So, it's not what I promised

[rthstewart]

In exchanges with Syrena, here I offered a little Polly and Digory fic.  And, here I promised more of the Horse, His Boy, The Trickster, and the Rat.  Alas, I got distracted with working on AW Chapter 7, which, given the length appears to now be Chapters 7 and 8.  This means there's no Trickster story excerpt, yet. 

Also, whoa, thanks so much to all the anonymous reviewers on ff.net.  I really, really appreciate it.  The story is one away from a milestone, and I'm just childish enough to notice that sort of thing.  So thanks ever so much for your support. 

As recompense to Syrena and in thanks, I offer a peek at something I've been hoarding for a long time. I'm still tweaking it, and in fact, still need to write the whole exchange -- the ones between Susan and Lucy and between Edmund and Susan are done, plus the build up.  I"m at about 14,000 words so far.

Susan topped off Peter’s glass.  “So, what of this woman roaming Oxfordshire who is a friend of the Professor’s and the very image of Dinan?”

“Who?”

“Peter, you did not just say that.  Dinan.  The Silver Birch?  Your lover for over five years in Narnia!”

“Oh.  Her.”  

“Her,” Susan repeated.  Honestly, Peter was so hopelessly male.    

Peter shrugged helplessly.  “Dinan wasn’t especially…” Her brother floundered on the words.

“Complex?” Susan offered helpfully.  “Interesting?  Compassionate?  Capable of communication unrelated to sex?”

“Yes?” Peter’s voice trailed off with an uncertain questioning lilt.

“I understand, however, that Dr. Russell does not have a birthmark on her back.”

Peter choked on his tequila and had to set his glass down to recover from the coughing fit.

“What?!” he gasped.

“Lucy asked Dr. Russell if she had a birthmark, just as Dinan had that knot on her back.  Dr. Russell did not own to one.”  

Susan could see the precise moment when Peter worked through the causal chain of reasoning.

“How did Lucy know about that knot in her trunk?”

“Really, Peter,” Susan sniffed disapprovingly.  “Has your imagination completely atrophied?  How do you think?  I told her, of course.”

Peter reached for his glass and downed it.  There was a very long, meaningful pause as her brother carefully considered whether ignorance was indeed bliss.  His curiosity won out.  “Which then leaves the question of how you came to know of it?”

Susan delicately sipped her bourbon, feeling very smug and not at all confiding on the subject.  “I’ve not had nearly enough liquor for that story.”

Also, I posted a whole bunch of Fem-oriented Narnia fic recs for the fabulous halfamoon  community here
And, true confession, the only reason I made Mary Anning Russell look like Dinan -- the aggressive, enthusiastic, proprietary Silver Birth in By Royal Decree -- is so that it would not be of emotional significance for Peter or anyone else.  It was a poke at fandom convention which would have made it a HUGE ANGSTY THING and I did it solely so I could have something like the above exchange establishing otherwise and I've had this  in my head for over 2 years.   Why yes, sometimes I am very immature.

I'll post something by the end of the week.  Thanks again!

Comments

[l-a-r-m.livejournal.com]

LOL PETER FLABBERGASTED AT THE IDEA OF SHARING A LOVER WITH SUSAN. YESSSSSSSSS.

[l-a-r-m.livejournal.com]

P.S. Of course Peter/Mary isn't serious, even if I sometimes wish they were, because Peter/Dalia is an OTP. And don't tell me you don't believe in them because I know an OTP when I see one!! Let's not forget who called Peter/Mary in the first place. =]

[rthstewart.livejournal.com]

Peter/Mary is no more real than the "marriage ceremony" between Caspian and Lucy when they throw the arm ring up on to the cliff of Dragon Island in Dawn Treader. Sometimes, a ring is just a ring.

[metonomia.livejournal.com]

<333333333333 OH SUSAN. I love how Edmund et all have been dancing around this subject with Peter and Susan solves it with a few delicately placed barbs. BEST.

(also, you are the sweetest and most nice, omg, thank you so much for the rec on halfamoon, I was not expecting to see myself in your list there! it kind of made my evening)

[rthstewart.livejournal.com]

You are very welcome! I saw the story recc'd recently on someone's LJ and it came back when I was considering halfamoon recs!

And Edmund is totally alarmist. He sits in for the fandom that would be all OMG!!!! WHAT DOES IT MEAN???!!! To which the answer is, nada. Total red herring. I'm very bad.

[amine-eyes.livejournal.com]

Oh angst angst angst, it's all fun ;D

And let's actually finish the comment before posting xD

I do like how Susan is all nonchalent and yet manages to undo Peter's brain xD

[rthstewart.livejournal.com]

I have missed Susan. And of course, the fun thing about this is that the angst is not over the physical similarity (except for Edmund and he's just paranoid) but that Peter is totally flummoxed by Susan. I am sometimes so immature.

[intrikate88.livejournal.com]

I'll just be here, cackling madly that all morning at work. Heh. Oh, Susan.

