browngirl

(With the help of an online Latin dictionary.) So I was daydreaming about White Collar recently, and thought of this story idea. I babbled all about it to

azephirin, including writing a page of notes, only to lose them. So let me write this down before I forget it. [TW: slavery, mentions of cruelty and violence]
A large provincial Imperial Roman city is about to receive a new governor. The city is in, say, the Western Empire, and the governor was a famous general in the Eastern, so no one knows what he looks like. Fortunately, his son shows up right after the messenger, to set up his father’s new residence and administration.

However, Petrus Somethingus, a veteran now involved with the city’s garrison, did fight under that general, long ago. And this alleged son looks nothing like the general or his wife. Petrus finds the charming young man about to leave and confronts him; he says he’s an acknowledged bastard; Petrus replies, “Actually, General So-n-so’s tastes run to men rather than women, so he has no bastards.” Then he arrests the impostor.

… Whose name, as you’ve doubtless guessed, is Neal. I haven’t figured out the Roman versions of the names for most of the other characters, so we’ll just use canon names for now. Anyway, Peter visits Neal several times in the dungeon where he’s being held, trying to find out whom he’s working for and why, but also utterly charmed. His wife Ersabet teases him about this.

When the governor arrives and they bring Neal before him he laughs heartily, promises Peter a reward, and says it’s a shame to execute someone so smart and pretty, but execution it is. Peter asks for Neal as a slave as his reward, rather than wasting his intelligent mind. Governor So and So makes all the snarky remarks we would, and gives Neal over.

[Adaptation problem #1: What is the equivalent of the tracker? I think Neal offers to be branded and Peter can’t bring himself to deface such a work of art.]

Peter introduces Neal to his wife, and also to his lieutenants Jones, Diana, Cruz, and Pyrrus Tunica. They investigate many things, including bread fraud, and Neal and Peter become unexpectedly devoted to each other.

[Adaptation problem #2: Who/where is Mozzie? Maybe he’s a friend who tries to get Neal to run off and Neal refuses, at first for reason-yet-to-be-determined and later for love. Except that Roman Peter would likely deal rather more brutally with Mozzie than Canon Peter would/can. Maybe Mozz is a secret, at least at first.]

A neighboring well to do family acquires a beautiful, sticky-fingered slave named Alexandria after the city; she and Neal are friends, and when her owners grow exasperated with her latest escape attempt and decided to have her branded, Neal asked Peter to save her from branding by buying her, then gave her his escape plan (which wuld only work once) and set her free. When Peter questions this (he thought Neal wanted her and also she cost a lot of money), Neal kneels and explains that “my mistress is wife enough for me, and you, my master, are husband enough.” [What? Are you surprised I went there?]

Eventually Peter and Elizabeth decide to have Neal father her children, and we get backstory. Neal was the son of a disgraced legionnaire who was training to be a soldier when his betrothed, Yekat/Katrin (I haven’t decided which version I like better) was abducted from their village. The soldier-trainees went after the abductors, evaded their ambush due to Neal’s cleverness, and killed them, but not before Kate had killed herself rather than be enslaved. Neal quits soldiery, swears off killing, and becomes a con man/traveling artist/charmer and grafter.

[Adaptation Problem #3: I just shoved poor Kate in the pickle barrel or however we analogize a Roman ‘fridge. I would like to do better than, or at least as well as, canon, but I can’t think of anything for her besides McGuffinhood. Any ideas?]

Meanwhile, ~~Peter’s backstory includes having the mumps (which can cause infertility in men) and~~ Elizabeth’s backstory includes having been married as a teenager and losing both husband and baby to a fever. After that she was fine with marrying an infertile man, but years later, they figure they’ll take the chance. [This is not a disparaging comment about canon – I just figure that Romans might take the chance for children in this situation, plus it’s an excuse to write a scene or three of them trying for that conception.]

So that’s all I have at the moment/can remember from my notes. If I think of more I’ll put it here.