beasts have done their groundwork- they nominate Prince Corin, pointing out the advantages to Archenland of settling him in Narnia, and pointing out that he's descended from King Frank and Queen Helen, so he's a good stud line for their Queen. They're Taking Beasts, they do actually use the word stud. Peter is horrified, that's his baby sister they're talking about. Susan and Edmund see the logic pretty quickly. Lucy gets word of another pirate raid, further up the coast, and is flinging on her armour and racing off, leaving orders for Susan and Edmund to arrange talks with Archenland.

As Su and Ed are sitting down wondering how to go about broaching the subject, word comes that a deputation from Archenland has just crossed the border. Turns out the Beasts of Narnia spoke to the Beasts of Archenland and they spoke to Lune who has sent Aravis at the head of an embassy to arrange the marriage of Prince Corin and Queen Lucy.

Corin doesn't get told until he returns from his expedition into the western mountains of Archenland, fighting giants. He figures this will mean he can stay in Narnia and fight more giants. Also he thinks Queen Lucy is a plucky sort, almost as good as a boy.

At the moment, with the timeline I set up in 'The Education of Aravis', I could wangle it so the marriage never actually happens- the Four disappear back into the wardrobe during a progress around the kingdom to show future Prince Consort Corin to the people. Or I could actually have her married, and possibly give her a baby, which would mean Corin inherits Narnia after they vanish. And naturally he sucks at being King of Narnia, and everything goes to shit.

[bedlamsbard.livejournal.com]

Huh, yeah, that makes sense. (Ahahahaha everyone thinks Peter's infertile. Now that's hilarious. Also, poor Susan.)

It's always interesting to see how other people's Narnias differ from mine. (Well. Then there's the point that I don't actually read other people's Narnias, generally speaking, because it hurts my brian too much.) See, in my Narnia, the Rabadash fiasco happened more or less the same year the Pevensies vanished; Peter comes back from fighting the giants ("These Last Golden Days of Summer") and then there's an interlude of a week or a month or so, and then they vanish. Then everything goes to hell. Of course, my Pevensies were holding Corin as a ward as Cair Paravel as insurance against Lune invading Narnia, so Corin promptly went back to Archenland, which held off invading for a while, at which point everyone else had invaded.

Wait, we were talking about lines of succession. *cough* All the Pevensies had failed engagements, and Peter was supposed to be cursed because of the seven failed engagements. My Edmund had an affair with a married woman and fathered a daughter, though. They were both murdered after the Pevensies disappeared.

[ineptshieldmaid.livejournal.com]

Ahaha your Narnia is so much more screwed up than mine. I can see why you don't read other peoples' Narnias- you've got enough headaches there with yours.

my Pevensies were holding Corin as a ward as Cair Paravel as insurance against Lune invading Narnia
I think mine are too. Not necessarily expecting it, but hedging their bets. Good ole Germanic fostering system.

Part of the Lucy/Corin deal will be that the eldest sons and daughters of all future marriages in the House of Narnia be fostered in Archenland, and vice-verse. The Pevensies know Archenland is their only buffer against Calormen, and Archenland don't want to find themselves sandwitched between Calormen and Narnia.

In my mind, the Kings of Archenland attempt to hold Narnia for a while, but eventually lose out to Calormen. There's a Calormene empire for a while, which overstretches itself and then collapses making way for the Telmarine expansion across Narnia and out into the Bight. Only then *they* collapse, and the Islands rebel and take themselves back, and everything gets very confusing. I think the mother state of Telmare collapses. My Drinian is a Tello-Calormene pirate hailing originally from Galma, which makes my head hurt.

Er, yes. Everyone thinking Peter's infertile is going to be very very funny. It may give him a complex, though. Which may feed into his England-induced sexuality crisis. Poor Peter.

Oh, and no one even suggests Edmund marry. They respect him, and trust his judgement, but they don't love him. No one ever says it, because Peter would go ape, but they don't want the Traitor's get on the throne. Talking Beasts have long memories...

[bedlamsbard.livejournal.com]

Your Narnia is more peaceful, though! My Narnia has political and rebellion problems from the inside (the White Witch's followers, the destonified ex-community leaders, the ones who just don't like one or another of the Pevensies for whatever reason...) and then outside problems, mostly because I invented four countries and stuck them on the western border. Four hostile countries. And then I made Archenland and Narnia mortal enemies. *cough* Narnia has a very legitimate reason to hold Corin...after all, they only got him because Peter got sick of Lune's pussyfooting around their ten or twenty truces and the next time Archenlanders came over the Narnian border unannounced, Peter was waiting. With an army and a bad temper.

I told you my Narnian history during the Dying Times and Great Autumn, didn't I?

