Sutcliff Swap 2020 letter
Mar. 2nd, 2020 03:30 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
verecundaDear Sutcliff Swap Creator,
Ave, and thank you so much for making me something! This is my first time taking part in this exchange, and I’m looking forward to having fun with fellow Sutcliff fans. :D
This letter is a mix of general likes and dislikes, as well as some potential prompts for each fandom. If you find something to inspire you, great! But please don’t feel restricted to what’s here, either. If you have an idea of your own that you’re burning to try out, I’d be thrilled to see that too!
I can be found on AO3 as![[archiveofourown.org profile]](https://p2.dreamwidth.org/b164c54b26e4/-/archiveofourown.org/favicon.ico)
Verecunda.
If you have any queries, please don’t hesitate to get in touch, either via the mods or anon message.
General likes:
- I enjoy reading most genres: gen, romance, humour, angst, fluff, darkfic, hurt/comfort, slice-of-life, character pieces, plotty pieces. I like happy endings as well as a good tragedy, or a Sutcliff-style bittersweet ending, where there has been sadness but there’s still hope for healing and happiness going forward. I’ve got a special fondness for things that fill in characters’ backstories, “missing” scenes from canon, and alternate POVs on canon events. Post-canon settings are always good, of course.
- I absolutely love stories about friendships and romances that cross cultural, sometimes even enemy, boundaries, so that’s always an element I love in Sutcliff’s works, as well as good old-fashioned loyalty kink. I love anything exploring how cultures merge or clash.
- Worldbuilding detail. I’ve always been fascinated by Celtic and Roman Britain, especially the frontiers, which is a big part of why I got into Sutcliff in the first place.
- Canon divergence AUs are always great. I’ve listed a few prompts for these below, but if you have an idea for one of your own with one of my requested characters/pairings, go for it! I love exploring any kind of “what if…?” scenario.
- Supernatural and fantasy AUs are always welcome, especially if they incorporate elements of Celtic and/or classical mythology.
- Smut is always good, though not obligatory.
- If you want to do something shippy but SFW, I love quieter moments of emotional intimacy. I’m always here for pining and slow-burn. Unrequited love also hurts so good.
- I’ve indicated what pairings I’m generally into, but I can never resist a rarepair, so if you have an idea for a more unusual ship involving any of my requested characters, consider this your carte blanche to surprise me!
- Most of my prompts are probably more suited to fic than art, so here are some general art suggestions. I’d love any character or group portraits, or an illustration of any canon scene that takes your fancy. I love costume details, and Roman and Celtic material culture. One of the things I love about Sutcliff’s writing is how she describes light, especially flames - hearths, lamps, beacon-fires, etc. - so something featuring those, maybe? The natural world is such a strong presence in her work, and I love wild landscapes - mountains and forests; any sort of water feature - rivers, lochs, seas, pools and fountains; animals, especially dogs and birds. I also adore the Sutcliffian aesthetic of ruined forts and overgrown altars, the grandeur of Rome being gradually overtaken by the wild. I also love classical and Celtic art, so perhaps a mosaic effect or something in the style of a Roman fresco, or La Tène swirls and triskeles, etc.?
DNW:
- First or second person POV in fic.
- Soulmate AUs.
- A/B/O.
- Smut/kink specific: watersports, scat, rimming, mpreg, tentacles.
- Historical mores being what they were, I’m fine with references to characters being married and/or having sex as young as thirteen or fourteen, but I’d rather not have any sexually explicit material involving characters under the age of 16.
- I don’t mind non-con/dub-con in a kink context, but don’t want rape/sexual abuse/prostitution as plot devices for tragic character backstory, unless it’s already canon, or otherwise indicated in my prompts.
Frontier Wolf
Alexios is probably my favourite character, and one of my favourite Sutcliff protagonists. His whole arc from disgrace to winning the loyalty of the Wolves is beautifully done, and I love how sensitive and earnest he is the whole time. I’d love absolutely anything else about him. Some missing scenes from his early time at Castellum, maybe, learning the ways and traditions of the men: their weapon-dances, drills, their reverence for the Lady, etc. Or something set post-canon, leading his new Attacotti scouts in Belgica. Does he have new confidence in himself as a commander? What might happen if he ran into someone he'd served with on the Danubius - either a fellow officer or a soldier who'd served under him - who remembered Abusina and Centurion Aquila's disgrace?
