a miscellany

[bedlamsbard]

I have not written Peter POV for some time, and I forgot how much easier it is to write Peter than it is to write anybody else, if only because Peter doesn't, a, notice EVERYTHING, or, b, overanalyze like some people do. (EDMUND PEVENSIE I'M LOOKING AT YOU. ALSO SUSAN AND TIRIAN. AND CASPIAN.)

And, of course, I suppose I know Peter best, so there is that. And I just wrote seven hundred words of fight scene; I like those. I'm one of the few writers I know who likes writing fight scenes, but whatever. Except there's a possibility I get too bogged down by details; perhaps I should have Peter get distracted by someone else trying to kill him in the middle of his fight when he's had his sword knocked out of his hand and is trying to kill a flail-wielding centaur with a succession of knives that aren't making a dent on the centaur at all. Oh, yes, and he's on horseback too.

Hi, my name is Bedlam, and I like my Pevensies homicidal, wounded, bloody, and deadly.

Hmm, on a non-related note (although I suppose it's related in that I am trying to find a way to somehow get Caspian around just to bitchslap Tirian, but Caspian is kind of extremely dead at the moment and it would probably kill Tirian were he to meet any more of his legends, even if he is related to this one), anyone else think that Jared Padelecki was looking particularly Caspian-like a couple eps back in "Metamorphosis"? Or was it just me?

Obviously this got me started thinking on how long the royal family would have actually looked pretty Telmarine before, three hundred years down the line, we get Tirian and his red hair and blue eyes. (DAMN YOU LEWIS. I wanted him to have green eyes. *sulks* Occasionally I do listen to what the books say, you know. And regard it, even.) And which of Caspian's descendants (or ancestors?) Jared Padalecki would be. Look, I am a shallow duckling.

Y'all are lucky I generally have a more or less "don't post for twenty-four hours after a story goes up" policy; you missed out on what probably would have been two or three whining, bitching, and moaning posts about College and Life. I am over it now! Mostly. Now I'm sulking about not having close-toed black shoes to wear to ushering tonight; my only black shoes are my Tolo/prom shoes, and I suppose they'll have to do. I lucked out and snagged an ushering slot tonight for Tulane's performance of "The Arabian Nights", which I have to see for Theatre Arts. I get tech hours and a free show.

*eyes Dust warily* I'll panic when it passes "In Constellated Wars" in length. I haven't compiled Constellated into a single document, but I think it tops out at around 40K. Dust? Not there yet, but oh, it could. I'm nearly at the point where I'm going to have to jump and decide if we're going for a relatively quick PC-type resolution or a long, drawn out, bloody struggle a la ASoIaF. Because it could go either way. (Although if we go the latter way we get Susan negotiating with pirates and Edmund hobnobbing with Cair Paravel criminals. I would be tempted for that alone if it wouldn't add so much length onto the story.)

Comments

[caramelsilver.livejournal.com]

Deep inside we are all shallow ducklings=)

Edmund hobnobbing with criminals sounds awesome. (Hobnobbing is also a very cool word. I get flashbacks to Thenardier i Les Miserables!)

ASoIaF? What's that?

[bedlamsbard.livejournal.com]

It was originally going to be Peter, but it doesn't actually make logical sense for Peter and not Edmund to be in that position. But it would be awesome. He gets in a lot of fights.

George R.R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire series. It's absolutely fantastic epic fantasy, brutal and amazing and, oh, the worldbuilding. As a fantasy writer, I totally want to be him when I grow up. *g*

[burntcopper.livejournal.com]

:shrug: depends on how strong the star's genes are - you could have blond pale-skinned people within a couple of generations of not marrying Telmarines exclusively. A good one to look at might be the Windsors - all of the older two generations were pale and dark haired, but due to the people Charles, Anne and Andrew marrying having somewhat strong genes, all of this generation are blonds and red-heads.

[bedlamsbard.livejournal.com]

What's amusing (to me, at least) is that the royal family is probably the least Telmarine looking of all the humans (the majority of whom still are Telmarines) three hundred years later. But the royal family is so very, very Telmarine, though they've picked up a few Narnian mannerisms along the way. Maybe that was the Lady of the Green Kirtle's true curse -- if she couldn't conquer Narnia outright the way she wanted to, then she could do it this way. Nearly everything Caspian spent a lifetime fighting for is destroyed by his children -- not the towns, not the castles, not the country, but gradually the Narnians became Telmarines, a little more human.

[burntcopper.livejournal.com]

:ponders: would this be a sticking point amongst the narnians and Telmarines, the fact that the royal family has so little of either blood? (like in the way we quite happily sneer about the Royal family being German occasionally) And the star blood is of course inherently untrustworthy, even if Rilian was actually who he said he was (still disputed).

[bedlamsbard.livejournal.com]

I don't think that, necessarily, the innate foreignness of the royal family is so much an issue, because they're still human. I mean, by Tirian's time, "human" and "Telmarine" are pretty much interchangeable in Narnia. Except -- the royal family isn't entirely human, and I think both the Telmarines and the Narnians would be a little wary about that, depending on how much Caspian said about where his new bride came from. (And it's in his memoirs, so by four generations later everyone knew it anyway; it was Absalian the Blind, Caspian's great-grandson who had Caspian's memoirs published.)

