[FICATHON] Not With the Empty Hollowness, for speak_me_fair

[angevin2]

Title: Not With the Empty Hollowness
Author: angevin2
Recipient: speak_me_fair
Play: Richard II
Characters/Pairing: Richard/Anne, Richard/Aumerle, Richard/Robert de Vere, with reference to Richard/Isabel and Richard/minions
Rating: PG-13
Word Count: 1876
Warnings: Somewhat graphic illness and decay; medieval English attitudes toward the Irish; gratuitous vomit;

Comments

[speak_me_fair]

Firstly: You have broken my heart. Which may have been inevitable with this theme, but still. Wow.

ANYWAY.

Images that stood out for me and were just so immediate and perfect that I ached: Anne singing. Oh God. That just -- there is no comfort possible for Richard having witnessed that.

Robert's desperation: his own eyes were red-rimmed and wet, and his voice sharp. Because sharpness in someone's voice is so often used to mean anger, and here it's despair, and that's perfect.

Richard knowing what he's doing to Edward and unable to stop -- I kept thinking of the quote at this point "The wood of the Cross is cut from the Tree of Knowledge", and marvelling at how apt the whole thing was.

The tomb. Just that entire little perfect section.

And of course, the last line. Because. Henry who's not there and yet is, always.

I love how the three kings are woven in with their foretelling, I love all the imagery of effigy and reality, I just --

*feels completely inadequate with this comment*

It was BRILLIANT. And now I am going to read it again.

[angevin2]

I am so so glad that you liked it; as I keep saying, I was really worried! Because you are awesome and deserve awesome fic, and the fics you wrote are so amazing!

Also you were a pretty major influence on the bits with Edward especially. And I kind of get now why people don't usually write Richard/Aumerle from Richard's POV; it's really hard to strike the right balance between affection and toxicity (of course in the Victorian AU Richard talks about it all the time, which helps, though I think writing Richard's POV would still be hard).

(Also also, I was especially proud of the tomb part myself. :D)

[speak_me_fair]

Trying to strike that balance is hell-on-earth, I can see why everyone avoids it!

(and you should be. Because it was SIMPLY AMAZING.)

[angevin2]

It also makes me want to try it and THAT WAY LIES MADNESS.

...which probably does make for a more effective Richard POV, but still!