Fanfic / With a Key and a Kite

With a Key and a Kite is a complete Hamilton fanfiction written by wobblyheadeddollcaper on Archive of Our Own. It takes place during the same time as the musical, but gives the characters powers.

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With a Key and a Kite provides examples of:

• Adapted Out: Inverted Trope. Henry Laurens was John Laurens' father in real life, who was not included in the musical but gets mentioned in this fic. Likewise with his wife and his other two surviving sons that aren't John, although they have No Name Given.
• Alternate Universe Fic: It's a fanfiction with "Alternate Universe - Superheroes/Superpowers."
• Anti-Magic: Aaron Burr's superpower is that everyone else's superpowers don't work on him.
• Been There, Shaped History: It's implied historical events didn't change much, but Eliza goes west and south as the United States expands, campaigns for women's suffrage in New York in 1900, and shakes Dr. Martin Luther King's hand.
• Beethoven Was an Alien Spy: Or, a ton of characters were superpowered individuals. Most of the major Hamilton characters get powers, and in the background about half of the thirteen colonies and a quarter of Europe has powers.
• Completed Fic: The fanfiction was completed in 2016.
• Differently Powered Individual: People who have a power are called "gifted," and those who don't are "ungifted."
• Elderly Immortal: Eliza Hamilton lives to at least 2001, and by then she has looked seventy-five years old for decades. She was born in 1757, making her 244, so she appears 169 years younger than her real age. This may be a Downplayed Trope, as it's not clear whether she's actually immortal or just Long-Lived.
• Emotion Bomb: Alexander Hamilton can flood someone with emotions to the point they’re disoriented from what they were originally doing. Although Thomas Jefferson has a very similar power to Hamilton that also involves sending emotions to other people, Word of God says he cannot emotion bomb people, at least not without creating a feedback loop with another projection empath.
• Emotion Control: It’s possible for Alexander Hamilton and Thomas Jefferson to achieve this effect, although it’s implied it’s not true emotion control so much as confusing projected emotions with your own, since Eliza Hamilton has allowed Alexander to project emotions to her for a good portion of their marriage and “is able to distinguish her own emotions from those Alexander projects. She cannot be manipulated by him anymore, only informed.”
• The Empath: Alexander Hamilton and Thomas Jefferson are projection empaths: they can project feelings to other people. Hamilton can only send his own emotions, while Jefferson can send anything he wants other people to feel. Hamilton's daughter Angelica is also said to be a "natural empath," although the specifics of her power aren't revealed.
• Healing Factor: A downplayed version of this trope is part of Eliza Schuyler Hamilton's power. Her bruises fade in hours instead of days.
• Historical Domain Character: Part of the territory when writing fanfiction of Hamilton, whose named characters were all people who existed in real life.
• Historical Domain Superperson: This fic gives many of the Historical Domain Characters from Hamilton superpowers. Alexander Hamilton and Thomas Jefferson are projection empaths, with Hamilton able to Emotion Bomb people, George Washington and Marquis de La Fayette are Seers. Alexander's wife, Eliza Schuyler Hamilton, heals quickly and is immune to infections and diseases and is either unnaturally long-lived or an Elderly Immortal, it's left ambiguous, her sister Angelica Schuyler Church is a mindreader, Alexander's daughter Angelica is an empath, Aaron Burr's power is that no powers work on him, John Laurens' parents both have powers, and about a quarter of the entire European population and half of the population of the 13 colonies have superpowers.
• Ideal Illness Immunity: Part of Eliza Schuyler Hamilton’s power: she‘s immune to infection and disease. When everyone in her house gets scarlet fever, she doesn't, and drinking at homes with cholera still doesn’t give her any ailments.
• In-Series Nickname: "Eliza" for Elizabeth Schuyler. Alexander writes to her calling her "Betsey," which was a real nickname he used for her historically. Her sister Angelica also once calls her "Liza."
