Title: Belle Époque
Fandom: Downton Abbey, The Eagle
Pairing: gen + Marcus Flavius Aquila/Esca Mac Cunoval
Categories: Fusion/Crossover, Drama, Humor, Matchmaking
Length: Medium (10,896 words)
Warnings: n/a

Author on LJ: unknown
Author Website: songbird on AO3

Summary:
Written for the prompt: Downton Abbey/The Eagle fusion. Esca MacCunoval is part of the Grantham family[...]Marcus is the new driver.

Review:
This story is so much fun! I freely admit I know very little about Downton Abbey other than bits and pieces caught on PBS, so take all comments about that fandom with a grain of salt. I don't know if Violet Crawley the Dowager Countess is canon accurate, but she's an absolutely enjoyable and hilarious narrator, though commenters on the story did indicate she is. As one bookmarker on pinboard (thebodyeclectic) said in their bookmark notes, "it's like Shit the Dowager Countess says."

Beyond the humor, there's the story of Marcus--the Countesses new chauffeur, invalided out of the French Foreign Legion--and Esca--Violet's beloved great-nephew, who recently lost his close family to the Spanish Flu--and their friendship. Both are suffering from their recent tragedies, and when Esca visits the family at Downton Abbey, the two becomes friends (and perhaps more).

While that all makes the story seem to be entirely about Esca and Marcus, it's certainly equally about Violet. It's a great series of snapshots of Violet's life, with her visiting relations, observing everything around her and her internal (and not-so-internal) commentary on it.

Violet sees the relationship, and what it does for the two, and encourages it. The climax of the story, in which Violet fixes this to her satisfaction and everyone elese's varying levels of surprise and bafflement, is a delight.

( Click here to read an excerpt. )

Belle Époque

Title: Children of the Sun series
Fandom: The Eagle / Eagle of the Ninth
Pairing: Marcus Flavius Aquila/Esca Mac Cunoval
Categories: AU, Angst, Drama, Soulbonding
Length: Long (25,031 [6,127 + 18,904] words)
Warnings: Slavery (including violence against slaves and sexual coercion, though as the author puts it "no non-consensual sex occurs, but it's mentioned to have happened to others"), Canonical Character Deaths, Canon-Typical Violence, Internalized ablist attitudes, Suicidal thoughts

Author on LJ: sineala / sineala
Author Website: Sineala

Summary:
Part 1: Everyone knows that somewhere else in the world is the person who is the other half of their soul, destined for them by the gods, a person whose very emotions they can feel. Lonely and in disgrace, Marcus soldiers across the empire, certain that his own soulmate is out there, and he strives to find him even as duty and misfortune would keep them apart.

Part 2: Esca, son of Cunoval, has known from childhood how his life will be. When he first feels the soulbond in his mind, he will be made a man of the Brigantes. He will be inked. He will become a warrior. In a few years, his soulmate will come in search of him from a neighboring clan. His soulmate will be proud of him, proud that Esca is heir to a clan chieftain, proud that Esca will one day be lord of five hundred spears. They will marry. They will lead the clan together. It will be a good life. Then Esca discovers his soulmate is a Roman soldier. This is, shall we say, problematic.

Review:
This canon-era AU spans a decade in both Esca and Marcus's lives, from when they first feel their soulbond until just after they meet. Each of this duo of stories focus entirely on their point-of-view character's journey to their eventual meeting. Marcus, as a soldier, must take a drug to suppress his connection to Esca, though this connection is the one thing that alleviates his loneliness and suppressing it may prevent him from ever finding the mysterious person he senses is so far away. Esca is horrified when he discovers the warm presence of his bondmate comes from the direction of the reviled Roman Empire, but that horror is nothing compared to the loss of his people and his freedom. Injury and slavery cause each in turn to doubt they'll ever find the other, until a fateful day in the gladiatorial arena.

The bonding worldbuilding is great, with these bonds a normal part of everyday life; the possibility that a person may never meet their soulmate--due to death, inability to travel, a soldier's duty to country first--was interesting and sad. I liked how the concepts slightly tweaked canon events. The characterizations are nuanced and believable, and each story really gets into the head of the main character. Though I don't know much about the people and places of the classical world, I loved how realistic and researched the story, situations and locations felt.

Please do mind the warnings, since the stories death with some tough situations including Marcus's major injury and reactions to it, Esca's loss of his people and treatment during his years-long enslavement under several masters, and both their feelings of depression and hopelessness at various times in tale.

( Click here to read an excerpt. I loved this scene where they first meet, which hews so close to canon and yet is so altered by the AU circumstances. )

Children of the Sun series page
Part 1: Children of the Sun
Part 2: Shadows on the Land

Apologies for the late post; I feel asleep early last night!

