#bbc merlin fan fic

[mythmerth]

told my friend I read my fics on the default ao3 skin and

but fear not we cracked the code. loophole

[katherynefromphilly]

If you enjoy Merthur stories in which Merlin or Arthur (or both) work with animals, then I highly recommend reading these:

“Twitch Your Whiskers and Pull My Tail” by @bluesimplicity73 (explicit, 61k)

and

“All Things Loved And Lovesick” by horsecrazy / @cbk1000 (explicit, 90k)

If anyone knows of any other similarly themed stories, please feel free to add!

[hee-blee-art]

When Merlin was helping Arthur draft an address, which meant writing it for him with the rare privilege of sitting at his desk, Arthur came over and hovered at Merlin’s shoulder. That wasn’t unusual—Arthur was prone to hovering, especially when he was a little nervous before a speech, something he would never admit but showed clear as day to Merlin—but he was lingering longer between his stints of pacing. Upon one such loom, he placed a hand on the back of the chair and his other on the desk, leaning in so close that Merlin could smell his sun-baked hair and feel the tickle of his breath on his ear.

a little comic based on something I wrote :)

[ID: a two page comic featuring merlin and arthur from bbc's merlin set in arthur's chambers. merlin is sat at arthur's desk writing with a quill and arthur is pacing and standing beside merlin to pester him. detailed IDs in alt text]

[stangalina]

I want to read a fic where Arthur discovers that Merlin is Emrys, but the conflicting feelings of affection for Merlin and hatred for magic cause him to misunderstand the nature of Emrys' existence.

His brain rationalises the situation in the only way it can, and comes to the understanding that Merlin and Emrys are two separate people living in the same body. That Emrys is living WITHIN Merlin without Merlin's knowledge.

Which, if that were true, would actually be a smart move on the sorcerer's part. Arthur would not, will not, and will NEVER execute Merlin. He's also around Arthur all day everyday, so that means he's close by to get whatever he wants or needs from the king. This only further convinces Arthur that he's correct.

He is not correct, of course. But since he's Arthur, he doesn't communicate what he has "learned" with Merlin. He doesn't want to tell his clearly unaware manservant that he's got an all powerful sorcerer buried in his brain. And he certainly doesn't want to tell anyone else out of fear it'll lead to Merlin's death. So he keeps it to himself, like an idiot, and operates every day under the assumption that Merlin is possessed by the most powerful sorcerer to ever live.

Meanwhile, Merlin is thriving. Sure it had been terrifying for Arthur to first learn about the prophecy via a loose lipped druid on the verge of death, and THEN witness Merlin using his magic in order for the thing that killed the druid to not also kill Arthur, but the reveal had gone over shockingly well all things considered.

He did get a whole week of complete silence from Arthur, followed by a few more days of being stared at in a thoroughly unsettling manner, but after that everything went back to normal. Better than normal, in fact!

It was clear that Arthur was incredibly uncomfortable with his magic, which was understandable. Arthur may be a good man, but his quality of character didn't magically erase the prejudices and experiences that had been hammered into his head over and over since he was a child. The way he seemed to be coping with it was by pretending that nothing had happened at all, which was just fine as far as Merlin was concerned.

Gaius disagreed. But what did Gaius know? Healthy communication? Don't need it.

Merlin didn't use his magic around Arthur on the day to day, even though he could be sure he wouldn't get executed for it anymore. He didn't want to make Arthur uncomfortable, so he went along with the unspoken plan of pretending that nothing had happened. Resuming the exact same routines and behaviours that he'd been doing for years now. Gradually, Arthur relaxed. Well, as much as Arthur Pendragon can relax. And life resumed as normal.

Except for one little detail.

Sometimes, Arthur would call him Emrys. Not all the time, and certainly not when people were around to hear or see. But sometimes.

When he needed help. When he needed magical help.

An enchantment on a courtier, an artifact found buried under a house, a monster wreaking havoc on a town, or a hoard of bandits descending upon the two of them in the woods. A tome, a necklace, a potion, a poison, a cure.

If Arthur called him Merlin, he wanted his manservant. If Arthur called him Emrys, he wanted his sorcerer. It was a neat little system, Merlin thought. A sort of code, just for the two of them.

