Oh, this is chilling. The setting really works -- it's all chaos and brokenness and lost identities and Hal right in the middle of it, watching the Percies who are somehow outside it all. The reworking of his relationship with Falstaff is downright sinister, although I love the idea of Falstaff as a creator, even if it's in such a wrong way. Hal's moment of realisation was especially striking:
"Yeah." Harry's twitch of a smile was a long way from his usual vaguely insane joy, but it looked half-way to genuine at least. "See you later, then." He clasped Hal's shoulder briefly, and was gone again, leaving Hal to focus on breathing, and breathing, and not giving in, and not crying, and not hating what he now knew.
It had, all of it, been because of what he would become.
And none of it for who he was.
He would never be part of what he had seen, he would never even be invited to look at it again, he would never have even a fraction of that joy or that love or that assuagement of need offered to him.
Poor Hal. So many of his problems come out of who he is and who he wishes he could be. What a fascinating, thought-provoking story!
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timeasmymeasure
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Date: 2011-09-04 04:18 pm (UTC)"Yeah." Harry's twitch of a smile was a long way from his usual vaguely insane joy, but it looked half-way to genuine at least. "See you later, then." He clasped Hal's shoulder briefly, and was gone again, leaving Hal to focus on breathing, and breathing, and not giving in, and not crying, and not hating what he now knew.
It had, all of it, been because of what he would become.
And none of it for who he was.
He would never be part of what he had seen, he would never even be invited to look at it again, he would never have even a fraction of that joy or that love or that assuagement of need offered to him.
Poor Hal. So many of his problems come out of who he is and who he wishes he could be. What a fascinating, thought-provoking story!