drabbling

[whynot]

Narnia! It's okay if I pretend it's about the bacchanalia.

Sufjan Stevens! It's okay if I pretend it's about Narnia. I actually love Sufjan Stevens. But he is totally singing about Narnia, if only because he is singing about Jesus. Class, raise your hands if you love Sufjan.

I have a playlist called 'foraslaaaan' (not related to the community) of songs I like to listen to when I fic. I will put this music up for ya'll someday. 'Clothes of Sand' by Nick Drake is totally Aslan's song for Susan, and I like listening to Massive Attack when mulling over Edmund. Edmund: what is it about him that recalls creepy trip-hop? I dunno, but I like it.

The LWW soundtrack is totes better than the PC soundtrack. LWW's music is pretty (omg 'Evacuating London'), but PC's music is jarring and doom-ish and kind of a mood-killer. Well, considering the movies, this isn't surprising. Also, 'Wunderkind' > 'The Call'.

Speaking of Narnia.

in-between seasons. Again for the kink meme. liminalliz's prompt: Edmund/Jadis. pg13.

---

You inhale memories to exhale dreams, and at night Edmund sees her face, feels her cold fingers on his skin. She is promising him everything all over again, and he reaches for her.

It's just a dream, says Edmund-of-England, in his head. It's only in your mind. But Edmund-of-Narnia is silent; he knows that, here, shadows are more than an absence of light, and signs are meant to be followed.

Sometimes he sleeps little, but sometimes he sleeps the most out of all of them, and cannot be roused until his siblings bang on his door, yelling his name.

+

"If only," Phillip whinnies, "there is a way to make oneself wake up from dreams."

"But I never realize it's a dream," says Edmund, and is secretly relieved for it. He doesn't want to discover that maybe he would choose to stay asleep.

"Trust in the Lion," says the Horse. "The Witch's hold on you will lessen in time."

It is the end of autumn: the leaves are falling, and the Dryads' songs are brittle and melancholy. A chill wind blows from the north and Edmund shivers.

+

"Son of Adam," Jadis laughs, "do you fear me?"

Edmund replies, "I do not fear what I've already conquered."

And she laughs again, and he hates it. The Witch floats closer to him and Edmund lets her hold his face in her hands. Her breath is icy on his lips.

"Then," she says, "what are you doing here?"

Comments

[bedlamsbard.livejournal.com]

On a less angsty note: Get Out of This House (http://www.cowboylyrics.com/lyrics/colvin-shawn/get-out-of-this-house-10531.html), Shawn Colvin (I was not kidding about her being my Narnia singer): Peter and Caspian during PC, yes/no? (If I could vid, I would vid this, because OH MY GOD. "You act like a baby, you talk like a fool -- get out of this house. Go back to your mama, go back to high school -- get out of this house.")

And Miraz has a vendetta against the sheriff, of course! And Peter gets sloppy or gets betrayed and gets caught, so he's tied to a chair in Miraz's headquarters, and Miraz puts his gun in Caspian's hand and tells him to shoot Peter. Caspian freezes, fingers curled loosely around the handle of the gun -- it feels so much heavier than he imagined. Peter stares at him with flat, cold blue eyes, and doesn't say anything at all.
"What are you waiting for, boy?" Miraz says against Caspian's ear. "Don't be a baby."
Caspian's sweating so much he can barely keep his grip on the gun; he raises it, barrel shaking wildly, and points it at Peter's chest. But he can't bring himself to shoot, not with Peter looking at him like that. He doesn't think there's ever been a human emotion in Peter's eyes, and there isn't now, but it doesn't mean he's not human.
It takes a long time. Miraz says something, several times, but Caspian doesn't hear it. He finally lowers the gun. "I can't do it," he says. "I won't murder for you."
"It's too bad," Miraz says, and the gunshot goes wild because Peter throws the chair sideways suddenly into one of the men standing by him, sending both of them tumbling to the ground. There's a knife suddenly in his hands and he saws frantically at the ropes binding him while Caspian struggles with Miraz, trying to wrestle the gun out of his uncle's hands.

*cough* There is a possibility I skipped over the story and went straight to the dramatic close, where of course, Peter turns to Caspian and says, like it physically pains him, "Do you want a job?" "A...job?" Caspian repeats, sick to his heart with the realization he's lost everything. "Doing what?"
"Well," Peter says, "Narnia's growing, and it's getting a little hard for Edmund and I to keep up with everything." (The town is called Narnia, of course, and Susan's saloon is Cair Paravel.) "I could use another deputy."
"Or," Edmund adds, "you could go and beg Miraz for your trust fund back."
"I don't want charity," Caspian says stiffly.
"It's not charity," Peter snaps. "It's damn hard work and I'll be working you like a dog. If you're lucky, you might even get shot again."
"Oh," Caspian says, hand going to the bandage on his arm where the bullet grazed him. "Then yes, I would like the job."

*cough*

Yesyesyes! Although now I'm kind of wondering what each of the Pevensies would be like if they'd been the one left behind. Workaholic!Peter? My Peter's either career military or turns to mercenary work -- I don't know if they had Blackwater-equivalents in the fifties-sixties, but that's what he'd be doing. For the rest of his life. Because it's the only thing he's ever been really good at, and if he's being paid for it, then he doesn't have to pretend to be doing it out of patriotism, because he's not. England isn't his country, and he doesn't feel anything towards her at all.

