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From the Ashes, an Ember (2558 words)
Author: opalmatrix
Fandom: The Lantern Bearers - Rosemary Sutcliff
Rating: General Audiences
Summary: Ambrosius goes to bring his brother's body home. Written for The Exchange at Fic Corner 2014.
Fiat Justicia (2445 words)
Author: opalmatrix
Fandom: The Silver Branch - Rosemary Sutcliff
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Summary: "If I were a man, and a young man, I should be taking your road," said Aunt Honoria. She doesn't waste her time, however, after she sends her grand-nephews away. Written for Sutcliff Swap 2014.
We Two Become One (3018 words) by opalmatrix
Fandom: The Eagle of the Ninth - Rosemary Sutcliff
Rating: Explicit
Relationships: Marcus Flavius Aquila & Cottia (Eagle of the Ninth)
Summary: Cottia tries to behave properly on her wedding day, with mixed results.
Solstice Games (1869 words) by opalmatrix
Fandom: Frontier Wolf - Rosemary Sutcliff
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Relationships: Alexios Flavius Aquila/Hilarion
Summary: Alexios has his worries during his first year of commanding the Attacotti. Fortunately, he has a staunch supporter.
This one was a pinch hit for Sutcliff Swap 2013.
Back Where They Started From (1972 words) by opalmatrix
Fandom: Dawn Wind - Rosemary Sutcliff
Rating: General Audiences
Relationships: Owain (Dawn Wind)/Regina (Dawn Wind)
Summary: Regina returns to the only place she knows that she really belongs.
My actual assignment for Sutcliff Swap 2013.
Hand and Heart (Warrior Scarlet, PG)
Aug. 14th, 2012 10:48 pm
Title: Heart and Hand
Author: opalmatrix
Fandom: Warrior Scarlet - Rosemary Sutcliff
Warnings: Grisly depiction of battle injury
Rating: G
Word count: 3,339
Pairing(s): n/a
Spoilers: Minor for the character of Talore the Hunter
Notes: Writen for Firerose for ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-community.gif){kind=small}
sutcliff_swap 2012. Prompt: "Warrior Scarlet: Talore the Hunter ... I'm particularly interested in the back stories of each of the three characters I've selected." Beta by smillaraaq
Summary: "For Talore also there had been a bow that he could not draw." After the cattle raid that maims him, Talore the Hunter must begin again.
Title: He Who Waits
Author: opalmatrix
Fandom: Frontier Wolf - Rosemary Sutcliff
Warnings: Rating should be a "hard R"
Rating: R
Word count: 6,821
Pairing(s): Alexios/OFC, Alexios/Hilarion
Spoilers: For the end of the book
Notes: For calliope85, who wanted "the obsession with the dynamics of friendship, and how closely they shade into love" and said " I'd be overjoyed if you addressed the difficulties of equal free males engaging in a sexual relationship, but if you'd rather side-step and write blanketfic that'd be lovely too." I'm hoping I did a bit of both. Beta by smillaraaq and carmarthen
Summary: A winter hunting expedition changes everything.
Title: Coming Around Again
Author: opalmatrix
Fandom: Silver Branch - Rosemary Sutcliff
Warnings: none
Rating: G
Word count: 2102
Pairing(s): n/a
Spoilers: For the end of the novel
Notes: For calliope85, who wanted an "interpretation of how we get from Silver Branch to Frontier Wolf, and how Justin (and indeed Cullen) fits into it." Beta by smillaraaq
Summary: Is Justin getting his best friend back only to lose him again?
The twilight was gathering over the Chalk as the little party of travelers approached the farm ...
Yuletide Reveals
Jan. 1st, 2012 06:10 pmThis year I wrote two treats in addition to my actual assignment, all for book fandoms.
The assignment I picked was Frontier Wolf by Rosemary Sutcliff, for which I wrote He Who Waits (note: rated E on AO3, although I would describe as a "hard R"). I had actually matched my recipient on two fandoms, the first time that this has happened to me. I was feeling blocked on the second fandom, The Silver Branch by Sutcliff, because I had also requested it! Mysteriously, I could not be sure I had read FW: it's one of Sutcliff's later books, written the year I graduated college, and even after reading the second-hand copy I bought for the challenge, I wasn't sure that I had read it before: some of the details about Connla and what became of him are the only things that seemed familiar.
