geeking out on shakespeare's histories

Title: This Earth Shall Have a Feeling
Author: angevin2
Play: Richard II
Recipient: gileonnen
Character(s)/Pairing(s): Richard II, Henry Bolingbroke, occasional others
Warnings: No common triggers. Contains self-loathing, loathing of other people, mild clockpunk elements, dead children, faulty understanding of religion, period attitudes toward sexuality, and unmerited resentment of dead people.
Rating: It's pretty close to G-rated. There is like one use of the word catamites.
Summary: For the first time in generations, England has a king without magic.
Notes: The bit about Edward I attempting to exhume Arthur is real, although its results are obviously not; the references to cramp-rings and touch-pieces are also basically accurate. Clockwork gardens were also a real thing, although quite a bit later than Richard II. Finally, I am infinitely grateful to everyone who held my hand while I was writing this fic and helped me to work out reasonably consistent rules for the magic.

( What had always bothered Thomas the most was the bees. )

speak_me_fair and I have a new year's gift -- since that is TOTALLY HOW THEY DID IT BACK THEN -- for histories!fandom, in the form of our first ACTUAL FIC COLLABORATION. Hope you enjoy!

Title: Fugue, Chorale
Author: speak_me_fair and angevin2
Characters/Pairing: Richard/Aumerle
Rating: R
Word Count: 2745
Warnings: Fairly explicit sex, extremely explicit angst, bad poetry, puns, hunting references, unhealthy uses of ink, hypothetical references to sex with John Gower
Notes: Edward of York wrote The Master of Game, the oldest extant English hunting manual, at least partly while in prison on suspicion of treason (he was, obviously, not convicted). It is in large part a translation of Gaston de Foix's Livre de chasse, as Edward himself points out in the story, although there are additions and subtractions to make the work suitable for an English audience. All quotations from the text come from the well-known 1904 edition with an introduction by Theodore Roosevelt, who refers to the text's two authors as "mighty men with their hands." (Fnarr.) There is no evidence that Edward was working on this project as early as 1396-97 (which is when we are assuming this fic takes place), but he could have been, as the original was completed ten years previously.

( Edward looked down at his hands and beneath them he saw not only -- papers-- ink-- words -- )

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; inexplicit sex
Summary: Nature is fine in love, and where 'tis fine / It sends some precious instance of itself / After the thing it loves.
Notes: Some details are clarified in endnotes. Where history diverges from Shakespeare, I have followed Shakespeare throughout. Many thanks to everyone who offered input and encouragement during the writing of this fic.

O that I were as great
As is my grief, or lesser than my name!
Or that I could forget what I have been,
Or not remember what I must be now!
-- Richard II 3.3.136-39

( There were once three kings out hunting when they became separated from their retainers.... )

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. )

continued here

Title: Still-Breeding Thoughts
Author: assimbya
Play: Richard II
Recipient: aris_tgd
Character/Pairing: Richard, references to Richard/Bolingbroke and Richard/Aumerle
Warnings: References to sexuality, brief references to violence, Richard's thought processes.
Rating: PG
Summary: Alone in captivity, Richard muses and dreams.

( Within the small world of his prison, Richard dreams. )