Narnia day was yesterday on Tumblr so I posted some things

[rthstewart]

I hate Tumblr and am really bad at it but there was a October 17 is Narnia Day, so I posted some things and encouraged others to do so. You can find the thread with contributions by syrena_of_the_lake edenfalling and others here

I posted a couple of things:  (Apologies in advance if if the behind the cut doesn't work.  sometimes it does and sometimes it doesn't)

An excerpt of the next (and final chapter of Star Husband)


It wasn’t patriotic but, after Nova Scotia, England was just ugly. Southampton wasn’t as ugly as Liverpool but it was all still gray, bomb-pocked rubble and craters. Eustace hadn’t realized how depressing it all was until he’d been away for a few weeks in places not so profoundly impacted by the War, only to come back to it.

Pole picked up a telegram waiting for them at the shipping office. “It’s from Edmund. It says to go straight to Russell House. He’s told us which train and bus to take.”

He wanted to be annoyed at her solicitous, sympathetic look, but it really didn’t make any difference. Of course they were going there. He would just have to suck it up.

“It’s fine, Pole,” even though there was nothing fine about this trip. “It makes sense. There isn’t anywhere else big enough.”

It was so dreary to have dig their ration books out. He hefted her suitcase in one hand, his in the other, and followed Pole around. She managed their day pack, bought the tickets and transfers, sent off another telegram, and bought some greasy sandwiches. At least it wasn’t beetroot.

Getting out of the city helped. It was greener and not as hot and his affection for poor, old, battered but unbeaten England returned. Eustace was glad he didn’t see anyone he knew when they transferred to the bus in Oxford – trying to explain what he was doing back in England when he was supposed to spending his stipend in the famous Drumheller deposits would have been exceedingly awkward. He probably should tell Harold and Alberta. Except then he would have to explain why.

So perhaps not.

Pole nodded off against his shoulder during the bus ride. Her sketchpad was in her lap and he carefully put away her charcoal pencil so it wouldn’t get lost or break. She’d been drawing more and talking less as England had come closer during the voyage. He was trying to figure out whose portrait was on the pad and then realized with an unexpected start that it was his own. It was … flattering. He’d never thought his nose was attractive; not like how Pole’s was both perfectly straight and perfectly broad and very expressive. He could tell a lot about what Pole was feeling from how she crinkled her nose. Eustace never paid much attention to his own appearance – no one else seemed to and his cousins always got that sort of attention.

Like Peter.

And Mary.

Nothing for it. Of course Peter would take Mary as his lover. He was a King, the High King. That’s what Kings did. He knew that from the history he’d read. Of course Mary would launch into it with Peter, who actually respected her as Richard never had. There was never any malice in their affair. Eustace didn’t think his own feelings had entered into Peter and Mary’s calculations at all.

For their purposes and pleasures, he was irrelevant.

Eustace slid a piece of filmy paper over Pole’s drawing. He might not think much of his own looks, but Pole had done a nice charcoal and she would be upset if it smudged.

The rumbling bus began slowing down. He checked his watch and thought this was probably their stop. Wiping the grimy window, he looked out just as the bus rolled by a cart hitched to a brown horse. He waved and nudged Pole.

“We’re here. And don’t have to walk the five miles to Russell House.”

* * *

Polly gave them both hugs. Eustace made sure to steer clear of Ursula’s long yellow teeth. The mare hated males of any species and only tolerated certain females, including and pretty much limited to, Pole, Polly, Mary and Susan. She loathed Peter and Edmund called her “Hell Bitch.”

“We’ve all been having the nightmares,” Polly said, as Ursula trotted down the lane, ears pricked forward for home. Polly had been in town to pick up groceries and had timed it for their likely bus. “Lucy’s might have been the worst, but Peter’s not had an easy time of it, either.” Polly huffed, “And having Susan and that Tebbitt about has made it much worse.”

“Why’s that?” Pole asked, as Eustace added, “Who’s that?”

“Susan and Peter are fighting all the time,” Polly replied. “Tebbitt is a pretty, layabout wastrel. I think Susan met him when she was in America. Edmund said he had been a pilot in the War. I tell you, it’s nothing but a relief when they get dressed to the nines and head off. It’s ridiculous. I don’t understand half of what they are speaking of. You’d think with this crisis Susan would spend time where she’s needed instead of gallivanting off with her beau.”