Of course, this equilibrium can only exist for so long before something slips and shit gets messy. But that's all part of the fun!

[takingasterix]

Queen Guinevere's guard dog (AKA the Court Sorcerer of Camelot)

quick little thing because i got bored and LOVE this concept

[justaz]

im a slut for post magic reveal arthur (& knights) thinking merlin has like. a smidge of magic. like he can get stains out of clothes or warm food and baths but OBVIOUSLY merlin can’t fight. that’s ridiculous. merlin doesn’t correct this notion for whatever reason - perhaps it’s best that people think that so when they’re all in danger, he isn’t registered as a threat so he can protect his silly lil guys. ofc his silly lil guys realize that they were wrong bc the bad guys get a lil too close to hurting arthur and merlin is like “nope! fights over!!” and annihilates them

[hex-is-vexxed]

What???? Finally made part 2/3?????? Crazy

(Part 1)

When ur bestie kept the sigil you gave him and it reactivates you like a sleeper agent

[kissme-withyour-cherrylipstick]

Merlin says goodbye to Lancelot

From The Shadow of Lancelot on AO3

[highlynerdy]

"Aithusa has seen her father's mate in his memories and smelled him on her father's skin when he comes to visit, but this is the first time she gets to meet him for herself."

Nepenthe and Lavender by @0hheytherebigbadwolf

My latest fanARTifact is an entirely handlettered, handbound, and illustrated book of this beautifully fluffy fic (and it has actually been in various states of progress since March 1, 2021.) More below the cut!

So as I said above, I actually started planning this fic over two years ago. Which, yeah, I don't really want to talk about because adhd is a hell of a thing. I love love love this fic (and this entire series) and I was inspired by The Black Hours and other gorgeous manuscripts with metallic on black paper.

I ordered some black paper from Canson for the text block, used Arabic gold finetec paint mixed with water and gum arabic as my ink (I used three pans of the gold paint...), and a Nikko G nib with a straight pen holder for the calligraphy. I really wanted to use one of my broad tip nibs, but I just couldn't my Uncial letters small enough with it. I used Uncial since that was technically the alphabet/font they used in the Arthurian time period.

The paper was cut down and folded into signatures of three and then I drew out light pencil lines for the text and for the margins. Every single letter was done sooooo slooowwllly because if I messed up on one page there was no way to erase it, which meant I would have to do basically four pages worth of lettering again since they were all connected.

And I did mess up.

More than once.

I think the most heartbreaking mistake was at the very end when I was trying to erase my pencil lines and I just ripped a page completely in half. The tears were real, folks.

Once I finished lettering - which took hours and hours and hours over many weeks - it was time to assemble the text block and sew it. I used gold silk thread I had leftover from Arthur's scarf (which is also used as the backdrop for the photo shoot) to sew the block together and I love how it gives just another little peek of gold to the book.

I painted the end papers in a vaguely floral pattern with the same gold and also some silver finetec paint, glued them all together and put them in my book press and then promptly didn't work on it again from October 2022 to July 2023. Sigh.

But once I committed to getting it done, I asked @swanfloatieknight to help be my accountabilibuddy and make sure I finished it this week. I tested out so many different cover designs, from fabric and thread, to paper, to finally settling on this all over design done by my cricut. Historically accurate?? Nah. I'm about as historically accurate as BBC Merlin.

I tried my hand at gold foiling and that was a disaster so I just used a gold silk ribbon to give the color a little bit more color. Once it was bound, I painted in a triskelion and Aithusa on a double page spread I left intentionally blank.

And it was finally done!

All in all, I'm pleased with how it turned out. Was it an exercise in patience? Yes. Did I learn a lot? Also yes. Mostly that handlettering an entire fic is madness and also this is far too small to case bind, but I'm a stubborn ass and it was happening regardless.

All total, I probably worked on this for about 50+ hours. It was most definitely a labor of love and I'm so happy that it's finally done.

