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.