My favourite FW ship is Alexios/Hilarion, but I’m not requesting it here, for the sole reason that I’ve already received some lovely A/H fics in my last couple of exchanges. I’m now going to be supremely lazy and link to my recent Chocolate Box letter, where I outlined some prompts for Alexios/Cunorix, Alexios/Gavros, and Alexios/Lucius. But if you have an idea for another pairing - Alexios/Connla, Alexios/Shula, Alexios/Constans, Alexios/literally anyone else - go for it! Hell, want to try and sell me on Alexios/Morvidd? I’m game!
One idea for a fantasy AU I’ve had is where the wolfskin cloaks act a bit like selkie skins, where possessing a Frontier Wolf’s cloak gives you power over him. This can be as silly or as serious as you like. I’m a big fan of crack played straight!
I’d also like to see know more about Alexios’ relationship with his mother, since we only get a very brief glimpse of her, and that when they’re both under a cloud. Do they usually get on better? Does Alexios ever write home from Castellum, and if so, what sort of things would he tell her, and what would he keep back? (This might make for a good epistolary fic, in which case my first-person DNW wouldn't apply.) I’d like to see some sort of reconciliation between them post-canon. Perhaps he visits home before going to Belgica. What are her feelings about his decision to choose the dubious honour of leading the Attacotti over the certain honour of joining the Emperor’s bodyguard?
If you’d like to focus more on Mama Alexios herself, I’d certainly like to know more about her. How did she meet Alexios’ father? What was it like for her, leaving behind busy, cosmopolitan Ephesus to come and live on a rural estate in Britain? Does she manage the farm herself, or leave it to a steward? How does she get on with the farm workers and her husband’s extended family? What’s her relationship with Uncle Marius like? I don’t get the feeling they’re very close, but maybe it wasn’t always that way. Maybe Marius is a bit jealous of her for stealing his best pal. (If you want to throw in some flavour of Marius/Alexios’ father, that’s fine by me. The inherent homoeroticism of marrying your sister off to your best friend, and all that… ;) )
The Lantern Bearers
I really want to know more about Flavia’s story. How did she go from being captive slave to the wife of a Saxon warrior? How does she acclimatise to her life among the Saxons? When Aquila asks her if it’s love or hate between her and her husband, she tells him it’s both, which makes me wonder so much about what sort of complex and conflicting emotions lie behind those words. I like to think, at least, it means there’s something more going on than just Flavia being utterly forced and unwilling, even if that’s how things started out. Aquila himself wonders if Flavia’s situation was anything like Ness’, so I’d like to imagine that Flavia and her husband were also able to find some common ground and affection eventually. The mingling of peoples and bloodlines is also such an important theme in Sutcliff’s work, and I just want Flavia to find some healing and peace in the end, too, as her brother did.
I love that she was the bearer of the dolphin ring, at least for a while. The fact that her husband gave her it back as a bride-gift seems like quite a sweet, respectful gesture, given the circumstances, almost like an acknowledgement or apology for the loss of her family and former life, giving her back something that’s rightfully hers, so something about that might be nice.
(Given the circumstances, don’t feel you have to whitewash the brutality or tragedy of the situation. I’m completely fine with portrayals of or references to rape, if it’s necessary. I just hope there’s more to her tale than that.)
I’d also love to know about her relationship with Mull over the years. Are they close? How did she feel when he returned to her at the end, with the story of how he had been saved from certain death by a Roman uncle with a dolphin tattoo? I hope she felt the same way Aquila did, that they had somehow found each other again.
I’d certainly like to see more of the bond between Flavia and Aquila, since their relationship colours just about everything that happens in the book, and it’s the loss of each other that drives them into such different lives. Something about them in happier days, perhaps, as youngsters on the farm. I love their race and betting in the first chapter. It seems like something they do often. What other adventures did they have together on the Downs? They seem so close at the start, so what was it like when Aquila first left home to join the Eagles? Flavia perhaps might not have really made a singing magic to bring him home from Rutupiae, but perhaps she had some presentiment of the decision he would make?
For an art fill, perhaps a portrait of Flavia with either her Roman or her Saxon family, or even something communicating that she now belongs to two worlds? Or a picture of her brushing her hair, since that’s such a distinctive image. Actually, there are so many gorgeous images from The Lantern Bearers that linger in the mind. More Aquila-centric, the scene with the Rutupiae beacon is just begging to be illustrated, as is the final scene in the courtyard, with the lantern in the trees and Orion’s belt, where Aquila feels his heart beginning to heal at last.
