somehow some time magic goes wrong and young arthurs from different points in time are pulled into king arthur era. everyone kinda has this back and forth of who is going to watch the literal 8 month old. gwen and lancelot are pretty good at taking care of him, so is percival but he doesnt seem comfortable with it so no one forces him. elyan tried to hold him but baby!arthur started wailing after three seconds. leon is sorta good but he has like no idea how babies work or what they need so when baby!arthur found his sword and almost lobbed his own head off, leon was forbidden from taking care of the child. gaius is too old and busy researching how to reverse the issue. who the HELL would trust gwaine with a child? arthur has this Odd aversion to the child but no one pushes him on it. ofc merlin, magic incarnate, has this like aura or energy that draws all these innocent woodland creatures to him so obviously little arthur is also drawn to him. in fact, merlin seems to be the person he likes the most. and merlins a natural w kids apparently so hes often the one that baby!arthur is handed off to.
he complains about it at first but when baby!arthur breaks into a fit of giggles after merlin calls adult!arthur a clotpole, he has merlin wrapped around his little finger. merlin stops complaining but does let arthur know that the one thing he Will Not Do is change his diaper. arthur laughs and walks away. merlin talks to baby!arthur like they’ve been friends for years (bc they have). arthur points out that baby!arthur cant understand him and merlin retorts that its like how it normally is. merlin gets to perform magic in front of baby!arthur and he LOVES it
my point to this was merlin dotting on little versions of arthur is a way that no one ever really did for him growing up and adult!arthur seeing it and healing little pieces of his inner child as he watches merlin play games with baby!arthur and make sure he’s taken care of. it especially hits him when gaius finally finds a way to send baby!arthur back and while everyone seems torn between upset they have to say bye, they’re also relieved to get the baby back where hes supposed to be,, merlin is like choking back fat tears. everyone backs off to give them privacy and merlin just kisses baby!arthur’s forehead and whispers some encouraging and heartachingly sincere words that have adult!arthur choking back tears.
then BOOM the spell also backfires and while yes baby!arthur got back to where hes supposed to be, now theres toddler!arthur. he has this gravitational pull to gaius (can recognize him) and merlin (magic soulmates ofc he has an innate trust in the man). merlin is happy to have his little friend back and gaius goes back to the drawing board. now they have this little 2-3 year old toddling after them and blabbering something that sounds like english if you’re patient enough
(merlin makes another comment about how little arthur has changed over the years)
the cycle repeats, merlin and toddler!arthur get attached and adult!arthur watches and heals a bit more of his inner child. gaius finds another cure that falls through the same way and now they have child!arthur. he has a bit more of uther’s influence in him but hes still a child. he gets hurt and tries to fight back tears but merlin sees he’s in pain and tells him it’s okay to be hurt, to feel pain, to cry. child!arthur says in that stutter cry children do when they’re fighting back tears that his father says boys shouldn’t cry. merlin wipes a tear that slips down child!arthur’s face and whispers about how he cries and lets himself feel his sadness before picking himself back up and dusting himself off before getting back to it, that it doesn’t make him weak but stronger. adult!arthur hears this and this may not be the beginning of his deconstruction but it makes a tremendous amount of progress in him rewiring his brain away from his father’s toxic ways of thinking.
idk if they’d get a teen!arthur since gaius probably would’ve learned his lesson by then but if they did, we’d get to watch Merlin vs Arthur Showdown 2.0 as merlin humbles the young prince and i think that’d be funny. especially for gwaine since he didn’t get to see it happen the first time.
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The long sleep loosens it's grip as your eyes flutter open. The warmth of sunlight kisses your skin, and a soft breeze combs through your hair, as if welcoming you back to a place you've always belonged.
You find yourself cushioned by the rustling grass around you, serving as a meal for horses in the distance. The chirping of birds and the trill of crickets create a nostalgic symphony from a time you can't quite remember.
You look up to the sky, eyes following the clouds to the outline of mountains that stretch before you. The view of New Hanover welcomes you.
The breath you didn't know you were holding is released, along with all the uncertainty it contained, you remember that you've been here before.
But this time, it feels like you're home.
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MEOW the worms are SCREAMING AT ME but like lowkey obsessed with dales voice id want him in my ear 24/7 like the songidk maybe it’s just me
You're so real for that. Most of his lines are stuck in my head. "There she is! The almost birthday girl" "Bow down, bow all the way down" the whole "Let me in now" song he does. There wasn't a single line that didn't serve cunt.