I took the book with me when we took an impromptu trip out of town for a week, read it through again, and by the time I came back, I had the rough outlines of a story. My recipient was interested both in the possibilities of a romance between Alexios and Hilarion and in a look at the implications of a male/male relationship in the Roman culture. I wrote mainly the former, but I tried to give a nod to the more serious issue as well. I really have to thank my Beta readers, smillaraaq and carmarthen, on this one: in addition to the basic SPAG, they pointed out a couple of serious canon violations, vetted my Roman cultural and language details, and helped make the last section less hurried and more amusing, authentic, and romantic.
While I was working on the FW story, a question my recipient had asked about The Silver Branch kept tickling the back of my mind: if one assumes that Flavius of SB is Alexios' father, how does the family tree work out, and what becomes of Justin and Cullen? I realized that by focusing on this, I could avoid skirting too close to my own request. I wrote the treat Coming Around Again from Justin's POV, because I've always felt very close to him, and I included a scene with Aunt Honoria because she is awesome. It turns out that she is one of my recipient's favorite characters, so that made everyone happy!
I saw a request for P.C. Hodgell's Chronicles of the Kencyrath flash by on the Pinch Hits mailing list. I was too slow to pick it up (and at that point, I was not at all sure that I would be able to finish a real pinch hit in time), so I went back and wrote a treat. Those Who Help Themselves is fluff: a romp involving cold weather, the smell of hot, tasty food, and a squad of always-hungry military academy students.
After I finished "He Who Waits," I realized that its last few words are identical to the last words of another story of mine. I'll write short fic for the first person who correctly identifies the other story. I will be asking for a prompt for this.
XD
Yuletide 2010 Revelations
Jan. 1st, 2011 06:51 pmFor Yuletide, I received a sweet story based on Noel Streatfield's family story Apple Bough, in which the author, melandra, followed eldest daughter Myra Forum's later life after she returns to the family home she's missed so much. It's full of enjoyable details of the other Forum siblings' lives and includes a lovely cameo from another Streatfield favorite.
Read "A Sister's Duty"
I wrote two treats in addition to my main assignment.
I was assigned to write a story on Rosemary Sutcliff's classic YA historical novel of Roman Britain, The Eagle of the Ninth. The recipient, be_themoon, was specifically interested in the building of the farm for which the protagonist, Marcus, is awarded land at the end of the novel. She also mentioned that Marcus, his friend (and former slave) Esca, and Marcus' wife-to-be Cottia are an OT3 for her, so I made sure to leave that issue open, although I did not address it directly. I chose to write four vignettes, each with a different viewpoint, which is a technique I had used once before. In this case, because of Sutcliff's strong sense of place and time, I ended up linking the four sections to the seasons of the year. I have now added some notes to the story on AO3, giving the background sources and the identities of my wonderful beta readers. People who enjoyed the story should also note that this novel has just been filmed and will be released just a little later this year: official film website.
ETA: smillaraaq makes a good point about the upcoming movie in her remarks below.
Read "Aedificāre"
I also wrote a vignette for edonohana based on Anne McCaffrey's Dragonriders of Pern. She had mentioned something I had noticed myself, which is that Mirrim's character, which starts out so interestingly and well in the series, basically goes down the tubes and becomes one-dimensionally nasty and shrill, in contrast to her good friend Menolly, who remains a fully realized and sympathetic character to the end. Because this was to be something short, I did not attempt to write a full re-creation of Mirrim's later character, but instead wrote a scene that had her interacting with Menolly as two close friends might, with warmth and joy. This scene was actually not my original thought for this story, but I got a little feeling of apprehension when I started writing and went to check things that edonohana had written herself for these two. Sure enough, my intended scenario was too close to her story The Marvels We Have Seen. The idea that I ended up writing came to me pretty much as of itself right after that - thank goodness!
Read "In Harmony"
Finally, I wrote a vignette for springgreen based on the manga series xxxHoLic. This is an odd choice in that it was not actually selected as a Yuletide fandom this year. I wanted to write a treat for springgreen for various RL reasons, and I did not know any of the fandoms she had requested. A mutual friend pointed out that springgreen and I both loved xxxHoLic and suggested that I write one in that fandom. I was not sure that I would be able to put it up as a treat, but I took a shot at it anyway, and it worked (otherwise, I would have just posted it to my account as a gift - AO3 allows that). I knew I wanted to do something with food, which is easy to bring up in xxxHoLic, and when I discovered an old journal post in which springgreen mentioned that she liked the character of Kohane, the young medium who is freed by the main characters of the series from her sad, abused life, I knew I had my central interaction. Finally, I wanted it to be a bit elegiac, and the developments in the most recent volumes of xxxHoLic available in English made that easy.
Read "Living Memory "
