La Bohème [backdated to Friday, gathering-style]

[lil_blondeangel]

At ten to seven the lights in the main halls flashed, and people hurried to their seats as the lights in the auditorium went down. Behind the curtain, everyone was waiting silently in their places. then the curtain came up, the lights came up, the music started and the spectacle had begun

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[faramir_hurin]

"I remember a number of them, but there are two Elves here that will know more." Well, one certainly and another possibly. "Although Lord Finrod will know mostly Quenya, and likely things that were lost by my time."

I wonder...

"I certainly know the story of Beren and Luthien. If it did not upset Lord Finrod, that would be a very good story to start with." I must explain... "It was on Beren's quest to win Luthien that Lord Finrod was killed by Sauron. But it is one of the greatest love stories on all of Arda--between a high-born Elf lady and a Mortal Man."

She was part Maia, but it's confusing enough if you're not familiar with it.

"I do not know if you met her, Meg, but Lady Arwen was here for a time. She's a... not exactly granddaughter, more distant. It's said that she resembles Luthien. She was so beautiful that I could believe it easily." Annatar would know but I do not wish to ask. "Luthien was considered by many to be the most beautiful Elleth of all time."

Perhaps I shouldn't talk so much. And I do have questions.

"Are you older than you appear? I do not mean to be rude, but you look more modern than a person fairly newly arrived here might." Not that I know how long he's been here. "So you were a writer then, as well?"

[lil_blondeangel]

"Oh, that would be wonderful... love stories make beautiful ballets - and plays and operas..." she breathed, not really wanting to interrupt, but unable to restrain her enthusiasm.

[his_ganymede]

"They certainly do," Kit agreed with Meg in a smile. "Even if my plays rarely focused on such. My poetry did, at least..."

He glanced at Faramir, as that had confirmed one of his questions. "I am a writer, yes. Poet, playwright, sometime essayist. It's been a while since I set pen to paper, though." His smile turned a little bit wry. "I am far older than I appear, yes. A little perk to having been stolen away by fairies when I was 29."

[faramir_hurin]

"I've not seen your poetry. I enjoy such things and have read some by Shakespeare, but I've never heard of a Kit Marley." He knew Shakespeare and wrote. "I saw a Ben Jonson and a Christopher Marlowe, but I'd already heard of Shakespeare."

Marley is close to Marlowe, is it not? But that's perfectly normal compared with...

"Stolen away by fairies? I suppose having such a thing happen makes coming to the village as we all have seem almost normal." It has happened to him before. "I was not taken by fairies, but I was in a pocket universe before this one. That made my arrival here easier."

I'm not sure what he means by fairies. I don't think he's talking the little flying creatures that little girls think of.

"Did they wish you to write for them?"

[lil_blondeangel]

Meg now wondered. Hadn't he said his name was Christopher Marlowe, when they first met? But she'd taken to calling him Kit, as he seemed to prefer it... could they be the same?

"What sort of fairies?" Meg asked. They hadn't really talked that much about his past, just about the opera. "Some in stories are quite nice, and others seem evil..."

[his_ganymede]

Kit was torn between vague amusement that his nickname threw things into confusion and delight that someone in this god-and-apparently-literary-forsaken village had actually heard of him.

"Forgive me--I'm used to introducing myself by that which people got in the habit of calling me, and no one has called me Christopher since my mother. But Christopher Marlowe was the name they gave me on my christening, and I am very pleased to hear you've read some of my work."

He shrugged slightly, "As for the Fae...writing was one piece of what they wanted, but mostly the Mebd needed a spymaster of her own, as well as a bard." He glanced at Meg. "The Fae are pretty much like humans in that way--some are nice, some not so nice. They have their own distinct species as well. The Tuatha de Daanan rule them, but they come in all shapes and sizes. Leanan Sidhe and kelpie and sprites and Pucks and trolls and more. They are a diverse people, and none governed by the rules of morality which humans take to be at least basic. Even those we might consider...evil, say the Unseelie, are more...amoral than anything."

[faramir_hurin]

"So Kit Marley is what you prefer to be called now? I will call you Kit if that is what you wish." I want to use the names people like. And I hadn't said I read his work but I saw it. I'll be reading the poetry now--I'll look for it tomorrow. "And I hope that all of your writings have not just disappeared from the library. It's doubtful but the village could do that."

I would like to compare his work with the famous Shakespeare's. His name is spoken so often and Marlowe and Jonson so little.