The Eagle of the Ninth
This is such a favourite book of mine, and a perennial comfort read, that I’m trying hard not to just request ANYTHING. EVERYTHING. XD
Of the main characters, I’m going to focus my requests on Esca. I love him dearly, and we know much less about him than we do about Marcus, or even Cottia, and if he has any internal conflict re: his loyalty to Marcus and his part in recovering the Eagle, he keeps it very much to himself - so that might be interesting ground to explore. Any canon event from his POV would be fascinating, as would anything exploring his backstory: his family life, the final uprising that ended so terribly and tore him out of his old life.
I’m always, always here for Marcus/Esca, and I’m always weak for Esca looking after Marcus when his leg is bad: after it’s re-opened, perhaps, or after Marcus collapses at Borcovicus - or even further down the line, when they’re on the farm. Farm domesticity in general is always lovely, and I’m keen to see how Esca fits into Marcus and Cottia’s new life there. Some arrangement of Marcus/Esca/Cottia would be very welcome.
It might also be interesting to explore more of Esca and Cottia’s relationship, during canon or after it. They’re both Britons who have no reason to love Rome, but who both love Marcus, and who are now making new lives for themselves in this new Roman Britain. They also come from different tribes, so how does that affect things? Do they have any differences of religion or social customs that they ever discuss?
One AU idea that’s been kicking around my head for a while is: what if Esca wasn’t enslaved, but escaped and ended up living among the Dumnonii, just in time for Marcus to take command at Isca…?
For an art prompt, maybe something incorporating the motifs of the Roman flower pattern on the dagger, and the flowing Celtic swirls of the shield boss?
Apart from the main trio, I like so many of the minor characters. I’m very fond of Drusillus in particular, and I’d love to know more about him. His POV on the events at Isca? How did he eventually end up in command at Borcovicus - and what on earth did he make of the erstwhile Centurion Aquila showing up out of the blue, dressed as a Greek quack with the Hispana’s lost Eagle in his arms?? Do he and Marcus keep in touch at all afterwards? Maybe Drusillus even visits the farm on the Downs some time. I’m definitely open to more about the Marcus & Drusillus friendship - even Marcus/Drusillus, if you fancy!
Ave, and thank you so much for making me something! This is my first time taking part in this exchange, and I’m looking forward to having fun with fellow Sutcliff fans. :D
This letter is a mix of general likes and dislikes, as well as some potential prompts for each fandom. If you find something to inspire you, great! But please don’t feel restricted to what’s here, either. If you have an idea of your own that you’re burning to try out, I’d be thrilled to see that too!
I can be found on AO3 as
If you have any queries, please don’t hesitate to get in touch, either via the mods or anon message.
General likes:
- I enjoy reading most genres: gen, romance, humour, angst, fluff, darkfic, hurt/comfort, slice-of-life, character pieces, plotty pieces. I like happy endings as well as a good tragedy, or a Sutcliff-style bittersweet ending, where there has been sadness but there’s still hope for healing and happiness going forward. I’ve got a special fondness for things that fill in characters’ backstories, “missing” scenes from canon, and alternate POVs on canon events. Post-canon settings are always good, of course.
- I absolutely love stories about friendships and romances that cross cultural, sometimes even enemy, boundaries, so that’s always an element I love in Sutcliff’s works, as well as good old-fashioned loyalty kink. I love anything exploring how cultures merge or clash.
- Worldbuilding detail. I’ve always been fascinated by Celtic and Roman Britain, especially the frontiers, which is a big part of why I got into Sutcliff in the first place.
- Canon divergence AUs are always great. I’ve listed a few prompts for these below, but if you have an idea for one of your own with one of my requested characters/pairings, go for it! I love exploring any kind of “what if…?” scenario.
- Supernatural and fantasy AUs are always welcome, especially if they incorporate elements of Celtic and/or classical mythology.
- Smut is always good, though not obligatory.
- If you want to do something shippy but SFW, I love quieter moments of emotional intimacy. I’m always here for pining and slow-burn. Unrequited love also hurts so good.
- I’ve indicated what pairings I’m generally into, but I can never resist a rarepair, so if you have an idea for a more unusual ship involving any of my requested characters, consider this your carte blanche to surprise me!
