fic: My kindly and most gracious master

[subterrain]

Wow, I threatened to clean out my WIP folder and then I actually ... did. Or at least finished something. Unbetaed, though delighter prodded me onwards using her usual weapon, shameless flattery, at a crucial point. She is always good for a forceful prodding. Happy early birthday, darling!

fandom: The Eagle
pairing: Esca/Placidus ; offscreen Esca/Marcus

Comments

Wow

[sistermine]

That was hurty. I am overwhelmed by it.

Placidus, dull as lead or cleverer than three foxes, it's impossible to tell. Esca would smile, if he didn't suddenly suspect that word had somehow got round that he had used to-or rather, that this is about Marcus.

I don't know what Marcus is playing at, but love that you, author, are playing with me, your reader. There is so much unsaid and implied, a whole story behind the story here.

And the story here is bitter as bark. The rationale for Esca submitting is valid and convincing, but oh how he suffers. And not just suffers, but has the humiliation of being made to ask for it and enjoy it.

And of course Placidus uses yet another slave for the dirty work, and we are made complicit in wanting this slave too to be degraded in order to give Esca something.

Can't imagine what you thought might need looking over. This is a perfect little gem and I am in awe.

Re: Wow

[subterrain]

Baha, I was totally hoping you'd maybe take me to task over the ending and make me actually finish it. But! Free pass!

I am glad - glad, is that the right word? - that the use of the nameless slave worked as part of the story for you. I questioned it. Especially as I made no attempt to relieve it by humanizing the poor guy. For a long time this story was straightforwardly about Esca's feelings of rejection at being sent away, but then rewriting it I realized it's more his feelings of alienation in general, and that Marcus sending him away was just another straw, not even the heaviest or final one. I find the whole dubcon/slave trope fascinating even without the sex, and to be freed must leave a person in such a state of ambivalence.

Regardless, your scene in The Harem with Placidus + anon slave girl + drugged up Esca was definitely a giant influence. I'm glad I didn't steal so blatantly that you're defriending me for plagiarism. :D

Re: Wow

[sistermine]

Sequel, sequel

[aeroport_art]

Oh man, someone else put it so right: disturbingly hot. Emphasis on the hot :O

I love how complex the characterizations are of esca, placidus, and Marcus. Esca was SPOT-ON (the nobility! The fierceness! The cunning! Which really made the whole thing that much hurty-er when he had to give in to survive :( ) and I could tooootally see Marcus as being naive enough to think that sending esca away was the right, dignified, and most patriotic thing to do. I can't help but think of their painful reunion, how much Marcus is going to hate himself when he eventually finds out esca had to endure placid and that it Wasserstein essentially all his fault.

Anyway, awesome stuff. And did I mention hot?

[aeroport_art]

Btw what the heck is wasserstein? iPad autocorrect, you are silly thing, you.

[subterrain]

lulz, it's all Wasserstein's fault. Damn you, Wasserstein, for torturing poor Esca!

[subterrain]

Baha, you can totally imagine that reunion better than I could ever write it. :D

I kind of imagine this exhausted disillusioned weighed-down-by-bureaucracy horrified-by-the-realities-of-colonization Marcus just thinking that by sending Esca away he is the one sacrificing, and forgetting entirely that it might do Esca harm to be pushed out into society without the beneficial legitimacy of their, uh, friendship. Poor Marcus. I like to think Esca won't tell him. Placidus totally will, though.

Thank you so much for the lovely comment! You are incredible!

Well done

[forza_del_d]

Esca's angst and conflicted feelings were wonderfully done. Placidus, of course, was a genuine dick (different from the Placidus of the novel, but one could imagine the movie Placidus as something like this), and therefore a perfect villain. Very nice work.

Re: Well done

[subterrain]

Thank you! I'm really glad this version of Placidus worked for you. Haven't read the books, but if there's more Placidus in them than there was in the movie then I am ALL OVER that.

[elzed]

Beautifully written. And angsty to a fault, gah, but srsly, your description of the slow progress of the men through the snow, the stoic legionnaires shaking snow off their cloaks, Esca's frustration and anger- brill.

[subterrain]

Baha, something about Esca just brings me back to like, pre-teen levels of woe & angst. So glad you liked it!

[isiscolo]

This is a fascinating and complex story - I really liked it. (I note in other comments that you had not read the book; I actually don't remember Placidus from the movie, but he is an interesting character in the book.)

[subterrain]

Thank you! I have definitely still avoided the book, like a jerk. In the movie I think Placidus was just a general NPC tool with maybe one line? Maybe? The openness of that appealed!

So glad you liked it. It was one of those things where I just closed my eyes and hit post and resolved to never think of it again. :>