And some Narnia head canons

Because of his spring allergies and the successful use of a saline nasal rinse, Edmund became a first and early adopter of the Neti Pot.

Peter really hates boats. Peter mixes with water as oil does, which is not at all. It was Peter’s idea to chase the White Stag because he wanted to wish for an heir.

Lucy was not joking about Bacchus and the Maenads.

Susan isn’t a micro-manager but she is very organized, has an excellent eye for talent, and is very good at delegating. Being in a disordered environment makes her ill. She keeps lists and journals, all written in code. Edmund can read about one word in five. Lucy and Peter can’t read it all. Her Guard, Lambert, can read every word.

In Lambert’s memory, Susan has a carved wooden dog, painted gray. She takes it with her wherever she goes.

Eustace wants to become a paleontologist. Harold and Alberta have devoted a wall in their home to all of Eustace’s achievements – his firsts, his papers, and his discoveries, articles and clippings. Jill is an artist. They both are excellent cooks and dancers. Her Jamaican father becomes very involved in politics after the War and her mother writes for Sports Illustrated.

Susan nearly dies in the bombardment of Caen. She escapes and participates in the street fighting and the liberation of Paris. (Preferred AU is that she joins up with Peggy Carter and they harass tank columns with the Maquis). Peter is badly wounded within a few weeks of D-Day, with D Company of the Ox & Bucks decimated by injuries. (Preferred AU is that he joins up with the Howling Commandos). He’s probably gets his jumps in to be a paratrooper and participate in Market Garden but it doesn’t work out or he goes back into the Ox & Bucks and joins T-Force, charged with securing Nazi science and technology, or maybe stays with the 2d Battalion and participates in Operation Varsity. BUT NO, I’M NOT WRITING IT.

Other head canon bits about OCs, some AU

Asim bin Kalil loves bitter dark chocolate. He and Digory Kirke are both firmly asexual.

Kwong Lee and Lin Kun’s son, Yi, is kidnapped by the Blue Funnel line and British government and forcibly repatriated to China. They never hear from him again.

Mary only sleeps in Richard’s castoffs. She has no pyjamas or other nightclothes of her own. She’s very embarrassed about it. Peter doesn’t care.

Edmund and Miriam elope to Gretna Green.

Polly didn’t marry Richard because Digory talked her out of it.

There is a curse in Colonel Tom Clark’s family dating back to the Salem Witch Trials. Clark men are doomed to love women who will never lover them back and Smith women are doomed to forever love Clark men but have it be unrequited. Jack Clark thinks the curse is why Lucy doesn’t love him.

After about 20 years, Morgan probably ends up having a intimate relationship with Dinan, Peter’s former Dryad lover.

Seth Stanleh is thoroughly corrupt but does reform. He lives in Narnia the rest of his life and develops a long term attachment to a dryad. His prediction about the Meryls ultimately controlling everything is correct and in a few hundred years the banking houses fail, during the Telmarine era.

Lord Bern is the descendant of one of Lucy’s adopted sons.

Dalia dies of a broken heart within a few weeks of Peter leaving Narnia. Lambert almost dies but Aslan gives him a vision of Susan’s story and so he waits for his Queen’s return. (Syrena_of_the_ lake wrote this story. ) Fooh becomes the resident psychiatrist when Thomas the Goose dies.

Prince Edmund Linch marries Livinia Quickwit, Lucy’s adopted daughter. They have 10 children. Like Jill and Eustace, they sleep together most of their lives but it turns sexual when she comes back from Archenland having learned (as Susan did so many years before) may awesome erotic things in the women’s quarters at Anvard and she wants to share. They find the Calormene erotica literature shortly thereafter.

And some more because a reader thought some of that was too sad:

Let’s just say that Peter gets everything he ever wanted – a loving spouse, kids, grandkids, a house in the country, dogs, cats, horses, a seat in the House of Commons and eventually a Knighthood. Susan lived to see a woman become a Bishop in the Anglican Church and so finally was able to stop her letter writing campaign, Lucy was on the short list for the Nobel Peace Prize in 1963, 1974 and 1988. Edmund DOES NOT end up being seduced by a Soviet mole and ends up sitting on the Privy Council with his own Knighthood.