Huh. I wonder if any of the Narnians tried to tie in the White Witch, Ramandu's daughter, and the Lady of the Green Kirtle? Because non-human magical women = not good in Narnia.

[almostinstinct.livejournal.com]

Jared Padalecki ...and Narnia.

THANKS BEDLAM YOU BROKE MY BRAIN.

[bedlamsbard.livejournal.com]

*grins* I do have a reputation to uphold, you know. But. He was looking very Ben Barnes-like in that ep!

[almostinstinct.livejournal.com]

No, seriously. I'm trying to imagine Sam, except in Narnian clothes, and Peter's looking up (and up and up) at him, and probably annoyed that he has to look so far.

[bedlamsbard.livejournal.com]

*snickers*

[burntcopper.livejournal.com]

and contemplating his hands. Boy has *big* hands. With very big axes in them. :cough: would this be winchester-thrown-into-Narnia or Sam has always been narnian?

:pokes the Pevensies and Winchesters: Why did you have to be born half a century apart, dammit?

[bedlamsbard.livejournal.com]

...dude. Dean and Peter throw down.

[burntcopper.livejournal.com]

:ponders: In Narnia or our world?

Tough yeah, I can see Dean coming across Peter when they're tracking something (FBI agent tracking ...stuff, plus the whole fact that the Winchesters were on the FBI lists for a while) and oh, whoops, someone else who knows how to wield an axe and fight to put them down hard and fast...

I can see Sam going 'dude, someone *more* fucked up than Dean?'

[bedlamsbard.livejournal.com]

Either one! Though really, the most likely one is our world, in the immortal!Susan 'verse.

And then Dean and Peter can have a moment of, "What, you were brought back from the dead too?"

You know -- with the current plotline in S4 -- and the jesuslion in Narnia -- maybe --

oh, hell no. The plot bunnies! They lurk just beyond my field of vision!

[ineptshieldmaid.livejournal.com]

Obviously this got me started thinking on how long the royal family would have actually looked pretty Telmarine before, three hundred years down the line, we get Tirian and his red hair and blue eyes. (DAMN YOU LEWIS. I wanted him to have green eyes. *sulks* Occasionally I do listen to what the books say, you know. And regard it, even.)

I should like to point out that you can make Tirian look like whatever the hell you please, since red-hair/blue-eyes is a perfectly logical descendant of blonde-hair/blue-eyes Caspian: you, on the other hand, have movieverse, and can extrapolate in whatever direction you please.

[bedlamsbard.livejournal.com]

The only place (uh, among many, many others) where bookverse thwarts me here is that it specifically says Tirian has blue eyes, and I so wanted him to have green eyes, but that's, uh, on a scale of one to ten, pretty damn minor.

[ineptshieldmaid.livejournal.com]

He could have inconsistent contacts, a la the Pevensie kids :P

[bedlamsbard.livejournal.com]

I know! He could have flowing scarlet locks and violet eyes, which sometimes turn blue or green depending on his mood!

...or not.

[ineptshieldmaid.livejournal.com]

*snorgles*

You make my so-late-it's-early-in-the-morning.

[bedlamsbard.livejournal.com]

And everyone could love him, except he'd be convinced that everyone hated him!

Well. The latter part is true.

Heh, it is my so-late-it's-nearly-afternoon over here.

[ineptshieldmaid.livejournal.com]

*sigh*

I HATE MY THESIS. I thought it'd be done hours ago, but it is Not Playing Nice.

[bedlamsbard.livejournal.com]

*sends soothing vibes* Maybe if you take a break?

[ineptshieldmaid.livejournal.com]

It's 4am. :s We do not take breaks at 4am.

[bedlamsbard.livejournal.com]

agh, that's horrible. maybe, like, a five minute break then? to get some water and clear your brain for a moment? if i write porn at you will that help?

[ineptshieldmaid.livejournal.com]

ahaha. water. good plan.

porn ALWAYS helps :P

[bedlamsbard.livejournal.com]

water is GOOD.

*pauses with fingers poised over keyboard* pairing?

[ineptshieldmaid.livejournal.com]

*cuddles bottle*

OH GEE WHO DO YOU THINK.

Although if you're not feeling like the usual... *considers* Tirian/anyone?

*considers some more* Tirian or Caspian wankfic?

[bedlamsbard.livejournal.com]

Oh, dude, you just know I'm dying to write Peta/Tirian or Tirian/Caspian over here, because I'm a crazy, crazy person like that, and my idea of crack is "take it and run with it!"


"I am," Peta says a few hours later, letting the bottle fall to the snow below, "getting fucking sick of this." She rubs her thumb idly over her bruised knuckles, and Tirian holds his tongue.

