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So a few days ago I saw a comment someone left on a Supernatural fic to the effect of, "Only in this fandom do we get angsty curtain!fic of the apocalypse." I laughed, because that was a perfect description of the story in question, but it left me with a sudden mad desire to write something that would also fit that category, only in a fandom that I actually know and write in.
Clearly it is easier to start with a fandom that already contains an apocalypse (or at least the pre-conditions for one). BtVS has lots of failed apocalypses, but I wasn't really feeling it. Then it hit me that Narnia has not just one but two successful apocalypses -- both Charn and the Narnian world really, truly end.
Except you can't really have curtain!fic if there's no world and no characters left to write about. Problem! Perhaps I should invent an apocalypse for Harry Potter, or think of potentially world-devastating catastrophes in other canons I know.
But! Then I thought of a solution.
You see, I figure that when Jadis spoke the Deplorable Word, she couldn't actually have ended all life in the universe but her own. Presumably she still had symbiotic digestive system bacteria and so on, since she was able to carry on living with no trouble once Digory revived her. So it occurred to me that the Word must end every life except for the speaker and whatever is in direct contact with the speaker's body. Jadis's sister was within a couple steps of her at the end... so what if she'd lunged forward and grabbed Jadis's arm before Jadis finished speaking?
Hey presto, two survivors in a dead world. Which they just jointly destroyed -- giving me the angsty and apocalyptic elements. And they now have all the time in the world to repair their broken sibling relationship, plus they need to work together to survive -- giving me the curtain!fic aspects.
The scenario could go in any number of directions, including how the sisters survive on stored food, and realize they can't grow anything because the seeds have been sterilized by the Deplorable Word and the earth is 'dead' too. Maybe their magic starts to fail as the world runs down? Maybe the old gods they thought were long dead start appearing since the sisters are the only people left who know their stories. And on that note, I started thinking that the sisters might remember how Lilith's myths state that she came to Charn from another world, and they'd try to escape the mess they made, and perhaps still end up in Narnia via a different path... or maybe they wouldn't, and the whole path of the Chronicles would be upset. (Take that, determinism! I can and will decree what would have happened, instead of trapping people in only one iteration of only one story.) Plus, of course, it's all about two female characters getting to be strong and competent and fierce, and never, ever, directly saying they're sorry for anything, even if they come to make a kind of peace between themselves and regret the lost beauty of the world and people they destroyed.
It would be fascinating.
I'm still not writing it.
But I thought I'd share, if only so the idea will hopefully get out of my head and leave me alone. :-)
Clearly it is easier to start with a fandom that already contains an apocalypse (or at least the pre-conditions for one). BtVS has lots of failed apocalypses, but I wasn't really feeling it. Then it hit me that Narnia has not just one but two successful apocalypses -- both Charn and the Narnian world really, truly end.
Except you can't really have curtain!fic if there's no world and no characters left to write about. Problem! Perhaps I should invent an apocalypse for Harry Potter, or think of potentially world-devastating catastrophes in other canons I know.
But! Then I thought of a solution.
You see, I figure that when Jadis spoke the Deplorable Word, she couldn't actually have ended all life in the universe but her own. Presumably she still had symbiotic digestive system bacteria and so on, since she was able to carry on living with no trouble once Digory revived her. So it occurred to me that the Word must end every life except for the speaker and whatever is in direct contact with the speaker's body. Jadis's sister was within a couple steps of her at the end... so what if she'd lunged forward and grabbed Jadis's arm before Jadis finished speaking?
Hey presto, two survivors in a dead world. Which they just jointly destroyed -- giving me the angsty and apocalyptic elements. And they now have all the time in the world to repair their broken sibling relationship, plus they need to work together to survive -- giving me the curtain!fic aspects.
The scenario could go in any number of directions, including how the sisters survive on stored food, and realize they can't grow anything because the seeds have been sterilized by the Deplorable Word and the earth is 'dead' too. Maybe their magic starts to fail as the world runs down? Maybe the old gods they thought were long dead start appearing since the sisters are the only people left who know their stories. And on that note, I started thinking that the sisters might remember how Lilith's myths state that she came to Charn from another world, and they'd try to escape the mess they made, and perhaps still end up in Narnia via a different path... or maybe they wouldn't, and the whole path of the Chronicles would be upset. (Take that, determinism! I can and will decree what would have happened, instead of trapping people in only one iteration of only one story.) Plus, of course, it's all about two female characters getting to be strong and competent and fierce, and never, ever, directly saying they're sorry for anything, even if they come to make a kind of peace between themselves and regret the lost beauty of the world and people they destroyed.
It would be fascinating.
I'm still not writing it.
But I thought I'd share, if only so the idea will hopefully get out of my head and leave me alone. :-)
