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igenlodeI have been potting up two of the towel-tomatoes and the Roma tomato into what will be their final pots, and have pretty much used up all the compost I bought in the process; I shall have to get some more. Not a lot of progress from the catch-up tomatoes, but presumably they have been developing roots under their sturdy seed-leaves.
The sweetbriar, rose campion and flax are in flower, the two red poppies I allowed to develop in the minature rose pot (and which grow enormous due to the additional feed they receive there) have been blooming, and miraculously yet again the yellow poppy appears to have regrown from whatever fragments of root were left behind in the rose pot, while the main body of the stem and roots died entirely after being transplanted... I shall just have to leave it in there. It is clearly the only place where it can thrive, or even survive.
The Bakelite buckle on my secondary clothes line finally snapped, which is a nuisance but not entirely unexpected. The second (plastic) buckle I tried snapped immediately. I found a metal buckle, but it is considerably wider and I suspect it won't hold the existing strap. I could try sewing a broader strap out of scrap denim (or maybe something whiter!), or attempt to buy a new buckle to fit the current flat-woven tape.
My bedroom clock stopped again this week after I wound it (which is annoying, because it was working up until then!), and turning it upside down didn't seem to help this time :-(
I have been seriously considering writing the third "Twenty Years After" fic that I was running in my head (basically as a sequel to "If I Should Die") and that I was more or less confident that I was *not* going to write, on the grounds that it had no plot and was basically characters talking to one another about things that the reader already knows (and moreover that it was altogether too close in theme to the putative BBC Musketeers fic that I still have provisionally mentally queued; I get my kicks in a fairly twisted way). But I did feel that the Porthos-past anecdote was worth preserving, and while I thought I might be able to fit it into canon at either of the ?two points where Porthos meets Raoul de Bragelonne before they go to England, the whole thing really hinges upon Porthos seeing the boy *asleep*. I might just be able to engineer it into the scene where Raoul comes back with a nasty blow on the head and very much shaken up after getting himself mixed up in a riot (and on the side of Mazarin, for which d'Artagnan scolds him on Athos' behalf :-p)
But really it belongs to the Athos'-death AU which naturally arises from "If I should Die", and I can probably abbreviate the completely self-indulgent bits off the beginning of that and find a way to just run the end. I should quite like to work Raoul's premonitory dream (which feels very Dumas to me) in, and that definitely only fits in a post-England scenario. Also, it would be interested to attempt writing from Porthos' point of view for once, although possibly very challenging.
The future historical consequences of having Charles I successfully escape and spend the rest of his life wandering around Europe as a penniless exile (à la Old Pretender) are of course potentially enormous, but that would definitely not be within the scope of what I want or am able to write, and I'm not sure I would even mention it. Although it does dawn on me that having the example of an extremely upright and devotedly uxorious living father in the background would probably be enough to tweak Princess Minette away from an attempted affair with Lous XIV, with the result that the whole Louise de la Vallière arrangement would hence be avoided and the young Vicomte de Bragelonne would get his happy ending. D'Artagnan as guardian would, I suspect, be more than sufficiently sentimental to aid and abet the young man in his marital plans ten years later rather than opposing them on principle...
(And now I've pretty much talked myself into writing it, haven't I?)
Athos would probably beentirely content with all in favour of the idea that in exchange for his life everybody else gets a happy ending -- although frankly I don't see *how* such a scenario would come about, because it is Aramis who is the one to take the role of the most danger, and with the explicit instructions to block the exit with either his dead or living body if any trouble should arise. I can't see any likely contingency in which Aramis would survive and yet Athos fall, given that Athos would place the King's safety above not only his own life, which goes without saying, but above that of the friend they left behind. But Athos himself clearly considers such a contingency possible, since he leaves his farewell messages for Aramis to transmit on the chance that the latter lives and he does not... But that bit I can obfuscate. Fans only want whump anyway.
What worries me more is that I'm not sure Porthos' anecdote, originally conceived in the context of a puzzled conversation about Raoul's parentage (a secret which Athos at this juncture has of necessity taken to his grave so far as his friends are concerned) actually fits very well any more into the story as I am now revolving it in my mind; it's certainly not a good ending. It was simply the point at which I broke off my 'what would they say to one another if...' speculations on reaching my own front door :-p
And unfortunately that particular idea was pretty much the whole point of attempting to write this, being the sole original piece of inspiration there :-(
The sweetbriar, rose campion and flax are in flower, the two red poppies I allowed to develop in the minature rose pot (and which grow enormous due to the additional feed they receive there) have been blooming, and miraculously yet again the yellow poppy appears to have regrown from whatever fragments of root were left behind in the rose pot, while the main body of the stem and roots died entirely after being transplanted... I shall just have to leave it in there. It is clearly the only place where it can thrive, or even survive.