OR…

Morgan and Edmund see their son marry Princess Livinia, Lucy’s adopted daughter. Peter names Edmund Linch heir and it is the happiest day of Peter’s life. Susan never marries and is thrilled. The Golden Age of the Reign of the Four lasts for decades and sees unrivaled peace and prosperity in Narnia.

The White Stag keeps popping up, like a bad rash. They are all so happy, they never bother to go chase it because what could any of them possibly wish for that they do not already have.

Comments

[branchandroot]

*winces* For all that it explains canon very well, and it's clear that Susan pretty much engineered it herself, it's still painful to watch Polly's misunderstanding happen.

[rthstewart]

Branch, it's SO SAD. Susan can't say anything with Asim and Tebbitt hanging around and Eustace just doesn't understand. And then....

“What’s the matter, Pole?”

She waited so long to answer, she might have been asleep. But then her hand landed on top of his and she squeezed his fingers. “I’ve been trying to decide whether to tell you something that I know you aren’t going to like at all. With everything else going on, perhaps you would rather wait?”

“I appreciate you trying to protect me, Pole, but I’d rather know.” Eustace felt grand in saying this but also knew it might not be wholly truthful. “What’s it about?”

“Have you heard Tebbitt call Susan ‘Mrs. C.’?”

“I think so. I figured it was just some pet name.”

“It’s not. Do you want to know who it is?”

“I don’t know. Do I?”

“It makes me angry. It’s going to make you really, really angry.”

He thought about it, and how grateful he was for Pole giving him the option. It was just the sort of considerate thing Pole did all the time. He should thank her for that.

“Thanks, Pole, for asking first.” He thought about it a little longer. “Yes, I do want to know.”

“Before she and Tebbitt left, Susan changed her handbag to an evening clutch. I saw her identity card. It says… Mrs. Susan…” Pole held his hand tighter. “It says Susan Caspian and that she’s married.”

[branchandroot]

*clutching her heart* Oh. Oh ow. Oh Susan, baby.

[autumnia]

Eustace seems to be oblivious to himself too, not recognizing himself in Jill's portrait at first.

LOL Susan and Tebbitt gallivanting around England dressed to the nines, and probably doing a bit of recon for agencies that shall remain nameless?

And of course there's a Hell Bitch even here, though it's not Love.

I'm sad to hear about Yi. Getting sent back to China is never good, and especially not with the cultural revolution coming up. Maybe he can escape to Taiwan; it might be slightly better over there. Or smuggle down to Hong Kong.

[rthstewart]

Oh there's a lot going with Tebbitt and Susan and poor Eustace and Jill don't understand at all. And it gets ugly (see above in response to Branch). Yes, what happens with Yi is very sad and seems to have been the result of the terrible situation.

Thanks so much for reading.

Incidentally, Ursula, Mary's Hell Bitch mare, has been in my head since 2009. She probably existed before Love did.

[hydrangea]

Oh, so that's where Narnia fandom is hanging out! I've been wondering. Ofc I'm beyond terrible at Tumblr and have mostly given up on it.

Thanks for sharing the writings!:D I have never considered what sort of headcanons I have about Narnia so it's fascinating to see what other people think.

[rthstewart]

Eh, Tumblr is a hot mess. I do it very badly. BUT BUT did you know there is a Lucian exchange? 500 words??? https://archiveofourown.org/collections/2019LucianExchange/profile

[adaeze]

Okay, my headcanon - the hunt for the white stag comes after more than fifty years, they've outlived their partners, seen their children grow up, and have been increasingly wondering about / worried about the world they left behind. Edmund and Susan had both privately resolved to wish for actual, useful answers - who were we (Edmund), what damage did our disappearance do and can we fix it (Susan). Peter's wish would, of course, have been for "more adventures, but in a fashion that doesn't do anything to hurt Narnia, and Lucy's for "Oh, I don't know - whatever my brothers and sister are wishing for, I suppose?". Lucy actually touched the stag briefly when she felt fur instead of pine needles, and then she was pushing aside a coat.

[rthstewart]

Oh this is just lovely. I adore this vision, living a full life in one place and then returning to live a full life in another. And the wishes are so poignant. Thank you so much for sharing. And should you ever write any of this, do let us know...