rthstewart: (Default)
rthstewart ([personal profile] rthstewart) wrote2011-02-06 10:25 pm

So, it's not what I promised

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 [livejournal.com profile] 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!

(Anonymous) 2011-02-08 02:15 pm (UTC)(link)
Work computers. *headdesk* do not. *headdesk* automatically. *headdesk* log in. *headdesk*
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[identity profile] rthstewart.livejournal.com 2011-02-08 02:29 pm (UTC)(link)
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.
ext_418583: (Default)

[identity profile] rthstewart.livejournal.com 2011-02-08 02:31 pm (UTC)(link)
"off" meant "clothes off" not "on"