• In Spite of a Nail: In spite of tons of the characters having superpowers, things play out as they did in Hamilton except the part where Eliza lives way more than just "another 50 years" and becomes president.
• Living Relic: Eliza Schuyler Hamilton, old enough at the time of the Revolutionary War to understand what was going on, lives to at least 2001. During her extended lifetime, she personally fought for women's suffrage in 1900 and shook Martin Luther King's hand, giving her even more firsthand historical knowledge.
• Magic Realism: Though the main focus of the story is the powers, since that's where the story diverges from Hamilton canon, and the world In-Universe may be paying them more attention too, since the number of gifted people is growing, the thirteen colonies (about half the population is powered) are about to fight the British (a quarter of the European population is powered), and there's a debate about using powers in wartime, ultimately powers are a very normal thing in-universe, and they've been around since the beginning of recorded history according to Word of God in a comment.
• Mental Affair: Alexander used his projection power as a sex aid.
  Alexander had shared his desire for [Eliza], reflecting back her beauty, and they had kindled each other into ecstasy.
• Military Mage:
  • The Marquis de Lafayette and George Washington. They use their Seer powers in the Revolutionary War. Though they say their powers are unreliable, it is still enough to give them enough military intelligence to create an impression of omniscience.
  • Alexander Hamilton sends feelings of panic, fear, and dread to enemy combatants in wartime, distracting them with panic and confusion, making them easier to kill. He also sends his positive feelings for George Washington, including feelings about Washington being a father to him, at a man trying to assassinate Washington. It interrupts the assassination and affects the assassin to the point it makes him say "I am so sorry, father" to the man he just tried to kill.
• Mind over Manners: Using powers on someone without consent is generally considered acceptable only in a declared war, and even then some think using powers against an unpowered enemy in wartime is dishonorable.
• Muggle Born of Mages: John Laurens' parents are both gifted, and they had three ungifted sons. John Laurens' ungifted status is implied to be a source of tension between him and his father, Henry Laurens.
• Muggle with a Degree in Magic: John Laurens has no powers, but is very interested in them, learning their boundaries, weaknesses, and times when they grow or lessen.
• No-Sell: Aaron Burr's superpower is to No-Sell everyone else's attempts to use their superpowers on him. A mindreader tries to read his mind and gets nothing, and Alexander's emotional projection doesn't have an effect on him.
• One Person, One Power: At least for mindreaders. According to Word of God here, no two mindreaders are exactly alike. Some see images, others words, others have the boundary between mindreading and empathy blur...
• Outliving One's Offspring: Eliza and Alexander Hamilton outlive their firstborn son, Phillip. Eliza also outlives the rest of her children and grandchildren, living to at least 2001.
• Power Incontinence: Before Alexander Hamilton did some Training the Gift of Magic, he would sometimes send out emotions to other people without actively wanting that to happen: his power just happened without him controlling it. It can still happen even after he learns how to control it: during periods of intense emotion, he has lost control and sent emotions (getting angry arguing with Thomas Jefferson; when John Laurens dies and when his son dies, filling him with grief). He also lost control after being shot by Aaron Burr. This also happens to Thomas Jefferson, who also loses control of his power and sends emotions during the same argument where Hamilton lost control.
• Psychic Block Defense: Mental shields are able to stop minds from being read. They can also be used partially: one can leave parts of their mind unshielded while leaving other parts shielded.
• Real Event, Fictional Cause: Many events from reality that were placed into the Hamilton musical are also in this fic of the Hamilton musical, but this fic adds an extra superpower-related reason for the event to happen. That reason exists alongside the real reasons it happened and the Hamilton musical's reasons why it happened.
  • Alexander Hamilton has an additional reason for writing a lot in this fic: he previously struggled with controlling his power, which can make people conflate the emotions he pushed at them with emotions they themselves feel, and can thus be used to manipulate their feelings and opinions. His writing cannot be infused with his power at all. Writing is a safe way to express his thoughts since it doesn't risk unduly influencing people who would otherwise disagree with him or have no opinion to agree instead.