The Bakelite buckle on my secondary clothes line finally snapped, which is a nuisance but not entirely unexpected. The second (plastic) buckle I tried snapped immediately. I found a metal buckle, but it is considerably wider and I suspect it won't hold the existing strap. I could try sewing a broader strap out of scrap denim (or maybe something whiter!), or attempt to buy a new buckle to fit the current flat-woven tape.
My bedroom clock stopped again this week after I wound it (which is annoying, because it was working up until then!), and turning it upside down didn't seem to help this time :-(
I have been seriously considering writing the third "Twenty Years After" fic that I was running in my head (basically as a sequel to "If I Should Die") and that I was more or less confident that I was *not* going to write, on the grounds that it had no plot and was basically characters talking to one another about things that the reader already knows (and moreover that it was altogether too close in theme to the putative BBC Musketeers fic that I still have provisionally mentally queued; I get my kicks in a fairly twisted way). But I did feel that the Porthos-past anecdote was worth preserving, and while I thought I might be able to fit it into canon at either of the ?two points where Porthos meets Raoul de Bragelonne before they go to England, the whole thing really hinges upon Porthos seeing the boy *asleep*. I might just be able to engineer it into the scene where Raoul comes back with a nasty blow on the head and very much shaken up after getting himself mixed up in a riot (and on the side of Mazarin, for which d'Artagnan scolds him on Athos' behalf :-p)
But really it belongs to the Athos'-death AU which naturally arises from "If I should Die", and I can probably abbreviate the completely self-indulgent bits off the beginning of that and find a way to just run the end. I should quite like to work Raoul's premonitory dream (which feels very Dumas to me) in, and that definitely only fits in a post-England scenario. Also, it would be interested to attempt writing from Porthos' point of view for once, although possibly very challenging.
The future historical consequences of having Charles I successfully escape and spend the rest of his life wandering around Europe as a penniless exile (à la Old Pretender) are of course potentially enormous, but that would definitely not be within the scope of what I want or am able to write, and I'm not sure I would even mention it. Although it does dawn on me that having the example of an extremely upright and devotedly uxorious living father in the background would probably be enough to tweak Princess Minette away from an attempted affair with Lous XIV, with the result that the whole Louise de la Vallière arrangement would hence be avoided and the young Vicomte de Bragelonne would get his happy ending. D'Artagnan as guardian would, I suspect, be more than sufficiently sentimental to aid and abet the young man in his marital plans ten years later rather than opposing them on principle...
(And now I've pretty much talked myself into writing it, haven't I?)
Athos would probably be
What worries me more is that I'm not sure Porthos' anecdote, originally conceived in the context of a puzzled conversation about Raoul's parentage (a secret which Athos at this juncture has of necessity taken to his grave so far as his friends are concerned) actually fits very well any more into the story as I am now revolving it in my mind; it's certainly not a good ending. It was simply the point at which I broke off my 'what would they say to one another if...' speculations on reaching my own front door :-p
And unfortunately that particular idea was pretty much the whole point of attempting to write this, being the sole original piece of inspiration there :-(
no subject
Date: 2025-05-24 09:09 pm (UTC)Mordaunt! The answer is Mordaunt :-)
Mordauny hates both Charles Stuart and the comte de La Fère, but given the opportunity he will go for his mother's husband first, and Athos knows this. If Mordaunt turns up during their flight in a position to threaten the King's life, Athos is going to make the clear-eyed decision to throw himself into harm's way in the certain understanding that Mordaunt will not be able to resist that opportunity and the threat will thus be successfully deflected. And after that I imagine it's a matter of which one of the other three manages to get to the assassin first, though I rather favour Porthos' intention to wring their nemesis' neck, at least in terms of personal satisfaction obtained...
(Hmm, now I'm jolly well going to have to write it, aren't I? For some reason coming home late from the shops appears to give me Athos-related fic ideas!)
Except this scenario does rather undermine the original line about needing to refer Raoul to the Chevalier d'Herblay (conveniently absent) for details of exactly what happened... which has a whole load more dialogue deriving from it :-(
no subject
Date: 2025-05-24 10:32 pm (UTC)I think the reason why d'Artagnan ducks out of a full account and refers young Raoul to Aramis is precisely *because* Aramis (because he is having a life-crisis moment) is not there... although the ostensible reason he can give, to Porthos if not to the vicomte, is that Aramis is the one who has always had the knack for words and knows how to tell this sort of thing. But basically d'Artagnan is simply delaying matters and/or being evasive in the face of an unpleasant requirement.
We know from canon that he feels uncomfortable about lying to Raoul, although he is prepared to do it. So there are definitely subjects that his conscience is reluctant to discuss where the boy is concerned...