- Most of my prompts are probably more suited to fic than art, so here are some general art suggestions. I’d love any character or group portraits, or an illustration of any canon scene that takes your fancy. I love costume details, and Roman and Celtic material culture. One of the things I love about Sutcliff’s writing is how she describes light, especially flames - hearths, lamps, beacon-fires, etc. - so something featuring those, maybe? The natural world is such a strong presence in her work, and I love wild landscapes - mountains and forests; any sort of water feature - rivers, lochs, seas, pools and fountains; animals, especially dogs and birds. I also adore the Sutcliffian aesthetic of ruined forts and overgrown altars, the grandeur of Rome being gradually overtaken by the wild. I also love classical and Celtic art, so perhaps a mosaic effect or something in the style of a Roman fresco, or La Tène swirls and triskeles, etc.?
DNW:
- First or second person POV in fic.
- Soulmate AUs.
- A/B/O.
- Smut/kink specific: watersports, scat, rimming, mpreg, tentacles.
- Historical mores being what they were, I’m fine with references to characters being married and/or having sex as young as thirteen or fourteen, but I’d rather not have any sexually explicit material involving characters under the age of 16.
- I don’t mind non-con/dub-con in a kink context, but don’t want rape/sexual abuse/prostitution as plot devices for tragic character backstory, unless it’s already canon, or otherwise indicated in my prompts.
Frontier Wolf
Alexios is probably my favourite character, and one of my favourite Sutcliff protagonists. His whole arc from disgrace to winning the loyalty of the Wolves is beautifully done, and I love how sensitive and earnest he is the whole time. I’d love absolutely anything else about him. Some missing scenes from his early time at Castellum, maybe, learning the ways and traditions of the men: their weapon-dances, drills, their reverence for the Lady, etc. Or something set post-canon, leading his new Attacotti scouts in Belgica. Does he have new confidence in himself as a commander? What might happen if he ran into someone he'd served with on the Danubius - either a fellow officer or a soldier who'd served under him - who remembered Abusina and Centurion Aquila's disgrace?
My favourite FW ship is Alexios/Hilarion, but I’m not requesting it here, for the sole reason that I’ve already received some lovely A/H fics in my last couple of exchanges. I’m now going to be supremely lazy and link to my recent Chocolate Box letter, where I outlined some prompts for Alexios/Cunorix, Alexios/Gavros, and Alexios/Lucius. But if you have an idea for another pairing - Alexios/Connla, Alexios/Shula, Alexios/Constans, Alexios/literally anyone else - go for it! Hell, want to try and sell me on Alexios/Morvidd? I’m game!
One idea for a fantasy AU I’ve had is where the wolfskin cloaks act a bit like selkie skins, where possessing a Frontier Wolf’s cloak gives you power over him. This can be as silly or as serious as you like. I’m a big fan of crack played straight!
I’d also like to see know more about Alexios’ relationship with his mother, since we only get a very brief glimpse of her, and that when they’re both under a cloud. Do they usually get on better? Does Alexios ever write home from Castellum, and if so, what sort of things would he tell her, and what would he keep back? (This might make for a good epistolary fic, in which case my first-person DNW wouldn't apply.) I’d like to see some sort of reconciliation between them post-canon. Perhaps he visits home before going to Belgica. What are her feelings about his decision to choose the dubious honour of leading the Attacotti over the certain honour of joining the Emperor’s bodyguard?
If you’d like to focus more on Mama Alexios herself, I’d certainly like to know more about her. How did she meet Alexios’ father? What was it like for her, leaving behind busy, cosmopolitan Ephesus to come and live on a rural estate in Britain? Does she manage the farm herself, or leave it to a steward? How does she get on with the farm workers and her husband’s extended family? What’s her relationship with Uncle Marius like? I don’t get the feeling they’re very close, but maybe it wasn’t always that way. Maybe Marius is a bit jealous of her for stealing his best pal. (If you want to throw in some flavour of Marius/Alexios’ father, that’s fine by me. The inherent homoeroticism of marrying your sister off to your best friend, and all that… ;) )
The Lantern Bearers
I really want to know more about Flavia’s story. How did she go from being captive slave to the wife of a Saxon warrior? How does she acclimatise to her life among the Saxons? When Aquila asks her if it’s love or hate between her and her husband, she tells him it’s both, which makes me wonder so much about what sort of complex and conflicting emotions lie behind those words. I like to think, at least, it means there’s something more going on than just Flavia being utterly forced and unwilling, even if that’s how things started out. Aquila himself wonders if Flavia’s situation was anything like Ness’, so I’d like to imagine that Flavia and her husband were also able to find some common ground and affection eventually. The mingling of peoples and bloodlines is also such an important theme in Sutcliff’s work, and I just want Flavia to find some healing and peace in the end, too, as her brother did.