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“I’m Devinder Crousley, and this–is Delving Into Darkness.”
“Or, at least, into a lovely twilight, soon to be dark. I’ve come to Egypt to visit a couple old Oxford mates, and happened upon some rather curious rumors circulating amongst the locals. As I understand, not far outside the town is an area referred to as “Serket’s Domain,” where one might be able to find some scorpions of unusual size. But not just any supernaturally oversized arthropodic cryptids! These are, so I’ve heard, potentially descended from those in the tale Isis and the Seven Scorpions. And–oh, what luck!”
"A spectacular specimen, indeed! Its claws alone appear to be over 20 centimetres, the typical length of the entire body of a Pandinus imperator–or, emperor scorpion–one of the largest mundane scorpion species. And while standard scorpion chitin will fluoresce under UV light, this one appears to have unique striations, glowing even without the use of my blacklight–in multiple, atypical colors, akin to a railroad worm’s bioluminescence! Fascinating… Primarily prominent are fiery orange markings, located on both the stinger and cephalothorax, presenting as a large dorsal spot with eight to ten radial lines–almost like a sun with rays. Perhaps these markings might be used amongst others of the species as a form of signaling, possibly for general communication or mating purposes? However, an additional green spot just above its two front-facing eyes is relatively quite small. While it appears to me not unlike an illustrated "third eye" of sorts in combination with the surrounding orange markings, it’s possible the green mark acts as a form of lure for prey–bugger."
“It would appear Isis’ seven scorpions–or rather their descendants–are as formidable as you’d expect from the legend! I had assumed the initial specimen was an adult, but I now believe it more likely a juvenile, as many others have arrived that seem to be, um–they’re a few metres long! I shall endeavor to report further observations and provide more accurate measurements once I’m at a safer distance, but for now, it’s time to go! Until next time, dev-iners!”
(I had an idea to have seven scorpions chase me for a SWL anniversary contest, but it evolved into a short Redfall-flavored cryptid-hunting pseudo-eposide!)
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Making good progress on the fanfic whilst dealing with the ao3 author curse, and since chapter 4's rough draft is halfway completed: What better way to celebrate than to release some headcanons?
This round of Headcanons will focus on the imprisonment arc!
During imprisonment, Eugene didn't have access to his diary. Which would've been fine, but over the decade he was losing the tiny things. While he could remember the big things (what everyone looked like, the names, etc.)
he struggled badly with remembering Gavus' voice (it was slowly being replaced with his own, because he repeated words to not lose them).
He struggled to remember Lucilla's favorite color (was it pink? Blue? Red, or yellow? Did she change it?)
He struggled with remembering Liberta's favorite food (he wasn't sure if Liberta liked vegetables or not. He wasn't sure if that was Lucilla who threw the tantrum or if it was a rare tantrum from Liberta that day)
These things being lost to time, the small little things, they were being ripped away from him by a memory he had no control of. All he could do to keep the big things from being gone was repeating things to himself.
During imprisonment, Gavus had frequent visits from Morgana during the beginning stages. It often ended in fights, disagreements and arguments. She would never update him on Liberta's progress, no matter how many times he would ask.
Gavus saw the message she wasn't saying out loud quite clearly: Liberta was not his son, no matter how much he wanted to pretend. Liberta was her weapon.
Eventually, the visits grew faint, and by the fourth year of imprisonment, Gavus was left alone with no visitor. Left to rot away.
Frankly, the guard was a welcome addition to the silence of his cell.
Both Gavus and Eugene fantasized about breaking out, about finding each other. Eugene wondered if Gavus would be the same, and Gavus knew Eugene wouldn't change. There was nothing that could break a spirit like Eugene's, but there was no telling how many of the little things about Gavus were made up to fill in the gaps of Eugene's memory.
Eugene wasn't really visited much by anyone during his imprisonment, his only company were the guards and they were as brainless as the rocks that surrounded him.
Conrad would come by, once or twice, and conversation would always be one-sided. Eugene assumes that Conrad just liked to watch the Hypogean finally in 'his place', imprisoned and losing. No matter how smug Eugene forced himself to look and sound, Conrad always looked like he won.
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