the deep moans round with many voices

Confirming my general lack of sense (not that it needed confirming), I have signed up to write a story for the Narnia Big Bang. I am going to attempt a sequel to "Out of Season" rather than the LWW genderswap.

I wanted to write some variation on this story pretty much from the moment I finished "Out of Season," but I was leaning toward writing the genderswap just because that story, at least, I knew how to approach. This one was being recalcitrant. I had the damndest time trying to come up with a plot and theme for Shezan, mostly because she already resolved most of her issues in "Out of Season." That meant her perspective on the sequel events was just one thing after another with no real point or arc -- far too much like real life. *wry*

But! If I make Ilgamuth the POV character, things magically fall into place. His whole life turns upside-down after HHB, because while I will give him a get-out-of-death-free card courtesy of Lucy and her cordial, I won't give him a completely free ride. I have decided his opponent severed fingers from his hand, forcing him to drop his sword and leaving him open to take his "mortal" wound. As PC and Reepicheep prove, Lucy cannot regrow lost body parts. Therefore, Ilgamuth can't be a soldier anymore and is going to be forcibly shoved into politics in a way he never was before, particularly since a number of Rabadash's other close friends and supporters really did die at Anvard.

Anyway, I will be tackling that story as my NaNo project this year, since it will have to run longer than the 20,000 word Big Bang minimum just to fit in all the plot threads. I mean, I have Ilgamuth adjusting (often badly) to his new disability and position as Rabadash's de facto chief advisor and court representative, I have Ilgamuth and Shezan's ongoing romance, I have lots and lots and LOTS of court politics (...hey, you know, I can get some of Rabadash's siblings into this story! I couldn't shoehorn them into "Out of Season," but it would be beyond weird for at least Prince Ilragesh not to show up here), I have some kind of empire-wide politics to showcase how Rabadash cannot just ride out and quash people militarily anymore, and I have international politics with Narnia and Archenland to the north, various countries I've invented to the south and west, and maybe, if I run the timeframe long enough, the initial fallout of the Pevensies vanishing into thin air roughly a year after the Battle of Anvard. There is no way that can compress to anything under, say, 25,000 words, and I am pretty sure it will run longer. (I am trying to be honest with myself this time, you see.)

...

Of course, if that doesn't work out, there is always the chance of grabbing something else from the prompts post and writing 10,000 words for a Mini Bang. But hopefully I won't need to fall back on that.