My Telmarines were seagoing for a while, but about two hundred, a hundred-and-fifty years before PC, the saltwater Narnians (ocean-creatures -- mermaids, oceanids and nereids, finfolk, nix, selkies, etc. -- yeah, we can tell what I've been writing recently) threw a fit or staged a rebellion or something, along with their cousins the freshwater Narnians (rusalka, naiads, banshees, I don't want to Wikipedia stuff but you get the general idea, etc.), and some of the last remaining talking trees and dryads, and that's why the Telmarines are terrified of one, the forests, and two, the sea. Because at one point Telmarine Narnia did stretch to the seacoast, and then something...happened. (At some point I really need to work out my Telmarine Narnia timelines to figure out what happened. I know what happened during the Dying Times, but during and after the Conquest...)

I'll be curious to see what you think of "The Bone's Prayer", the in-progress fic where we see some of the Narnians that didn't answer the call.

[ineptshieldmaid.livejournal.com]

I'm not sure if you out-and-out told me your Dying Times/Great Autumn, but I have a fairly good idea.

AH. Yes. That's a good explanation. I was wondering why my Narnian-Telmarines were afraid of the sea, since the Telmarine stock from which Drinian comes clearly weren't. Mind if I borrow your water-creature theory? Not sure if it will ever come up (it might. I think we're going to get a long conversation between Drinian and someone at some stage which will fill in some of the history. And teach Edmund and or Lucy the word I 'catamite'. Oh, won't that be joy and fun?)

I'm sure I'll think the same thing of The Bone's Prayer as I do of everything else: damn, you think too much :P.

[bedlamsbard.livejournal.com]

Huh. There's a chunk of it here (http://bedlamsbard.livejournal.com/280372.html?thread=1742900#t1742900) (third paragraph, second one is Telmarine political problems during the Golden Age) that I babbled to realpestilence.

Go for it! I'm trying to figure out how to work them in, because we don't see them during PC (not that the salty Narnians would be any use inland, but the freshwater Narnians sure would have been), and by VotDT it becomes pretty clear that the merfolk, at least, have left Narnian rule a long friggin' time ago. Also, why they didn't attack the Telmarines that crossed the channel between Cair Paravel and the mainland. Oh, lordy. (Actually, the basic answer is that they don't spend a lot of time near the mainland; they don't have to, except for a few of them like the selkies. They have some limited correspondence with the very, very few Narnians who live in the eastern seaboard, and the reason that there are so few is that the Narnians are very nearly as scared of the east and the sea as the Telmarines, they just hide it better. Cair Paravel is haunted, the Burning really did happen, and the freshwater and saltwater Narnians are no friend to the inland (stony? sandy?) Narnians, no more than they are to the Telmarines. All they share is reverence of the Pevensies; they very occasionally visit the ruins of Cair Paravel to leave offerings there. (Things I learned in my Greek history class! I think it's kind of awesome and want to steal it.) But they're terrified of Cair Paravel; they're also the only Narnians who go there.)

[ineptshieldmaid.livejournal.com]

P.S.- entirely unrelated, but I borrowed an idea of yours. The one about executions by the monarch's own hand.

[bedlamsbard.livejournal.com]

And I borrowed it from George R.R. Martin, in the best tradition of fannish inspiration!

Your Narnia is slightly more realistic than mine, I think. We only see mine when Peter's off slaughtering things. *thoughtful*

[ineptshieldmaid.livejournal.com]

What I have in realism I lack in coherent planning. Although I have started pencilling things in on my map, getting all pissed off at the location of the various islands, and I spent hours the other night learning heraldic terms to describe the shields of the Four. But at least you know where you're going, or you don't post until you have a whole story arc set out. I have an ending for my VOTD fic, but I'm really stuck for a middle and if I don't think of some plot soon we're going to get horribly bogged down in character exposition.

[bedlamsbard.livejournal.com]

AHAHAHAHA. That sound you just heard? Is my hysterical laughter. Really, I'm just making this up as I go along, although I mostly draw the line at posting WIPs because, uh, if you go back in my journal far enough, then we see the CSI:NY fics I posted a chapter a day, and that was mystery plot, and that's bad to make up as you go along. I mean, I do (sort of) have an over-arching thematic arc, I think, maybe (or maybe not, who knows at this point?), but that's really developed as I posted stuff, and a lot of my earlier stuff doesn't have the depth of the later stuff because I hadn't had the background set up yet. Some days I dream of going back to "Long Forgotten Wars" or "Once More for the Ages" and doing things with them, although I'm not exactly sure what.

Of course, "In Constellated Wars" did wonders for my characterization. *winces* And my brain.