wip tease

[bedlamsbard]

Because now I have a few things on the books, and maybe coming up with this will jumpstart me into finishing one of them. Ha, as if>.



A Legend's Not a Legend Till It Ends
The one where... we see Peter's POV during "Once More for the Ages."
Current wordcount: 560
Projected wordcount: 5K.
Stalled at: The fact that I want to finish the half page of blank space left in my notebook before I start writing it completely on the computer.
It's completely awesome because... Peter is mentally stable. (That shouldn't be as much of an up point as it is, should it?)
Tease:

Away from the raucous celebration that will probably haunt the court for days to come – until the inevitable brutal bloodshed begins, of course; that’s a given, though Peter doubts anyone else has realized it – Narnia is quiet and peaceful. He’s alone for the first time since leaving England; he’d sent the guard on this tower away.

Despite the still muggy heat, there’s a faint chill lingering in the air, promise of the end of summer and the autumn yet to come. It’s oddly appropriate. Summer had been ending when they left Narnia the last time too. Maybe their summer will always be ending.

Be Like Water
The one where... Peter is a girl and Aslan doesn't show up during PC.
Current wordcount: 1,064 in the Word doc, with another 8,886 in my KeyNote folder (mostly porn)
Projected wordcount: Way more than I care to think about, thank you very much. Probably around 100K.
Stalled at: The canon/AU break in the PC movie, a.k.a. the castle battle.
It's completely awesome because... Peta/Caspian, man. Peta/Caspian.
Tease:

“Take one step towards that door and I’ll hit you over the head with my sword and leave you here for Miraz to find,” Peta says flatly. “It’s a little thing called a plan, Caspian. It’s generally considered a good idea to stick to it.”

Caspian stares at her. “You couldn’t,” he says. She’s tall for a woman, but still half a head smaller than him, and there’s no way she can beat him with a sword. A legend is a legend, but Peta is just a girl.

“Yes,” she says. “I could. I’d rather not do so, but I could, and if you make me, I will.”

Dust in the Air
The one where... Narnia gets conquered by the Calormenes, Tirian, Eustace, and Jill end up hiding out in the woods with bands of very irate Narnian refugees/rebels, and someone summons the Pevensies back to Narnia.
Current wordcount: 4,331 in the Word doc, with another miscellaneous 791 in my KeyNote folder from when I just thought I was doing snippets.
Projected wordcount: 40K-50K. I live in hope.
Stalled at: Well, an action plot would probably be a good thing to have.
It's completely awesome because... it's how Lewis should have ended the series, and also, the Pevensies in the Narnian mythos.
Tease:

He doesn't recognize the man who comes in, but he recognizes the sword. The blade is blood-streaked, but the runes are practically glowing, and the rubies in the golden lion's head gleam.

"How dare --" he begins automatically, throat in his heart from horror, because no one uses that sword, no one ever uses that sword, and then Eustace bursts out, "Peter?"

"Lieutenant Pevensie?" Jill adds while Eustace is still getting out the last syllable, and she sounds shocked and surprised.

Abruptly, Tirian recognizes him. It's been five years, but the vision he had is burned into his mind, and he can see this man now, rising from the table with a face like stone. I am Peter the High King.

Old Timber to New Fires
The one where... Caspian ends up in the Golden Age.
Current wordcount: 15, 279
Projected wordcount: 30K-40K.
Stalled at: Internal timeline and structural issues. How long Caspian's with the army camp at the Belgarine border. What exactly is going on with Peter. What exactly is going down at Cair Paravel.
It's completely awesome because... it's Caspian in the Golden Age, and Narnia at the height of her power.
Tease:

Caspian turns back to the center of the room, where there is a table with two men leaning against it. One is dark and one is fair; the fair one has streaks of charcoal blackening his hair and his cheeks. The dark one is seemingly the younger; the fair one looks to be Caspian’s own age. Both wear leather surcoats without insignia; both bear swords.

Caspian knows them. Knows them younger, knows them harder, knows them as something other than what they are here. Seeing them is a sick shock to the pit of his stomach, because they shouldn’t be here.

“You know who I am?” the fair man asks.

Caspian nods, mouth gone dry and stale with fear. “High King Peter,” he says. Broader in the shoulders, a little more muscular, another inch or so in height, but the same hands, the same face, the same eyes. Utterly cold, or so it had always seemed to him, and without a single drop of human kindness in them. He can’t think of anyone more likely to execute him out of hand.