Thank you for inspiring me to take on such a project by writing such wonderful fics, @0hheytherebigbadwolf! And thank you for everyone who reads these long fanARTifact posts. 💛

[maddybthorne]

I love the trope where someone who cares about the Main Character or is just now getting to know them learns about all the dumb/impossible stuff they do and just kinda breaks. Like they’re not able to comprehend how this dumbass is alive. And then the MC is just trying to brush it off because they don’t understand what’s wrong

MC: “I may have done *insert impossible/extemy dangerous thing* but it’s fine everything worked out and it wasn’t that hard really”

Character B: “YOU WHAT?!? HOW?!?” *distressed and confused noises*

[purpleshadow-star]

Listen, if there is one thing fanfiction is good for, it's learning the names of the characters in the media that you're reading about.

[mythmerth]

one thing about me is I am gonna read a merlin fic. no doubt about it will I be reading a merlin fic. which one? any. all. I scour ao3 every day for my newest find and you best believe I will find. and also read. I take my merlin fan fiction reading Very Seriously

[rileyh20]

A Merlin fic...

No tags, but lemme know if ya wanna be tagged for the next chapter!

[pyrthcamelot]

if ANYONE EVER writes a MERTHUR fic based on the film 'I now pronounce you Chuck and Larry' then please please please let ME be the FIRST who can read that 🫶🫶

[justaz]

i know this post has probably been made a million times but i cannot get this scenario out of my head

for whatever reason, merlin gets dragged into like training or sparring or a competition or whatever the point is, he has a sword in hand and is to fight against someone. arthur and the knights aren’t really expecting anything to come of this, they know merlin doesn’t really fight. but for some reason he does, maybe arthur made a comment and merlin wanted to prove him wrong, maybe it’s a challenge/trap and it’s life or death, idk but merlin picks up the swords and fights

and all of a sudden, the knights aren’t watching a scrawny serving boy swinging a sword around, they’re watching a carbon copy of their king, of arthur, dancing with his opponent, his sword an extension of his own being, arthur’s own personal moves and techniques are executed flawlessly, merlin even smirks and taunts his opponent the same way arthur does with an uneven curl of his lips and raising a hand to beckon them forward

perhaps its from training with arthur one on one for years mixed with the countless hours he spends on the edge of the training grounds watching arthur and only arthur follow the same exact dance but merlin quite literally is arthur in that moment, a brilliant, deadly swordsman with unexpected grace and an easy victory

[earlgreyinpajamas]

merthur fic recs: flowers pt 2

1.  Brambles or Flowers by MerlinLikeTheBird           

Arthur doesn’t need practice.

He has natural talent.

~~~

he’s such a himbo i cannot

2. Dandelions in Spring by elusive_eventuality

 Unbidden, Arthur remembers the curve of Merlin’s fingers, empty and waggling to better show it. The line of stems tucked into the waistband of his trousers and hidden from sight. Hidden from Arthur, in some secret he wasn’t privy to but understood the shape of anyway; Merlin and Morgana. Morgana and Merlin.

 It’s foolish. More than that, it’s idiotic. So what if Merlin brings Morgana flowers? So what if he lies to him about it? It’ll do him no good, to sit and dwell on what Merlin might or might not have meant. He has meetings to attend, and recruits to train, and a kingdom like an anvil across both shoulders.

 And yet—

 He spares a glance at the solitary daisy resting on the window’s ledge on the way out of his chambers. This one he will keep, he decides. Just this one.

Or

Arthur's not at all jealous that Morgana gets flowers.

~~~

:(( bby

3. With Flowers in Your Hair, With Courage in My Heart by Mischel (@magicalmischel) 

Merlin's magic has always been connected to his emotions, but when it starts reacting to his love for Arthur and flowers start appearing every time he looks or thinks about him, instead of a confession he chooses to pretend he has a magical cold. Arthur doesn't like it when Merlin avoids him though. And neither does Gaius. Or Morgana. Or Gwen. Or even the bloody dragon, it seems.

Sooner or later, they'll have to talk. And Merlin can only hope that Arthur won't mind the mountain of flowers they're swimming in because really, it's his fault for being so damn good-looking.

Written for the flower mini-challenge on the Merlin Fic Book Club server on Discord.

+ ART

~~~

fdsjhkasd they are just so soft