"You know," she continues, "what it's like to be happy, and have everything you ever wanted -- bar a few complications -- and be in love? And then have it taken away like that?" She snaps her fingers.

It's clear she's actually expecting an answer, and Tirian swallows and says, "Barring the 'in love' part -- yes, I suppose I do." Narnia. He had been happy then.

"I thought you might," she says, and looks away.

They're sitting in the wreckage of one of the treehouses in a huge homewood tree, and it reminds Tirian, a little, of being a boy and playing in the gardens at Cair Paravel, the trees that Caspian had planted three hundred years ago. Peta's face is only half-illuminated in the slash of moonlight that slants down through the forest canopy, and Tirian wonders if this is what his eight-times-great-grandfather saw all those centuries ago, this girl-woman painted in gold and steel, her face a mask of bitter sorrow.

"You're not very like him, you know," she says abruptly. "You're not very like me, either."


Okay, apparently you asked for porn and not angst. *facepalm* I think this is a Peta who got ripped out of Narnia again after the events of "Be Like Water."

[ineptshieldmaid.livejournal.com]

That is good angst, though. Gods. Poor Peta. You won't let her any peace, will you?

[bedlamsbard.livejournal.com]

Okay, apparently LJ is losing its mind, because it was just down again... (Or I'm losing my mind; who knows at this point.)

APPARENTLY NOT. I'm starting to feel horrible for her. I feel she should be happy, SO.


"By the Four," Tirian has time to breathe as the minotaurs finally get the door open, then Caspian of Telmar has him down on the trampled snow, a sword sharp against his throat. Tirian makes a strangled sound -- Caspian's dark eyes are utterly mad and without pity.

"You!" he spits. "What foul magic --"

"Let him go!" Peta shouts; Tirian can see her spriting from the edge of the treeline, Rhindon shining in her hand. "I warn you --"

Caspian's head turns fast and then he leaves Tirian gasping on the ground and stands. "Peta?" he says, and Tirian sees her drop her sword.

[ineptshieldmaid.livejournal.com]

WTF? Who does Caspian think Tirian IS?

[bedlamsbard.livejournal.com]

Whoever locked him up in a cave for three hundred years, maybe? (Uh, magically, that is.)


"Caspian," Peta says, her voice strangled. "You -- this isn't -- possible." She makes a desperate motion with her empty hands, and Tirian scrambles up, reaching for his sheathed sword.

She takes a step backwards as Caspian approaches her, face utterly wrecked, and whispers, "Protector, this isn't possible, three hundred years, don't touch me --" She makes no move to push him away as his hand falls on the side of her face, cupping her cheek, and Caspian says again, softly, "Peta?"

She bursts into tears.

[ineptshieldmaid.livejournal.com]

How OLD is he? *heart breaks*

HOKAY I THINK I AM DONE FOR TONIGHT. THERE WILL BE SLEEP NAO PLS GOD.

I shall talk to you again in a few hours, no doubt :P

[bedlamsbard.livejournal.com]

*raises head warily from sand* Is LJ working for the moment? Ha! Repost of post from an hour ago.

Forty, maybe? It depends when I want Narnia to descend into chaos. Also, magic cave. Maybe it madde him younger. Or not. I don't know. *waves hands* It is, like, a triple AU! Who knows!

SLEEP IS GOOD. And Peta and Caspian are depressing the hell out of me (I am, uh, supposed to be doing homework, but OH WELL), so I will leave you with something less depressing for the morning.


Caspian's mouth on her neck, his hands on her hips -- all so familiar and so wanted that it makes Peta want to cry again. One lifetime, two, three -- this is too much! she wants to scream. When are you going to take it away from me this time? She'd held onto Narnia once, twice, a third time -- and each time it had been torn away and her life with it, leaving her broken and gasping, a shattered wreck of the girl she had been once and the woman she still was.

Having Caspian again is a little miracle, a benediction she maybe more than deserves, but at what cost this time? How can she fight her wars when she knows that every time she does, everything she fights for falls away, dissolves into chaos, leaves nothing behind but the broken shards of myth and legend and peace? How long until she's torn away this time, how long until she's pulled back to fix the mistakes that would never have been made had she stayed in the first place?

She tangles her fingers in Caspian's black hair, tilts his face up to kiss him. "Don't," she says. "Leave me."


Okay, I lied about it being less depressing. Fourth time 'round Peta's just broken, man.

[ineptshieldmaid.livejournal.com]

Yeah, even Aslan's not THAT cruel, woman. Stop torturing your poor characters :P

[bedlamsbard.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I -- this is why I won't be taking the Petaverse beyond "Be Like Water." Well. Now that we have that figured out (and seriously, I honestly can't see why Peta would give a flying fuck about rescuing Narnia this time, because all she sees is Narnia being destroyed over and over again), I can never revisit the concept again. That's substantially different from the headspace she was in during PC. Kind of interesting, but -- not really somewhere I want to be. Peter? Much better headspace! Didn't have the extra twenty or thirty years of happy before he got de-aged again, and didn't have a wife and kid either. Also about to get laid in Legend, if not in Dust.