FIC: The Ghosts of Departed Quantities

[angevin2]

Title: The Ghosts of Departed Quantities
Author: angevin2
Play: Richard II
Character(s)/Pairing(s): Richard/Henry (with reference to Richard/Anne and Henry/Mary)
Rating: kind of a hard R
Word Count: 6295
Warnings: Dodgy sexual ethics; unhealthy relationships; discussion of sleeping with one's students; brief references to various unsavory practices,

Comments

[speak_me_fair]

This is just so funny, and so sad, and oh GOD THE SHEET OF NOTEPAPER, and just --

I don't know whether to laugh, cry, or keep headdesking at the pair of them, because dear God their hopelessness is epic.

(Also, the concession of Richard's practicality re: lube is still my favourite moment.)

[angevin2]

Man, when I was writing it, I got to that part and I was all -- O HAI SURPRISE DEPRESSION. Also, I think the way I write them is supposed to induce laughing and crying and headdesking, but possibly headdesking most of all. ;)

ALSO: Richard is really good at the things he's good at! This includes both sex and enabling sex. He's just a trainwreck in everything else.

[gehayi]

"What are you going to write?" Richard says, still grinning like a particularly sadistic Cheshire cat. "'Calculus IV, department meeting, casual gay sex'?"*dies laughing

[angevin2]

Henry is totally the sort of person for whom if it isn't in the planner, it does not exist. Even if he wouldn't forget. ;)

Anyway! I am glad you liked it, as it was a complete blast to write. I totally wanted to give them both hugs at the end. And SO MUCH THERAPY. BECAUSE THEY TOTALLY NEED THERAPY.

[quoshara]

This might be because other than the Copier Thing (which hardly counts) he can't actually remember the last time he had sex, and dammit, he is forty-six years old and deserves to get laid once in a while.

Truer thoughts have seldom been spoken. *L*

And Sweater.. *does a mental Awwwwww*

This was wonderful fail!sex on a grand scale...hilarious and sad and hopeless.

[angevin2]

Awwww, thank you! We get so much mileage out of poorly-knitted objects in this fandom, I swear...

[angevin2]

Thank you! I'm glad you enjoyed it. :)

[gileonnen]

*smile* I think you've heard my comments on the earlier bits, and how I enjoy the antagonism--Henry prepares for sex not as though he's doing his homework, but as though he's girding himself for war; Richard literally cannot conceive of their relationship in any terms but terms of opposition--but I want to note that I adore the ending. I love the two parallel scenes of failed comfort: That explains so much and Why are boys stupid. They're such helpless statements; they observe that human relationships are predicated on so much that we can't change or fix, and yet there's this desperate attempt to understand embedded in them.

Really wonderful stuff. <333

[angevin2]

I've always suspected that Henry also did homework as though he was girding himself for war. ;)

Anyway, I am thrilled that you liked it, and you always give excellent comments. I am not sure why I write failed comfort so much, probably because I have issues, but it suits the canon awfully well.