Till Human Voices Wake Us
The one where... the Narnian Army suffers its worst defeat of the Golden Age at the Caves of Angrisla.
Current wordcount: 10,655
Projected wordcount: 20K-25K.
Stalled at: External timeline issues and internal structural issues. A subplot or two that need to be added. POV issues.
It's completely awesome because... of the Royal Guard. And the Pevensies in the first year of their reign trying so hard.
Tease:

“Narnia!” someone shouts, farther back, where Peter can hear the clang of steel on steel. “Narnia and the High –”

This time there is no scream; the words end abruptly.

“Run!” This is Dugan; Peter recognizes his voice with the same cool clarity that came on him in the battle against the White Witch. Things seem to be slowing down around him, separating into their component parts. He categorizes: dwarf, leopard, dog, cat, bat, jaguar, stranger, enemy.

“Get the High King out of here!” With a grunt of exertion preceding the ugly sound of steel carving into flesh, Dugan screams his warning again, “Get the High King out of here! Into the caves!”

The fighting is suddenly very close. Peter knows the instant his guard stops herding him, because the press of solid bodies against his legs and hips is gone and the air fills with the sound of growling beats and tearing flesh, punctuated by the high-pitched screams of the wounded.

the immortal!Susan/resurrected!Peter story
The one where... Susan stopped aging as soon as she reached the same age she'd left Narnia at, and in 2008 is an FBI agent when someone resurrects Peter for mysterious purposes.
Current wordcount: who knows? scattered across comments in my and lassiterfics's LJs.
Projected wordcount: 20K-30K.
Stalled at: The title thing, actually; I have a plot.
Completely awesome because... what, the words "immortal!Susan" and "resurrected!Peter" aren't enough?
Tease:

"Susan," Peter whispers from the door, and Susan rolls over to see him wide awake, standing with his hand clenched tightly on the doorframe. Behind him, the sitting room is lit up as brightly as day.

Peter looks terrified, and desperate, and more than a little bit mad. "Come here," Susan says, throwing back the sheets and reaching over to turn on the bedside lamp.

He doesn't say anything, but his expression is desperately, starkly grateful as he comes over, leaving the door open behind him, and crawls into bed with her.

"Come here," Susan says again, careful to speak in Narnian and not English -- she's not even certain that Peter remembers more than a few words of English, especially not in the state he's in, the last traces of the drugs still filtering their way out of his body.

Peter is shaking when she puts her arms around him, a faint but distinct tremor, but he hugs her back, holding on so tightly and yet so gently that Susan thinks she might crack from it. She kisses his forehead and leaves the lights on.

the Batman crossover
The one where... Special Agents Peter and Susan Pevensie come to Gotham to investigate the Batman Problem. Sequel to the immortal!Susan/resurrected!Peter story.
Current wordcount: 3,300
Projected wordcount: 20K.
Stalled at: The fact the first story isn't done, the untitled bit, the resolution of the action plot, and the emotional plot.
It's completely awesome because... hi, Peter/Bruce. Do we really need to say more?
Tease:

"Do you like keeping secrets, Agent Pevensie?" Bruce drawls. It's a harmless question, could mean anything. It doesn't, of course, but it could.

Pevensie doesn't bat an eye. Doesn't blink. Doesn't even flinch. Doesn't look up, either. "Do you like being one, Mr. Wayne?"

And there's a flutter of the old familiar fear in the pit of his stomach, but his breathing doesn't speed up, he doesn't blink -- there's no tell at all. He's trained that out of himself. Bruce smiles pleasantly. "What do you mean by that?" he says, good-natured confusion coloring the words.

the possessed-by-the-White-Witch!Peter story
The one where... Peter gets possessed by the White Witch (in case y'all didn't guess that).
Current wordcount: 379
Projected wordcount: 10K-15K.
Stalled at: No title, no plot.
It's completely awesome because... the White Witch is always pretty awesome. And Edmund, too.
Tease:

"Don't be such a baby, Ed," Peter says, and he sounds like Peter, even though Edmund knows he's not, because Peter would never do this. It's not Peter's style at all, even if -- it's not Peter. He knows those eyes.

Peter takes a step closer, and Edmund can't back up anymore, so what he gets is his brother's body pressed against him. Peter's all hard muscle, everything unneccessary burned away in a decade's worth of killing and fighting and spilling blood for Narnia. The hands that slide into Edmund's and splay them out against the wall are narrow-fingered and calloused in familiar places from holding swords and axes and bows and shields and a country. He smells like Peter -- wine and steel and the tang of armor oil and something that's indisputably Narnia, earth and fire and blood mixed up into one faintly spicy whole.