"We do not have beings like the Fae on Middle-earth." Not really. I'm trying to remember all he says and my memory is very good; it's just that the words are new. "Can their own people not do such work?"

Perhaps they look too strange.

[lil_blondeangel]

"I suppose I must read more English literature." Meg said, a little sheepishly. "Else I would have recognized you when first we met." She said to Kit.

Amoral, not evil... Her mother said similar things about the Phantom. Not evil, he just... saw things differently.

"You have elves, though, don't you? But I suppose... those are not really the same thing."

[his_ganymede]

"Family names were not so stringent in my day as they are now. Marlowe is still fine--my friends just tended to...casualize it, I suppose. But Kit, yes. I do prefer Kit." He looked a little startled at the idea that his work might have disappeared, but shrugged slightly. "Let me know if it has, I'm sure I can recreate some of it, at least."

It would have amused him to think of comparison with Will when there was so much cross-pollination between them.

"From what I have heard of elves in literature, at least, they are very similar to our Tuatha de Daanan," Kit ventured. "Though I have not read a great deal of modern fantasy literature, I'll admit. I've mostly just heard the court complaining about it."

[faramir_hurin]

"If the village removes it, I'm guessing there is a reason. But I would like to read it. My own poetry is absolutely terrible, I must admit." But I admit it with a smile.

"We have Elves. Two of them are here in the village, though both from far before my time."

And I must look rather embarrassed.

"As to modern fantasy literature... have you ever heard of Lord of the Rings?" I suppose Meg might have found out eventually.

[lil_blondeangel]

Meg for the most part didn't have much to add, having read very little English literature, and even less in the original language.

"I haven't." she said when he asked about Lord of the Rings, but she doubted they were surprised.

[his_ganymede]

"Not everyone is meant to be a poet," Kit said with a kind smile. "Else then world would be too full of those writing to find the time to build appreciative readers."

Even if writers were generally avid readers, as well. It wasn't the same, in Kit's mind, as an adoring audience--a thing of which he was quite fond.

"I have heard of it." Kit gave a slight nod. "I have not had a chance to read it, however, as when we were able to obtain copies...things were a little out of hand and curling up with a book was unfortunately low on my priority list." Figuring out how to deal with the Mebd sending Murchaud to Hell had been his higher concern.

[faramir_hurin]

"I write because I enjoy it and find it calming, not because I'm good at it. I read for quality work." Though mostly in Elvish.

"Most of the book takes place about five years in my future, but it's about Middle-earth. I've read some of it, though I should not have." It's embarrassing. "Nothing of myself, but my brother's death. I'd already been warned of it."

I take a deep breath.

"There are a large number of people who have read it or have seen films made of the story, and all of them know things about my future that I do not. Though I obviously know of my brother." I turn to Meg. "My father doesn't know about the book. It just seemed only fair to mention it now. It's not completely accurate."

Now I smile and put a hand to my hair.

"Raven-headed I am not."

I used movieverse icons because they were easily obtainable and when I originally began playing, I had one day lead time. Also, it would have been very confusing for people to have had a black-haired Faramir when a lot of people are more familiar with the movies. On the plus side, I could use Michael Praed as Annatar instead. :)

[lil_blondeangel]

Meg was a little surprised, and also a little taken aback. "Well, that's... very odd, isn't it? To find an inaccurate portrayal of yourself in a book meant to entertain?"

[[yeah, I did the same thing with Lyra. I'm not sure how I feel about the actress in the movie - I don't think she's scruffy enough - but it's less confusing this way.]]

[his_ganymede]

"That's a good reason to write," Kit acknowledged with a smile He listened to the description of the books with a tilt of his head. "I've had a few books written about me, but none ever quite get it right and those are touted as non-fiction. I can't imagine how disturbing it would be to find a work touting to be fiction but still..my life."

[faramir_hurin]

"I've had some time to get used to it, and I'm not a terribly important character, I've been told. I did have someone tell me that my problems didn't matter because I wasn't real, but that was a long time ago. I wasn't particularly amused by that individual, especially since I was trying to help him at the time." It's very rude to tell someone standing right in front of you that they aren't real: they might decide to hit you.

I didn't, but perhaps I should have.

"So it is fiction somewhere. Perhaps the writer was a prophet, in a way, and either changed things or got them wrong by accident. Perhaps he did not see all clearly. I don't know." I shrug. "It's keeping the book from father and not learning any more of my future than I already do that's difficult. But I'm sure people react when they hear your name, too. Unless they don't relate Kit Marley to Christopher Marlowe, even as I did not."

He must know.