I love that she was the bearer of the dolphin ring, at least for a while. The fact that her husband gave her it back as a bride-gift seems like quite a sweet, respectful gesture, given the circumstances, almost like an acknowledgement or apology for the loss of her family and former life, giving her back something that’s rightfully hers, so something about that might be nice.
(Given the circumstances, don’t feel you have to whitewash the brutality or tragedy of the situation. I’m completely fine with portrayals of or references to rape, if it’s necessary. I just hope there’s more to her tale than that.)
I’d also love to know about her relationship with Mull over the years. Are they close? How did she feel when he returned to her at the end, with the story of how he had been saved from certain death by a Roman uncle with a dolphin tattoo? I hope she felt the same way Aquila did, that they had somehow found each other again.
I’d certainly like to see more of the bond between Flavia and Aquila, since their relationship colours just about everything that happens in the book, and it’s the loss of each other that drives them into such different lives. Something about them in happier days, perhaps, as youngsters on the farm. I love their race and betting in the first chapter. It seems like something they do often. What other adventures did they have together on the Downs? They seem so close at the start, so what was it like when Aquila first left home to join the Eagles? Flavia perhaps might not have really made a singing magic to bring him home from Rutupiae, but perhaps she had some presentiment of the decision he would make?
For an art fill, perhaps a portrait of Flavia with either her Roman or her Saxon family, or even something communicating that she now belongs to two worlds? Or a picture of her brushing her hair, since that’s such a distinctive image. Actually, there are so many gorgeous images from The Lantern Bearers that linger in the mind. More Aquila-centric, the scene with the Rutupiae beacon is just begging to be illustrated, as is the final scene in the courtyard, with the lantern in the trees and Orion’s belt, where Aquila feels his heart beginning to heal at last.
The Eagle of the Ninth
This is such a favourite book of mine, and a perennial comfort read, that I’m trying hard not to just request ANYTHING. EVERYTHING. XD
Of the main characters, I’m going to focus my requests on Esca. I love him dearly, and we know much less about him than we do about Marcus, or even Cottia, and if he has any internal conflict re: his loyalty to Marcus and his part in recovering the Eagle, he keeps it very much to himself - so that might be interesting ground to explore. Any canon event from his POV would be fascinating, as would anything exploring his backstory: his family life, the final uprising that ended so terribly and tore him out of his old life.
I’m always, always here for Marcus/Esca, and I’m always weak for Esca looking after Marcus when his leg is bad: after it’s re-opened, perhaps, or after Marcus collapses at Borcovicus - or even further down the line, when they’re on the farm. Farm domesticity in general is always lovely, and I’m keen to see how Esca fits into Marcus and Cottia’s new life there. Some arrangement of Marcus/Esca/Cottia would be very welcome.
It might also be interesting to explore more of Esca and Cottia’s relationship, during canon or after it. They’re both Britons who have no reason to love Rome, but who both love Marcus, and who are now making new lives for themselves in this new Roman Britain. They also come from different tribes, so how does that affect things? Do they have any differences of religion or social customs that they ever discuss?
One AU idea that’s been kicking around my head for a while is: what if Esca wasn’t enslaved, but escaped and ended up living among the Dumnonii, just in time for Marcus to take command at Isca…?
For an art prompt, maybe something incorporating the motifs of the Roman flower pattern on the dagger, and the flowing Celtic swirls of the shield boss?
Apart from the main trio, I like so many of the minor characters. I’m very fond of Drusillus in particular, and I’d love to know more about him. His POV on the events at Isca? How did he eventually end up in command at Borcovicus - and what on earth did he make of the erstwhile Centurion Aquila showing up out of the blue, dressed as a Greek quack with the Hispana’s lost Eagle in his arms?? Do he and Marcus keep in touch at all afterwards? Maybe Drusillus even visits the farm on the Downs some time. I’m definitely open to more about the Marcus & Drusillus friendship - even Marcus/Drusillus, if you fancy!