The White Witch had smelled like ice and snow and sugar.

"Leave my brother out of this," he says desperately. "It's me you want, isn't it?"

The one where... Narnia makes her needs VERY CLEAR, Peter and Edmund sleep together, and Edmund betrays Narnia, only not really.

The one where... Edmund ends up in the early days of the Long Winter.

The one where... Peter goes missing from Narnia, a man named Breakneck joins the Red Company, and Natare invades Narnia.

The one where... Peter goes missing from Lasci and Edmund and Lucy go to investigate.

The one where... Peter, Eomer, Gandalf, and the Narnian army arrive at Helm's Deep.

The one where... some of the Narnians at the How still remember the Deep Magic. (a PC story)

The one where... Peter and Edmund find out what happened during the Dying Times. (a PC story)

The one where... Peter and Susan go out dancing and Peter gets into fights with soldiers. (a post-PC story)

The one where... Christopher Chant meets Peter Pevensie, and then discovers Narnia. (a post-PC story)



Okay, I think that was everything.

Comments

[elucreh.livejournal.com]

It's amazing how incredibly excited this list makes me.

[bedlamsbard.livejournal.com]

Heh. I'm kind of pleased with it myself.

[franceica.livejournal.com]

This list makes me excited, too! Very, very excited. I can't even decide which one I wish you'd finish first. Currently probably Dust in the Air, because Pevensies in LB is just too awesome. *whimpers*

[bedlamsbard.livejournal.com]

Pevensies make everything awesome.

[franceica.livejournal.com]

Yes, yes. I wholeheartedly agree with you. They do make everything awesome.

[bedlamsbard.livejournal.com]

And awesome is sincerely needed here. Narnian culture consumed by the Telmarines! (I mean, some things remain, but not the big things. Like, they don't live out in the woods anymore, except for now, but that's kind of a different situation.)

[lyamainu.livejournal.com]

I feel like a kid who just snuck into the closet and caught sight of her christmas presents!

[bedlamsbard.livejournal.com]

I guarantee nothing, although I hold out hope for the titled WIPs and the two PC faux WIPs. I think I could finish "Till Human Voices Wake Us" before November. *thoughtful* Haven't looked at it in an age and a half, though.

[lassiterfics.livejournal.com]

ooh, i like this meme. i have the calormen fic, the white stag fic, an assassination attempt on edmund fic, aaaand i think that's it maybe. i have this edmund&susan fic post-lww that was one of the first narnia things i wrote but nothing happens in it and it's kind of inconsequential and fluffy, so it just kind of sits on my hard drive, gathering dust. i have this image of peter taking photographs of susan, though i have no idea what this accomplishes.

for serious, "till human voices wake us" is awesome and i look forward to it being finished. it's got good build-up and compelling OCs, it's moving, it has these flashes of humor.

i look forward, too, to the possessed by the witch story OF COURSE.

and it looks like i missed out on the initial flail of your LB AU, but keep that up. (narnian myth and pevensies in narnia once more ftw!)

PETER AND SUSAN GO OUT DANCING AND THINGS GO HORRIBLY WRONG <33333333

[bedlamsbard.livejournal.com]

"Till Human Voices Wake Us" is so not going to be the title of that story. (Well. Unless I go back to Plan A, where the story gets told in flashbacks while Susan and Edmund try and figure out how to wake up Peter, who's in a coma.) That title's likely getting transferred either to immortal!Susan or possessed!Peter. It works for both of them.

You missed out on some serious drama! And denial. Although I wasn't as in denial with this one as I was with the Petaverse; of course, this one comes with a built-in plot and my preprogrammed desire to fix what Lewis has done wrong. (oh my god, the peter/susan/edmund is bleeding into the lb au. susan is kind of awesome here, despite the fact that edmund and lucy both hate her and peter's actually kind of envious of her ability to turn her back on narnia. but i'm convinced that peter is sleeping with edmund, and they both may have been sleeping with susan at some point. not that this is coming out in the text; that's what subtext is for!)

Peter and Susan get arrested and Edmund has to come bail them out. Horribly wrong indeed. I just haven't done any research into the early 1940s club scene in London, or if there even was a club scene in London during THE WAR. This may or may not be the same story where Susan puts makeup on Peter. No. No, I don't know at all what's wrong with my brain.

[lassiterfics.livejournal.com]

subtext is my favorite game! scenes with three of them all glaring at each other, wrong words and burnt bridges?! confrontations and conversations that End Badly?! there is no space here for the past except it is all they have! in other words: my name is lassiter and i approve this flail!

have you checked out hp_britglish? i've asked for info there about the 1940s UK for narnia fic lotsa times, 'cept i don't mention it's for a non-HP fic. not that anyone will check whether it is or not.

