[FICATHON] O Du Mein Holder Abendstern

[lareinenoire]

Title: O Du Mein Holder Abendstern
Author: speak_me_fair
Play: Richard II
Recipient: highfantastical
Characters: Richard II, Henry Bolingbroke, Edward of York, mentions of Isabel, Harry Percy, Hal Monmouth, Robert de Vere, Queen Anne.
Warnings: Character death. AU. German Opera. Thoughts of suicide. Hesiod. Hunting. Slash. Het. Misquotes.
Rating: PG-13
Summary: No-

Comments

[highfantastical]

This is an AMAZING fic - I have no idea who you are! But thank you so much! I'm awfully sorry this comment is so late, I was away and have literally just got back. (SO tantalising to know they'd been posted and have no internet access, argh!). Anyway, this was an absolute joy to read - I was having to suppress the urge to shriek out loud with joy at the rhythm of the prose. I love AUs in this fandom with all my heart, they seem to work so well, and this is no exception - there's so much going on, but it's all perfectly controlled and held in balance. I found it incredibly moving to read, and I really didn't want it to end! Thank you for making the ficathon so fantastic for me.

Edited to add VOWELS (aaah, typing in haste) and also to change my mind and say maybe I do suspect your identity, maybe. Honestly, this fic! It makes me shivery. I love your Aumerle IMMENSELY. I love the way you play with this whole universe of quotation and allusion - it works brilliantly

[highfantastical]

...I KNEW IT WAS YOU. Not instantly, but I worked it out. Heeeeee. Clearly I am YOU ARE just that good. XD Anyway - THANK YOU again, so, so much: I truly could not have enjoyed this more.

[speak_me_fair]

*laughs* Well, it wasn't hard to guess, I'll admit that freely....

And you are more than welcome, I had an absolutely incredible time writing it. (I broke a couple of people in the process, but my theory is since I wasn't the first one to break them, it's just fine...)

[speak_me_fair]

I am just so glad you liked it! Much was the gibbering in the hours before posting (I think poor angevin2 got three versions all with INFINITESIMAL EDITS) before I forced myself to close the document down.

And I love AUs too -- I think it's because you get to play happily with highlighting such different things that are not necessarily meant to be the focus of the play and yet brainworm (is that a word? It is now!) you.

[angevin2]

This fic breaks my heart into TINY LITTLE PIECES and then STOMPS ON THEM.

[speak_me_fair]

I KEEP APOLOGISING FOR THAT! *apologetic hugs*

BUT THEN YOU DID IT TO ME.

SO THERE.

(and the worst thing is, I feel proud of myself for achieving this!)

[gehayi]

He still feels as though somehow he has become the traitor, that every time he wakes up and does not feel the vast empty ache of loss, he is become the very embodiment of perfidious Albion.

Every second that he spends not missing them, not longing for Anne's company, not yearning for Robert's familiar embrace, he thinks of as being somehow a sin greater than any the world might deem him to have committed.

Oh, God, RICHARD. I know just how Edward feels because I want to hug Richard and comfort him and make it all better and nothing ever can. And I want to smack Henry for betraying Richard and not quite understanding that it is betrayal until it's too late. And Edward, who tries so hard for so very long, is as heartbreaking as Richard sunk in despair.

I'm sitting here right now trying not to cry.

[speak_me_fair]

They are all incredibly painful to watch. I think this is my main compulsion towards different time-period AUs -- you can make people hope something will change (because some circumstances do) and then make the inevitable immediate again....

Edward broke my heart to write, but then he always does. I'm always reminded with him of the story about Faithful John with the iron bands around his heart to keep it from breaking (of course this story used to reduce my brother to tears of hysterical laughter, so it's entirely possible this is not all that good a spirit level to be using....)

Thank you so much for reading this and sympathising with them (especially Henry. He can't help not understanding. Even if I want to smack him too...)

[angevin2]

YES BUT YOUR BROTHER IS AN ASSHOLE.

(anyway, I've always thought so too.)

[speak_me_fair]

*cracks up laughing*

TOO TRUE.

[likeadeuce]

This is a greata re-imagining and exploration of the characters. I really like the parallels between Percy and Edward (*cough* I-ship-it *cough*).

And just how concisely passages like this sum up the complexity of the relationships:

There's whatever has been going on for years between Richard and Henry, which seems to have spilled over into who can gain the most admiration from Henry's boy Hal, who is in turn trying to impress Richard, annoy his father, and gain all of Harry Percy's attention in the space of five minutes.

That entire scene at the hunt is great (and somehow it all ends up feeling like Hal's fault, or maybe that's just me.)

[speak_me_fair]

Everything is Hal's fault. Always. Even when he hasn't been born. This is my rule of thumb *G*.

(No, it's not really, but you know what I mean.)

The parallels between Percy and Edward are something I so love exploring -- I never seem to do it fully enough for my own satisfaction, but one day I'll get there!

(Shipping it is awesome. No coughing to disguise the fact!)

[likeadeuce]

I did not guess that you wrote this -- or I think I initially guessed but I forgot in my excitement about the Chaucer story -- but anyway love, love, love. Aumerle/Percy <3 <3.

[speak_me_fair]

*laughs* I seem to have been rather like the Spanish Inquisition with this fic *G* utterly predictable and yet somehow not really!

You need little sparkly hearts, you and that pairing *G*.

[lareinenoire]

Wow. Wow, wow, WOW.

::smacks self into coherence, or some semblance thereof::

There is so much heartbreak in this fic -- Richard and Henry, Richard and Edward, the lingering ghosts of Robbie and Anne -- and it's all so tightly woven together into a wonderfully shadowy setting. I knew from the start, with that initial, darling, adorable scene between Richard and Henry, that this was going to shatter me, and it completely did.

Also, for lack of Tannhauser, I went for Tristan und Isolde, and OH, MY GOD. Because if there is any character who absolutly exemplifies Eros/Thanatos and the tangled threads of love and death, it would have to be Richard.

Edward really is the fulcrum of this story, anchoring Richard until he can't any longer and OH, GOD, THAT FINAL SCENE. MY HEART. And all the cracks that fracture from it -- Henry and Edward and even Harry Percy.

This is utterly magnificent.

[speak_me_fair]

Wow. THANK YOU.

(Also, you really are a masochist. Seriously. Tristan und Isolde for this? OW.)

I think one of the things I liked most about using Tannhauser was the irony of Richard's perspective of it. But then, the hero always is more oblivious to nuance than we'd like to think...

I'm glad I brought the outward-spidering cracks that result from Richard's death off -- that is a terrible thing to be pleased with, I know, but I truly am!

[lareinenoire]

Well, what with it being a German Opera AU, I had to go with Wagner, and my Wagner collection is somewhat limited. My other option was random bits from Gotterdammerüng, which doesn't quite work either. But, yes, in short, I am a masochist.

And I do love oblivious!hero irony (as you probably know already), but I loved in particular that Edward got it. And, yes, the ramifications of Richard's death were just staggeringly well-brought-out. Henry in particular was just...gah, it hurt. It hurt in the best possible way.

[speak_me_fair]

I cannot say enough how pleased I am that Henry did NOT come across as a complete unthinking bastard. He has the worst possible choices to make in all dimensions -- and I so feel for him, whatever he might be responsible for.