[twoskeletons.livejournal.com]

OMGYESOMGhahahahahahahaha omgbedomg *DIES* <333333333333!!!!!111111

AND AND AND so like one of the battles is totally Miraz drawling, "I hear the deputy is quite an accomplished poker player."
"The best in in the Southwest!" Lucy pipes up indignantly. Susan puts a hand on her shoulder and grips tightly.
"It's alright, Lucy," says Edmund, and looks at Miraz's smug smile with, like, A STEELY GLARE. "Three card brag, seven card stud, five card draw, Texas Hold 'Em. You name it."
"I'll cut you a deal," Miraz announces. "Come to my house for supper tonight, deputy. It will be better fare than the likes of which you usually tuck into, I'm sure. We will play a little poker, and we will play for the land."
"If I win, you git your goons and your fancy talk and your snake-oil negotiations and you leave Narnia," says Edmund. "You never come back again."
"But of course," Miraz replies. "But if I win..."
"You won't!" Lucy cries out.
Susan snaps, "Lucy!"
"I'm going too!" Lucy says fiercely. "I'll play poker with you, I'm not afraid."
"No," says Susan. "I'll go." And Edmund and Miraz are, like, taken aback.
"Su--" Edmund begins.
"Far be it from me," Miraz exclaims, completely underestimating her, "to deny such a lovely lady the pleasure of partaking in a little fun, hmm?" He grins unctuously at Susan, who glares at him. "Come to my house tonight, Ms. Pevensie. We shall have a lovely time." He adds, "Leave your rifle at home."
When Miraz and his retinue leave, Susan pours a drink for all of them and says, "Miraz didn't say I couldn't bring my pistol."

At Miraz's house Susan and Caspian flirt a bit and Edmund has to be like, "Sis! Focus!" But someone in the card game is being a cad and of course it ends with a lot of gunshots and people falling through windows.

Aslan... is a coyote?


I have a hard time getting a handle on Lucy, because I don't usually write her. I just know she never quite stops believing, and she misses magic. She only has the memory of the memory of magic, but how does magic feel? When she realizes she can't remember, it breaks her heart. But she never stops believing: in Aslan, in Narnia, in herself, in the world.

At the same time, I am toying with the idea that the Pevensies understand that Aslan = Jesus, and that Christianity is the way to go. So they go to church. Lucy adores it, talks about how Jesus does look like Aslan, look at his hair, etc. Edmund appreciates its solemnity, and Susan appreciates its ceremony, and Peter goes because it is his duty as Aslan's Knight. But it bores them sometimes. They pinch each other to keep awake during services. Edmund says once, "It is rather like being back at court when Peter gives one of those overlong speeches," which makes Lucy giggle and Peter smile wryly, and Susan tells him off for blaspheming. Lucy takes to wearing a crucifix; she wears it proudly. Edmund and Susan stop wearing theirs; Susan because it feels like a hollow symbol, and Edmund because he doesn't need a trinket to believe. Father Christmas never gave him a gift and he turned out alright, didn't he? The Pevensies sometimes talk about the differences between the lessons of the Bible and the lessons of their lives in Narnia, trying to reconcile the differences. Edmund knows how to distill signs and symbols, and he recognizes the value of true lies, but Susan is not as good at this as he. These discussions stay with her. She thinks about them when she is alone, when she can't sleep. She misses the echo of marble and living by the sea.

[bedlamsbard.livejournal.com]

And the White Witch was the previous saloon owner before the Pevensies came to town! And Peter got the job as sheriff and, like, ran her out or something. Possibly she ran a brothel. *considers* Of course, what kind of frontier town is it without a brothel? Although I can't really see Susan running one.

And Peter is a Civil War vet; their parents were killed in the war and after Peter came home, he took his siblings out west to get away from the destruction wrought by the war and ended up in Narnia by accident when their wagon broke down or something. Some of the locals (the Beaver family! A nice old couple who've lived in Narnia a while now) recognized him as a good guy and begged them to stay and help free them from the White Witch's hand; Peter and her pet sheriff, Maugrim, got in a fight and Peter killed Maugrim. And Aslan is maybe the governor of the territory and he hauls the White Witch off to prison?

[twoskeletons.livejournal.com]

Tumnus runs the brothel.

OH MAN CACTUS!DRYAD

En route to the west:
The Pevensies stood on the bank of the river, eyeing the waters critically. The sun beats down on their necks, and they are hot, and dusty, and tired.
Peter is the first to speak. "I think we should ford the river."
Edmund says, "No, we should caulk the wagon and cross the river."
"I think," says Susan, "we should pay that Indian to ferry us across."
Edmund shakes his head. "We need to save our money for supplies at the next stop."
"Susan may have point," says Peter. "Besides, we already have enough food. Ed shot that buffalo a few days ago, though for some reason he could only bring back 198 pounds of it."
"But we need medicine," Edmund protests. "Lucy's already caught dysentery twice."
"Three times," calls a weak voice from the wagon.

Maybe Aslan is the town judge!

[bedlamsbard.livejournal.com]

*dies*

[twoskeletons.livejournal.com]

Man. I could've gone on forever.