Wimseyfic (to be precise, Bunterfic)

[nineveh_uk]

This one's for azdak, who having introduced me to "17 Moments of Spring" and then started writing fic about it, inevitably set me off on the same track. I'll have you know the second person narrative is canonical...

Strange, friend

You hesitate for only a moment, for the merest fraction of a fatal second, but it is enough and he notices. How could he not? He has done the same. You face one another, knowing. How alike you are! How could you fail to recognise one another, fail see beneath the disguise the mask worn so long, so perfectly moulded to the skin that you wonder, were you to take it off, what there would be left beneath.

Who is he, in the ridiculous uniform with the oak leaves at the collar and riding breeches who has never sat a horse in his life? But there is neither defiance nor apology in his eyes, no acknowledgement of the possibility of being anything other than what he seems. He is good, very, very good, at this. You’d tip your hat to him, were you wearing one. A fine profile, too. If things don’t work out for him back home Hollywood will be knocking at his door.

You’re only passing through, but seeing him sitting in the office as if minding his own business, as if until only half a minute ago those professional hands hadn’t been running through the desk, you know he’s in it for the long haul. You can afford to take the risk better than he.

‘Excuse me, Standartenführer. I have come to collect the Friedrichs file.’

‘It has already been sent to the Gestapo.’

A sympathetic shrug, a shared front of resignation. Such bureaucratic inefficiency.

‘I am sorry to have troubled you.’

‘It’s no trouble.’ He lights a cigarette without offering you one. Why should he? He is a Standartenführer, while you – humble functionary should cover it, and you climbed in through a window.

‘Perhaps,’ his free hand reaches inside his coat and you ready yourself, but he withdraws only a sheaf of paper, ‘this would serve instead?’

Identification papers: if not the real thing they are real enough to pass at any checkpoint. He’s quite something, this one.

‘Thank you, Standartenführer. Heil Hitler!’

‘Heil Hitler.’

You’re into the hallway, out of the window, on your way home. Ten miles outside the city you stop for a breather and think how much it would amuse his lordship. But something holds you back and you never do tell him.

*

Until it’s 1951 and you’re at a Foreign Office reception. Or rather his lordship is, and you’re supervising the silver service and earwigging what they have to say, British and continentals alike, around servants they assume can’t speak German. You’d think the FO types wouldn’t be so stupid, but it seems not. That’s when you see him, ten years older, but the sleek hair, high forehead, and sad smile are still the same, the perfect image of a Standartenführer, six years too late, in the terrible tailoring that signifies the GDR. He gives no indication that he’s seen you, but of course he wouldn’t.

‘MGB?’ asks his lordship, nodding. ‘What gave him away? Not that I don’t believe you, Bunter old thing, but if that chap’s got a cover story it’s a thing of beauty and a joy forever.’

‘I met him in ’40. He was surprisingly helpful.’

‘Catch each other out, did you?’ says his lordship, whom age cannot wither. ‘All right, I won’t give that away. I don’t suppose he’d be interested in a little job for us?’

‘I very much doubt it.’

‘An honourable retirement, then. He sounds like he deserves it.’

Comments

[azdak.livejournal.com]

Thank you so much! I hadn't realised until you produced it how badly I wanted a Bunter-Stirlitz meeting! I've read this 3 times already and I'll have read it again several times before the day is out. Bunter and Stirlitz, catching each other out with the mask half off - it's wonderful! And Bunter being sniffy about non-riders in German jodhs! And Stirlitz looking melancholy at the F.O. bash (the bit about the terrible tailoring is my favourite - of course Bunter would spot that, and I bet Stirlitz suffered in it, too. He's a careful dresser).

[nineveh-uk.livejournal.com]

I'm so glad you liked it. I felt that Bunter and Stirlitz could plausibly have a certain amount of fellow-feeling about wearing ones emotions on the inside. I bet Bunter would understand the Red Army Day scene, even if he is technically the tool of the capitalist oppressor.

There's some good use of clothes in the series, and I though that ep. 6 brought a new element of that with the first view of Stirlitz in the cliche black leather coat and an emphasis on the uniform in the Kathe plot - but a shot of him all in black in a white corridor with the jodhpurs bagging out from the thighs really struck me as how preposterous they are. I would very much like to know what happens to Stirlitz after the war, now you've set me off on thinking that he can never really go home.

[azdak.livejournal.com]

Liked it? I loved it!

I'm sure Bunter would have a great deal of respect for real Soviets, as opposed to the insipid sort who hang about the Soviet Club.

There is a truly magnificent use of clothes later on in, but I will say nothing more because it's a Moment I absolutely don't want to spoil. It has to be said - preposterous breeches or not - the Nazis had a great sense of theatre and costuming. There's a reason why everyone always wants to wear the German uniforms (including Wilson and PIke).

The good thing about not being able to read the other Stirlitz books because they haven't been translated is that we can make it up! (The last one is very promisingly-titled "Despair" so i don't suppose a happy reunion with Mrs Stirlitz and squalls of grandchildren is on the cards).

[elmey.livejournal.com]

You're the one who told me that Schellenberg in his Memoirs specifically mentions the appeal of the uniform. Talk about letting your id show!

[azdak.livejournal.com]

I find it hilarious that he's so up-front about that. he seems to have no clue of what he's giving away about himself. And saying you got "a better class of person" in the SS!