  • Angelica Schuyler Church introduced Alexander Hamilton to her sister Eliza again, but this time with an extra reason behind it. When she read his mind, she learned more things about his past that she did not know in the musical, including all the death he has seen, some due to disease. If Hamilton marries Eliza, he would not be likely to have yet another bad experience with death and disease in someone close to him, since Eliza has a Healing Factor and the ability to No-Sell disease and infection.
  • James Madison writing the Federalist Papers with Alexander Hamilton but later growing to oppose him now has an additional explanation. After Thomas Jefferson and Hamilton argue and lose control of their powers to send emotions, with Jefferson sending dislike for Hamilton and Hamilton sending general hate and distrust according to Word of God in a comment, which creates an emotional feedback loop giving Madison the brunt of the sent anger and combining in him as hate (which was sent from Hamilton) for Hamilton (dislike for Hamilton was sent from Jefferson).
  • Alexander Hamilton and Thomas Jefferson's enmity now includes suspecting each other of inappropriately using powers to influence the outcome of debates, and claiming the other has inappropriately used powers.
  • Eliza Schuyler Hamilton's forgiveness of Alexander Hamilton might also be because of the emotions she allowed him to project to her in order to show her she wasn't alone in her grief over Philip Hamilton's death.
  • Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr's conflict leading up to their duel now includes Alexander being accused of misusing his powers.
• Screw the Rules, I Have Supernatural Powers!: This trope is why using powers on others without consent is very rude. All the examples below are about ways to get around regular convincing of people and straight to changing how they feel via powers.
  • The fic is full of characters accusing each other of invoking this trope. Alexander Hamilton accuses Thomas Jefferson of using his power to try sabotage him in debates hoping he'll be too angry to debate well, Jefferson accuses Hamilton of using his power manipulatively to get his financial system in exchange for the location of the state capital, and Aaron Burr accuses Hamilton of misuse of powers (referring to using it to make others feel contemptuous towards Burr).
  • Hamilton is also aware that he could use his power to make people want to romance or have sex with him, although he doesn't want to use his power that way. Word of God also says Hamilton knows Jefferson has a "dictator-level power," that he can make a medium-sized audience feel undecided and open to persuasion, including persuasion by Jefferson on an issue he is fervently decided about, although Hamilton doesn't know that Jefferson wouldn't misuse his power like that.
• Seers: The Marquis de Lafayette and George Washington are both Seers. Lafayette sees a few minutes into the future, with the exception of one vision years away from the time he saw it, and Washington sees vague impressions weeks or months away. Tireseias also had this power, according to Word of God here.
• The Stations of the Canon: Not every event from Hamilton canon is explicitly described, with some only getting offhand references proving they still happened, and some being totally skipped, but the fic still generally follows musical canon.
• Super Fic: The fanfiction gives many canon characters superpowers. It's not just the main characters from the musical who have powers, either. Background characters have them too, and it's said a quarter of the European population has powers while almost half the population of the thirteen colonies have powers.
• Superpowerful Genetics: Word of God in the fic comments here confirms there’s a genetic component to how powers arise, although it’s still ambiguous where they originally cane from.
• Super-Strength: Heracles had this power, according to Word of God here.
• Team Dad: George Washington calls his aides-de-camp, who are close to him and younger than him, "son."
• Telepathy: Angelica Schuyler Church and Professor Martin are both mindreaders, and a judge is explicitly said to be "telepathic."
• Training the Gift of Magic: Alexander Hamilton worked on controlling his power to avoid pushing emotions on people when he doesn't want to do that. He also learns how to shield, both to help him suppress his power and avoid pushing his emotions onto others when he doesn't want to, and to stop others from reading parts of his mind he doesn't want read.
• Weird Historical War: Doesn't change much from the actual Revolutionary War, but there are characters with superpowers on the side of the Continental Army and there are presumably characters with superpowers on the side of the British too.