Finding the point of the story.

[reynardo]

I wrote two things this Christmas - one as a pinch-hit in the sshg_giftfest (It's not been revealed yet so I'll keep it quiet for a bit longer) and a Corpse Bride Fic for Yuletide that I'm rather pleased with. (If you haven't already, read it before reading the process, as there are spoilers).

The recipient wanted to see where the threesome of Victor, Victoria and Emily would end up if both Victor and Victoria were killed by Lord Barkis at Victor's wedding to Emily. I found myself thinking (with two days to go, mind you. It just wouldn't come out before then) about how Victoria, with her elegant manners, would feel about intruding between the married couple. After all, if they were all alive, it just wouldn't be done.

Then I wondered - what if no-one else knew Victoria was dead - and then the story just fell out.

Because Victor, wonderful bumbling clueless Victor, might not even realise he was talking to another dead person. And Victoria would be too polite to say anything. And then it would take Emily to put some sense into both of them.

So now you know. Hope you enjoyed it.

Comments

[malada]

I don't know the Corpse Bride but I enjoyed your story. Very nice... if a bit, er.... gruesome.

-m

[reynardo]

Short version. Victor and Victoria are having an arranged marriage (her family is upper class but poor, his are middle class and rich). They realise they quite like each other, but he gets flustered during the practise session and goes to recite his vows in the woods. On the "ring" part, he slips the ring onto a twig which turns out to be the bony finger of Emily who was murdered by her fiance when they eloped. He's dragged to the underworld and told he must marry her.

Not being able to marry Victor, Victoria is married off to the recently-arrived Lord Barkis so that he can provide the money her family needs. But it turns out *he* thought *she* was rich.

Victor resigns himself to marrying Emily, but as he's alive, he must drink poison during the ceremony. It's held in the local church, and the townsfolk turn up too. Barkis shows up with Victoria, and is recognised by Emily as her own ex-fiance. Barkis fights Victor, and grabs the cup from the altar to toast him. The cup holds the poison. Barkis drops dead and the Underworld people grab him. Emily is freed from her geas, and Victor is free to marry Victoria. Emily leaves in a shower of butterflies.

The alternative posited for the fic was "Victor dies in the duel and somehow Victoria does too - a dead threesome!"