geeking out on shakespeare's histories

Title: Gimmors and Devices
Author: gehayi
Recipient: lareinenoire
Fandom: Crossover between Richard II and Thomas of Woodstock
Characters: Eleanor de Bohun (Duchess of Gloucester), Brother Conrad, Thomas of Woodstock (Duke of Gloucester), John of Gaunt, Edmund of Langley (Duke of York), Richard II, Henry Bolingbroke (later Henry IV), Sir Henry Green, Sir John Bushy, Sir William Bagot, Martha, Rhisiart, Anne of Bohemia, Mafeo of Venice, Sir Robert Tresilian, assorted Entertainers
Word Count: 26048
Rating: PG-13
Disclaimer: I most emphatically am not William Shakespeare. This should not come as a shock to anyone.
Prompt: Crackfic crossover between Richard II and Thomas of Woodstock. Preferably involving zombie!Greene, illicit shagging, and Richard with multiple personality disorder (since I really can't think of any other way to explain the brain transplant between the two plays. Aside from maybe an actual brain transplant or claiming Woodstock!Richard is in fact an android. Which would also work.).
Summary: Steampunk medieval, featuring Baconesque arcane computers, Eleanor de Bohun as a designer and builder of clockwork men called "brassheads,"  Brasshead! Richard II, Dominican monks as "revivifiers," Franciscans as "mechanical scientists" and "prognosticators," and Green (Richard II's lover) as a power-hungry mad scientist. Also contains multiple viewpoints, implied robot sex, one zombie and hot air balloons.
Warnings (if any): First, one marriage between an adult man and a child is mentioned--that of Thomas of Woodstock and his wife Eleanor de Bohun, who married him at ten. From what I've been able to discover, Thomas behaved toward Eleanor as a brother to a much younger sister until she was old enough to bear children--and they genuinely seem to have loved each other as adults. There's no sex described, but this still might be triggery for some people. Second, there is mistaken identity!sex with two other couples as a plot point. Third, there's mention of mind control...which is deliberately creepy.
Author's Notes: (if any) The title is from this line in Henry VI, Part 1. Reignier, the Duke of Anjou and titular King of Naples, says this of the English army:

I think, by some odd gimmors or device
Their arms are set like clocks, stiff to strike on;
Else ne'er could they hold out so as they do.
By my consent, we'll even let them alone.

I love that Shakespeare is talking about a clockwork (or at least a cyborg) army.
Oh, and "gimmors" is an archaic word. We aren't sure what it meant; "gimmick" or "gimcrackery" seem to be the closest definitions.
***
( The first two clockwork men were only toys, a Christmas gift for a ten-year-old boy king that its designer began on the day the lad was crowned. )

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