Title: From the Depths of His Heart
Fandom: The Eagle (2011 movie), Eagle of the Ninth (Rosemary Sutcliff book)
Pairing: Marcus Flavius Aquila/Esca Mac Cunoval
Categories: AU, Drama, Romance, Creature (Werewolves)
Length: Long (31,308 words)
Warnings: per author: "Some ableist attitudes. For those especially sensitive to animal harm, there is some animal peril/injury, but nothing permanently bad happens to non-food animals unless you count references to past character death and a mentioned animal sacrifice."

Author on LJ: sineala / sineala
Author Website: Sineala

Summary:
After his injury at Isca Dumnoniorum and subsequent discharge from the army, Marcus moves to Calleva, learns to live with himself again, and happens to fall in love with a young British man on the way. Also, Esca is a werewolf.

Review:
In this canon-era AU, Marcus never goes on a quest for the Eagle and Esca is not a slave, but a hunter living on the edges of Calleva society. Marcus, coping with his injury and loss, is lonely and at odds with his situation. When he runs into Esca in the market he's intrigued by the angry man with the sad eyes. Later, he saves a wolf and Cottia's gossip that Esca is a shifter proves true. There follows the slow build up of a friendship and romance between the two isolated men, despite their differences, including Marcus's fear of skin-changer from Roman lore, Esca's hardened heart from past grief.

Written for eagle_bigbang 2012, this long story sinks us into daily life in Calleva and into Marcus's point-of-view: his loneliness and floundering after all the changes to his life, and his increasing interest in Esca. We see Esca through his eyes, and the changes in both of them through the story. A sweet romance and enjoyable read.

( Click here to read an excerpt. )

From the Depths of His Heart

Title: Hic si stas, hinc eris (Here you stay, here you belong)
Fandom: The Eagle
Pairing: Marcus Flavius Aquila/Esca Mac Cunoval
Categories: Drama, Post-Apocalyptic, Roadtrip, Supernatural (Zombies)
Length: Medium (4,321 words)
Warnings: Violence, Zombie Dogs

Author on LJ: frantic_allonsy (deleted)
Author Website: frantic

Author's Summary:
98 years after the zombie apocalypse, when most of the zombies have been wiped out and the humans have either gone underground or scattered out into scavenging tribes, Marcus Aquila is searching for information.

Review:
Set in a dystopian post-modern-day AU, Marcus leaves his cloistered underground home on a personal quest. Riding a motorcycle across the US, he comes upon Esca (and some zombie dogs).

Though the fic isn't very long, it has great world building and seems larger than the word-count. I also liked how the author cleverly weaves parts of The Eagle canon into the AU; Marcus saves Esca from a very different gladiatorial situation, and is on different--yet still highly personal, still potentially a pipe-dream--quest. An excellent morsel of the post-apocalyptic genre.

( Click here to read an excerpt. )

Hic si stas, hinc eras

Title: If the Darkness Lasts
Fandom: The Eagle (2011 movie), Eagle of the Ninth (Rosemary Sutcliff book)
Pairing: Marcus Flavius Aquila/Cottia/Esca Mac Cunoval (in various combinations)
Categories: Drama, Angst, Horror, Action/Adventure, Post-Canon, Supernatural (Zombies)
Length: Epic (43,771 words)
Warnings: per author: "violence/gore, minor [and secondary] character death (including several children), and underage sexuality (Cottia is 16-17, and an adult within the setting of the story)"

Author on LJ: seascribe (with art by motetus)
Author Website: Seascribe

Author's Summary:
When the dead begin to rise up and walk, Marcus, Cottia, and Esca must leave behind the little farm on the Downs and learn how to build a new life together out of the ruins of the world they once knew.

Review:
I'm a sucker for zombie fics, and this one is a CANON-ERA zombie apocalypse AU. Can you imagine how horrifying zombies would be with no clue of what they are? It's already a freaky freaky thing, but with no cultural context, how terrifying! Marcus, Esca and Cottia have to figure out everything for themselves when their farm is attacked and they discover a neighboring family has been either killed or transformed into the walking dead. Realizing their little farm in not defensible, and worried for Uncle Aquila and Cottia's family, they head out on a grim journey to Calleva, and then beyond to find safety. The situation tests and tempers their relationships, forging newer and stronger bonds between the three. I found the shifting dynamics between the trio particularly interesting and fulfilling.

The story is a fusion with the 2011 movie and the Rosemary Sutcliff book (which I haven't read) and I really enjoyed the strength of the female character Cottia (girl, you shoot those arrows), and the inclusion of their pet wolf, Cub and other elements of the book to round out the film-verse.

A gripping drama, with horror and action/adventure elements. It also had the mark of truly excellent story: I didn't want it to end!

Mind the warnings, particular in regards to character death; if a character isn't Esca, Cottia or Marcus, they are in DANGER.

The fic was written for the 2012 Eagle Big Bang, and is accompanied by truly gorgeous art by motetus.

( Click here to read an excerpt. )

If the Darkness Lasts