potentiality_26

Fandom: The Promethean Age series by Elizabeth Bear
Subject: Kit Marlowe/Will Shakespeare
Title: We Were Nothing Like the Rest
Warnings/Notes: Spoilers for the Stratford Man duology (Ink and Steel and Hell and Earth); warnings for RPS, infidelity and canon character death; made for

waywardmixes challenge #24 (OTP).

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The Stratford Man duology is part of the Promethean Age series, and is set in Eilzabethan England. In it, England is under magical threat from various enemies, and part of the task of certain famous playwrights is to infuse their works with spells to keep their country strong. The first book begins with Christopher Marlowe's historical death in a bar brawl- but this is just the beginning for him and Will Shakespeare, as they are both drawn into an enormous battle between good and evil, waged on the page and on the streets of London- and in the land of Faerie. Because Kit is still alive, and in Faerie, where he has been asked to work for Queen Mab as he once did for Elizabeth- and he and Will have to work together to defend the realms from people who want to destroy them both.

Kit and Will have a tumultuous relationship, to be sure. In the beginning, they are friends and nothing more- but when Kit takes to Will to Faerie to save him from people who want him dead, things change and they get closer. When they aren't going through Hell (literally and figuratively) to save each other, they have a tendency to just make each other miserable, but the fact that they love each other is undeniable.

I love these books passionately, and as such I'd like to think I'm not the only one who thinks this sounds the best idea ever, so my spoiler-y song by song analysis is under a cut. If you've read the Promethean Age series or don't care about spoilers, check it out- otherwise, on to the track list.

When Will takes Kit's place writing plays to protect the country, he is thrown into a world more dangerous than he could have imagined, and the politics Kit has to contend with in Faerie are no less frightening (1). At first, Will doesn't know his friend is still alive, and he suspects that Kit's work had more to do with his death than anything. He worries for himself, but more than that, he hates the slanderous rumors circulating the city, basically saying that Kit finally got what he deserved (2). Kit finally reveals himself to an old friend- the spymaster Francis Walsingham- and finds out what has been happening in England in his absence. He doesn't want Will anywhere near the work he used to do, but there isn't much he can do except write suggestions in the margins of Will's new plays- to be rewritten by Walsingham's secretary after the fact to disguise his writing. But Will knows Kit's turn of phrase in a second, and Kit has to admit that he's alive. From then on, they write to each other between England and Faerie (3). After a while, Kit decides he must cut ties with England and Will and accept his new life in Faerie. Will keeps writing letters that he knows his friend no longer reads (4).

But when Kit learns that Will's son has died and that there is a plot against him, he comes to Will's rescue and takes him back to Faerie (5). Perhaps it's the environment, but Will finds himself looking at Kit differently, and it scares him enough that he starts something with a woman he meets in Faerie, Morgan le Fey. Little does he know that Kit is already involved with Morgan, and- though he has little affection for her- Kit continues the relationship, primarily because of the connection it gives him to Will, who he has loved for some time. Kit and Will do eventually act on their feelings for each other, but their happiness is short lived- Will soon finds out about Kit and Morgan. Will is angry, even though he knows he has little right to be; he even concludes that they were both with him out pity (6). He also finds out that Faerie must send a sacrifice to Hell every seven years in order to maintain a treaty with them, and that they plan to send Kit. Despite his anger, Will resolves to go in the other man's place (7).

Kit follows Will to Hell, resolved to do whatever it takes to save his lover (8). He manages it, but both of them come back different than they were. Will has resolved to treat his family better, and he's come up with a plan to save England- while Kit is changed on a much more fundamental level- he is a warlock now, human touch hurts him, and he knows things about himself and the world which will change everything (9).