[bedlamsbard.livejournal.com]

I'm probably going to get called on my characterization by someone here, but this may be the one and only story where Peter is forced into the peacemaker position, because Edmund and Lucy are brutally, viciously angry at Susan (to the extent where Peter puts them in front and keeps Susan in the back, because he doesn't want them behind Susan) and make bitter noises about executing traitors while Susan stays quiet and white-knuckled and sticks to Peter.

And then there are the scenes where Edmund's dying in Peter's arms.

Hmm, I have not. I shall have to look into it.

[lassiterfics.livejournal.com]

haha i don't think it's out of character for peter at all. there could totally have been times during his reign when it was desirable and even necessary for a high king - not just edmund or susan - to step in as arbiter, prevent things from going apeshit. he wasn't just hacking things with swords 24/7, eh?

[bedlamsbard.livejournal.com]

Well, out of character in the sense that he was actually more or less fine with Susan turning away from Narnia. There's a scene where he's talking to Edmund -- well, where Edmund drags him off to demand to know why Peter's just fine with Susan, when Susan's a traitor to them and to Narnia -- and Peter points out,

"No," the High King corrects. "She believed. You don't try to forget something that never happened. And can you blame her for it, Ed?"

"Yes," Edmund says viciously.

"I don't," Peter replies. "I almost envy her it."

Edmund takes half a step forward, then stops. "Pete, you'd never --"

"No," Peter says. "No, I wouldn't. But it's different for me. I couldn't walk away from Narnia if I wanted. You don't know what it's like, Ed. I could live every hour of every day of the rest of my life in England, and for every minute of it I'd still be a foreigner, still be an exile, still be a refugee. There's nothing I can do to change that, whether I want it or not. And there are days I've wanted it. I'd ask if you knew what it's like to be a stranger in your birth-country, but I know you do. And I know that for you, it eventually went away. Not for me. Maybe not for Susan; I don't know. We haven't talked. But I do know that if I hadn't had the war to distract me, I would have gone insane. I thought about it, you know," he adds, lips quirking a little. "But it wasn't a very attractive prospect. And I had the war."

"Pete," Edmund says, his face twisting, and reaches out for his brother, the movement oddly clumsy for such a graceful man. The High King turns his face into his brother's palm. The moment is so tender, so personal, that Tirian feels the heat rise to his cheeks watching.

"It's all right, you know," Peter says, his voice gentle. "I figured out a long time ago that we don't remember the same ways."

*shamelessly drops chunk of fic on you, with bonus Peter/Edmund subtext*

[lassiterfics.livejournal.com]

HOW SHAMELESS, YOU SHAMELESS HUSSY

ZOMG LASSITER/SUBTEXT OTPPPPPPP
lassiter/foreignerinyourowncountry BFFL
i'll be right here, waving encouraging pompoms.

[bedlamsbard.livejournal.com]

YOU COME TO N'AWLINS, YOU LOSE ALL YOUR SHAME. WAIT TILL MARDI GRAS.

(...oh, god, I don't want to know what kind of fic is going to come out of Mardi Gras. Or Halloween. New Orleans! Everything is a production.)

[burntcopper.livejournal.com]

Club scene during the war? MASSIVE. Seriously. Everyone's reaction to the bombs dropping on them was to dance til they dropped, and have sex whenever possible - you just need to hear the stories some of them tell. The 60s girls think they were wild. Nothing on their mothers. (one tale I love from the war period was the frequency of the lover dropping by to find their girlfriend in bed with their husband who was home on leave...) The sheer amount of bigamy alone during WW2 was damn impressive.

[bedlamsbard.livejournal.com]

Sweeeeeeet.

Of course, now I have to figure out how to hook Peter up with soldiers. Yeah, I'm just trying for...I don't even know what I'm trying for here, man.

[burntcopper.livejournal.com]

:cough: also very, very easy during the war years. You had to be quiet, but... lots of underground (sometimes literally) clubs. Soho. Which has been notorious as the gay (and sleaze, and prostitutes, and writers) mecca of London throughout the 20th century. Not to mention a bunch of the private clubs? They used to actively hit on the waiters and bar staff.

Gimme a sec and I can scrounge up the links I have

http://www.lgbtheritage.org/
http://www.infopt.demon.co.uk/gayhist.htm

[bedlamsbard.livejournal.com]

Whoo! Yay, thank you.