[elmey.livejournal.com]

They certainly make a big deal about the level of education in the series. Although according to Wikipedia again, they downgraded the education level of a number of the characters.

[azdak.livejournal.com]

Mabe that's why we never get a glimpse of Kaltenbrunner's file. A discrediting liaison AND a doctorate! That doesn't ft the scheme at all!

[nineveh-uk.livejournal.com]

Does that mean "looks better in jodhpurs" or "uses the right spoon"?

[azdak.livejournal.com]

"Knows how to spell Goethe". Or at least "has better things to do on a Saturday night than watch people spit their teeth into a gutter" (the people he felt the SS were a better class of person than were the SA, which doesn't set the bar terribly high).

[nineveh-uk.livejournal.com]

Then I am glad you loved it ;-)

Bunter's lack of respect for the Soviet Club set is probably part and parcel of his general attitude to people hanging around not doing much and going on about how significant and world-changing they are. I bet he'd have been more sympathetic to Lady Mary if she'd stood as a local councillor.

I shall look forward to magnificent clothes later. Maybe the jodhpurs were intended to de-emphasise the size of senior Nazi bums, since this appears to have been an issue. And one must acknowledge that there is little spectacle that is entirely devoid of a bit of silliness.

The good thing about not being able to read the other Stirlitz books because they haven't been translated is that we can make it up!

True! No cries of "but in canon this happens". "Despair" sounds extremely tempting.

[azdak.livejournal.com]

Bunter might even have voted for Lady Mary if she'd stood as a local councillor.

I think you have put your finger on the primary function of the German jodhs. Those whose physiognomy was merely "near the Nordic" in this department were doubtless extremely grateful for them.

[antisoppist.livejournal.com]

Even though I am only up to episode three, this works perfectly well and probably would even with no knowledge of any moments of spring at all. Bunter being aware of the masks - I mean obviously he is but you don't ever get his POV saying so - and noticing all the detail, particularly the clothes.

[azdak.livejournal.com]

You're watching??? I will happily slow down the pace of posting the Moments till you've caught up so you can join in the conversation (or, as translated!subtitled!Schellenberg would say, "I'll slow down the postings?")

[antisoppist.livejournal.com]

I don't think you should slow down on account of my glacial progress. I can catch up. Perhaps I should do ten-minute chunks as a reward for getting some work done rather than trying to find whole hours at a time.

[nineveh-uk.livejournal.com]

Hurray! I am glad you are finding time to watch. Though I shoud probably have done a one-sentence explanation "The other man is a Russian spy in Germany" for the sake of the non-viewers!

I think that if Bunter weren't aware of the mask he couldn't put it back on. Oh! Is this another thing I can complain about in Thrones, Dominations - a story in which the concept of a mask is key, but doesn't explore that aspect of the one character that the canon describes as wearing one.

[mobile-alh.livejournal.com]

I haven't seen the series and know nothing of the books but it was perfectly clear by the end of the fic exactly what was going on, even without the background knowledge. Excellent work!

[nineveh-uk.livejournal.com]

Oh good! Thank you.

[antisoppist.livejournal.com]

Bunter has to be aware of the mask, definitely, but we don't know how he feels about wearing it, how much time he gets not wearing it or whether he is worried it might take him over entirely in the end*. I know here you're talking about different kinds of masks and layers of hidden personalities but it's related, and Thrones ought to have tied in with that, not that it occurred to me before you mentioned it.

*Recalls the famous Miss Yorke headmistress quote somewhere in Dimsie that goes something like "My dear, I'm rarely off duty except when I'm in bed and sometimes not even then".

[nineveh-uk.livejournal.com]

LJ ate my comment. Try again.

I wonder how much the move to a bigger household changes things for Bunter in this respect. In the flat he’s in his own space to some degree, and presumably when he’s getting on with the job and Peter’s not around he can do it as he likes. But in the house he’s going to be on display, if not on duty, a lot more. Another thing T,D didn’t pick up on (it is alright if we don’t, we weren’t paid to).

What Bunter might think about being on duty in bed is another matter ;-)

[antisoppist.livejournal.com]

LJ wasn't notifying me of comments at all last week.

Yes, Bunter has to go from being pretty much his own boss (as much as a servant can be) to being part of a bigger hierarchy and surely there would be a lot of subtle power games involved between him and the butler and housekeeper, even if valets do rank pretty high and the DD has specifically hired people who are unlikely to upset him. In T,D everyone has adjusted far too easily and this is something that has bothered me ever since I first read it. I suppose she addresses the Bunter point slightly by making his brother the butler but that is just avoiding the issue. And has Peter asked him to stay on or discussed any of this with him? It's a long time since that conversation in SP when Bunter offers to resign if his lordship is contemplating changes in his household.

What Bunter might think about being on duty in bed is another matter
My view in TKYKATMYWD was that if she was going to be getting Bunter-on-duty, Harriet wasn't having any of it.

[elmey.livejournal.com]

Oh dear, another one fallen into the rabbit hole of 17 Moments fic. A crossover yet!

I love the unspoken recognition, something only spies can share. And the inevitably unsatisfactory continuation of the masquerade--because what else can you do. I wonder if he still celebrated Red Army Day.

[nineveh-uk.livejournal.com]

My ability to resist tempting fic scenarios is very low.

I hope that Stirlitz got to celebrate a Red Army Day in the middle of cheering Moscow crowds and feeling that everything he had done was worth it. But it would probably only be 24 hours out of having to go back to the secrets.