Things are not good in England- the Queen is dying, the plague runs rampant, and Kit and Will work together to find and defeat their enemies (10). Between Will's new promises to be faithful to his wife and Kit's inability to withstand much physical contact, their relationship is very much changed- and yet Will seems to think about Kit more than ever, and they become even closer (11). When Will catches a fever, Kit nurses him through it. When Kit is kidnapped and held prisoner, Will works with Kit's allies in Faerie to track him down (12). Kit comes up with a plan to defeat the people who want to use to him to work a spell that will effectively change the world, but he knows he may not come out of it whole (13). Will comes to the rescue just in time, and though it is possible that they have just put off the end of the world as they know it, they have done their best (14).

Kit is now more Faerie than human, and so he must watch Will age while never doing so himself. He is even at Will's bedside when he dies (15). The battle Kit is fighting, however, isn't over and he can only hope that by the time Judgement Day comes, he will have changed things for the better- for himself and for Will (16). Kit knows that he will live for a very long time- perhaps forever- without aging, and he will live long enough to see himself and the man he loves become legends (17).

The cover art is a 1593 map of the Bankside (including the Rose theater) from here. I could probably have tried something a little more adventurous (my fancasting for Kit Marlowe is Tom Mison, though I have no idea who would be Will) but I'm not an artsy person, so I just fiddled a bit with colors and textures and called it good.

1. Any Other World- Mika

Smile like you mean it
And let yourself let go

Cos it's all in the hands of a bitter, bitter man
Say goodbye to the world you thought you lived in
Take a bow, play the part of a lonely lonely heart
Say goodbye to the world you thought you lived in
To the world you thought you lived in

2. Icarus- Bastille

Look who's digging their own grave
That is what they all say
You'll drink yourself to death

Look who makes their own bed
Lies right down within it
And what will you have left?

3. Pictures of You- Vitamin String Quartet

(Instrumental)

4. England- The National

Put an ocean and a river
Between everybody else,
Between everything, yourself, and home

5. Mountain Sound- Of Monsters & Men

Alone we travelled on with nothing but a shadow
We fled, far away

6. Rolling in the Deep- The Piano Guys

(Instrumental)

7. My Blood- Ellie Goulding

The lost dreams are buried in my sleep for him
And this was the ecstasy of a love forgotten
And I'm thrown in the gunfire of empty bullets
And my blood is all I see
As you steal my soul from me

8. The Sword and the Pen- Regina Spektor

So what if nothing is safe
So what if no one is saved
No matter how sweet
No matter how brave
What if each to his own lonely grave

I don’t want to live without you

9. The Big Afraid- 65daysofstatic

(Instrumental)

10. Pompeii- Bastille

And the walls kept tumbling down
In the city that we love
Great clouds roll over the hills
Bringing darkness from above

11. Guilty as Charged- Tegan and Sara

A blessing in disguise I was on your mind
Try as you might you may well soon find
I am yours but you can't be mine
I am sure you'll always be mine

And so I go back home to be by myself
I try everything I've ever read
Desperate, I still can't get you out of my head

12. Your Hand in Mine (Goodbye)- Explosions in the Sky

(Instrumental)

13. Out Like a Lion- Whitehorse

Come to life
In the spring
I was shaking from your sting
But you should know
In like lamb
Out like a lion
I came in like a lamb
Out like a lion

14. An End Has a Start- Editors

I won't disappoint you
As you fall apart
Some things should be simple
Even an end has a start

Someone hit the light
'Cause there's more here to be seen
When you caught my eye
I saw everywhere I'd been
And wanna go to

15. Never Let Me Go- Florence + the Machine

And the arms of the ocean are carrying me
And all this devotion was rushing out of me
In the crushes of heaven for a sinner like me
But the arms of the ocean delivered me

16. The Beginning After the End- Stars

(Instrumental)

17. Pictures of You- The Cure

I've been looking so long at these pictures of you
That I almost believe that they're real
I've been living so long with my pictures of you
That I almost believe that the pictures are
All I can feel

Remembering you
Standing quiet in the rain
As I ran to your heart to be near
And we kissed as the sky fell in
Holding you close
How I always held close in your fear
Remembering you
Running soft through the night
You were bigger and brighter and whiter than snow
And screamed at the make-believe
Screamed at the sky
And you finally found all your courage
To let it all go