[burntcopper.livejournal.com]

heh. I aim to please. Your one-stop shop for obscure stuff on military and war-era...

[realpestilence.livejournal.com]

Have you ever read anything by Mary Renault? She's well-known for her books about ancient Greece, and Alexander in particular. If not, and you like history, she's a great writer!

She wrote a WWII novel called The Charioteer, following a set of gay British soldiers/sailors. There's some of the time period's "blame it on mommy if her little boy is queer" thinking; but it's very romantic and develops the 2 main characters wonderfully. There's a touch of that "club" scene to it, or at least the gay underground where everyone knew everyone and put up with each other's exes at private parties because of solidarity,etc. Very good period feel to the writing.

[sevter.livejournal.com]

Oh wow *looks at list*

I'm hoping you'll write the one where the Narnians remember Deep Magic (Wars 'verse? After the executions?) or the Batman crossovers or where Caspian ended up in the Golden Ages or the Caves of Angrisla or...actually anything where Peter is being especially angsty and/or bloodthirsty. I love soldier!Peter.

Wait wait...we have *Peter/Bruce*??? *groans* That pairing ought to be interesting at least...

[bedlamsbard.livejournal.com]

The caves of Angrisla is wee!Peter, less than a year into his reign. It would be cute if it wasn't so traumatizing. (This is before he got scary.)

*nods* Peter/Bruce. Because Peter likes screwing with people for kicks, and Bruce is trying to keep his secrets.

[katharos-8.livejournal.com]

Peter and Susan go out dancing and Peter gets into fights with soldiers.

Oh! Oh! The could visit the Windmill! A theatre in London whose acts featured motionless female nudes because the owner, Mrs Henderson, convinced the Lord Chamberlain that if he didn't condemn nude statues he couldn't condemn her girls. Their motto was 'We Never Closed.' (And there is an awesome film called Mrs Henderson Presents starring Dame Judi Dench.) *pimps*

*cough*

I-I admit to staring at the words 'Last Battle AU' and drooling.

[bedlamsbard.livejournal.com]

Oooh. *google*

Apparently everyone looks at the words "Last Battle AU" and drools. *sad*

[westingturtle.livejournal.com]

I leave the internet for a weekend and when I come back, the Last Battle AU exists. It has a title! Thank you various Pevensie demigod-type-people!

[bedlamsbard.livejournal.com]

It has a title and 5300 words. I weep for my lost sanity.

[caramelsilver.livejournal.com]

Again, I repeat my comment that you seem like a machine! Don't your mind ever rest? Not that I mind, at all! All of this is so many levels above normal awesome. I have admit that I'm liking the LB AU the best. Like others said... drooling. Also the immortal!Susan and resurrected!Peter story is going to be so cool! (If I flail any more I think I'd dislocate my shoulders or something)

[bedlamsbard.livejournal.com]

Not really, no. *sheepish* But just because it's up here doesn't mean it's going to be done -- "Till Human Voices Wake Us" was begun in July and was one of the earliest stories begun (at the same time as "Once More for the Ages", actually), and "Old Timber for New Fires" was begun just after "In Constellated Wars" was finished, and those are the two oldest WIPs.

[burntcopper.livejournal.com]

:sigh: I want all of them now. Does that make me a bad person?

But Old Timber. I didn't realise how much I wanted it until you posted the fact that the Pevensies are harder in PC than they were back then, and Caspian's never seen someone so likely to execute him. Damn you.

:strokes Last Battle AU:

Nanananananana ALFRED!

[bedlamsbard.livejournal.com]

I am kind of fascinated with the fact that the Pevensies in "Old Timber" are younger than they were when Caspian met them in PC, yet about ten years older physically. (There's about a ninety percent chance that the title's going to change, by the way; I think that might be one of the stopping points on why the story's not done yet.)

*sigh* "Old Timber" has to be about three times longer than it is, and what there is has to be massively rewritten. THIS WAS SUPPOSED TO BE A THROWAWAY FIC.

[burntcopper.livejournal.com]

There, there. that's what I said about some of my bigger fics. 'it's a cute snippet of them waking up and going 'oh my god I ended up in bad with you?' Several thousand later....

[bedlamsbard.livejournal.com]

Personally, I feel my best example is "Dust." It's just going to be a couple of scenes...! ...or not. And the Petaverse. It's just going to be random porn! ...or not.

Of course, "Old Timber" was supposed to be Peter/Caspian, but ha, like that's going to happen at this point, Peter's too screwed up.