[rthstewart.livejournal.com]

It's been a while since I've been in her head and oh my it is fun. And, going slowly because she is interacting with each of her sibs separately, which I realize is VERY Susan and each interaction is subtly different. And why yes, Susan is very Narnian in her tastes and proclivities.

[intrikate88.livejournal.com]

I love it, and look forward to seeing that, because I think she's very attuned to what everyone's buttons are. Whether she's manipulating an opponent or conveying something to Peter, she knows how to get a specific response, simultaneously showing a reflection who she's talking to and concealing her, and showing how she navigates through life, too. Queen Susan the Gentle-as-she-digs-through-everyone's-layers.

[autumnia]

Poor Peter. Susan clearly wins here! The Rat is cleverer than the Crow in this round... to bad she wasn't there when Edmund learned of this interesting detail about the Birch.

[rthstewart.livejournal.com]

Srsly. I have had that moment in my head where Peter says, "Who?" for over 2 years. I actually regretted doing the physical similarity later because it was such a total fandom jab for no purpose whatsoever. It is completely gratuitous with Edmund sitting in for any reader who thinks OMG IT MUST MEAN SOMETHING!!! And it's really a study in the four of them. Actually, Peter would not forget the name of a subject, but it's so amusing to make him so vacuously male here I couldn't help it. And Edmund would be all "it's a plot! it's a plot!" to which Lucy responds with a, "nope and Edmund would you please crawl back to solid ground from that very thin tree branch of totally unfounded supposition you are clinging to so precariously?"

And Susan then to deliver the final zinger.

Poor Mary. It's a good thing she doesn't know about this or she'd feel even more insecure than she already does as she learns over and over and over that alas she is not the center of all things or indeed much of anything.

[autumnia]

I was also thinking that with regard to the agreeable and necessary company of women, Peter's been too busy with Nurse Hawkins to bother remembering about Dryads and their nature.

[lady_songsmith]

*giggle* I was half asleep when I saw this so no comment at the time, but much love! The "Who?" is so very perfect -- though I do think there was a reference to him relating Mary and the Birch -- yes, I remember things like that, I have the sort of brain where the written word goes to die -- so he's obviously trying to play it cool here -- oh, so very BOY of him -- and Susan is taking her sisterly duty to puncture his ego and self-delusions very seriously, and enjoying it immensely.

[rthstewart.livejournal.com]

If I did ever have Peter identify her by name, I need to go back and fix that because I intended to only have him ever address her mentally as "the dryad" or the "Silver Birch Dryad" or "her" or "she." Lucy and Edmund both identify her by name, but Peter shouldn't be as I had this particular scene in my head for 2.5 years. As LARM would say, Oh Self. All those words, all that character angst (Edmund's not Peter's), solely for the purpose of authorial self entertainment.

[(Anonymous)]

Not by name, but he's pretty clear that Mary looks just like his old lover, because he keeps being thrown off every time she opens her mouth and proves just how different they are -- I think it's in TSG when she corners him in the Professor's office and produces the tooth from her handbag. So "friend of the professor who looks just like" would trigger "the Birch", I'd think, unless he's being deliberately obtuse, which would be very Peter.

[(Anonymous)]

Work computers. *headdesk* do not. *headdesk* automatically. *headdesk* log in. *headdesk*

[rthstewart.livejournal.com]

Heh. I knew that was you!!! MWHAAA! Oh yes, he sees the physical similarity -- that's there at least twice in the story. He does get flummoxed by the similarity, especially since he can then pretty accurately imagine what Mary looks like with her clothes on minus the catkins and pollen but you know ewwwww generally. He even wonders if Mary might have a birthmark like the knot in the Dryad's trunk -- but he'd NEVER ask such an impertinent thing (compare Lucy). He just doesn't remember the Dryad's NAME even though she was tackling him periodically for years. When she wasn't with Susan, of course....

And really, the whole point of it was a fandom poke (and to screw with Edmund's paranoia). Immaturity. We Haz It.

[rthstewart.livejournal.com]

"off" meant "clothes off" not "on"

[min023.livejournal.com]

Oh goody, Susan wins! If this is what's in store in the next installment,, then roll on the end of this week : )

[rthstewart.livejournal.com]

Susan totally wins. She and Peter have, in this vision, a really different sort of relationship. It's pretty ... hmm, "mushy" for lack of a better word. They talk about boyfriend/girlfriend problems in a way that you might expect with Lucy, but in fact, doesn't happen that way at all. Errrr, right then, moving on. Though, I think Lucy has been seeking Susan's advice on how to deflect Jack. Or, she will be. ACK. OCs! On this path lies madness!

[min023.livejournal.com]

And whether childish or not (and I am so NOT going there), I see that milestone is now accomplished. So, yay for Rth!!! : )

[(Anonymous)]

What a wonderful surprise to find upon coming back from out of town! Hopelessly male Peter (his hesitant "Yes?" slayed me!) and smug Susan (perhaps letting her inner Trickster out to play) make for, as always, fantastic reading. Thank you!!!
~Syrena