#someone other than merlin

[16th-of-a-twigg]

Here, Merlin fandom, enjoy the preface and a few extra paragraphs from the Merlin fanfic I've had as a WIP since 2013 (which doesn't even have a title after all these years 🤡)

A low thunder rolled across the pitch black sky as the rain bucketed down, like it was angry at the earth for some injustice of sorts. It broke the surface of the lake water, tearing it apart in a fit of rage. The ancient lake took the beating in its stride. Receiving more unkindness from the ever persistent human contact over the centuries, marring its once clean waters. With the storm at its peak, the town of [Town Name] had retired from their mild Halloween celebrations earlier that afternoon. Only a sparse few were game enough to challenge a late night of getting saturated. With this lack of witnesses, no one was around to watch as the tension of the lakes water became disturbed, bubbles coming from below, creating a sort of small fountain. A murky silhouette drifted to the surface and once it hit the chilly air let out a loud gasp. Its arms chopped through the water, creating large splashes as it tried to stay afloat in the unpleasantly cold lake, spluttering up water as it did so. Spinning around to locate the vague image of land, its mind on autopilot, he unsteadily began to swim toward his goal. —— The blond hair of the King of Camelot was plastered to his face, making it a darker shade of its once golden colour. He slowly dragged himself onto the muddy shore, teeth chattering as the mixture of chilly air and icy waters seeped through some exposed flesh to his bones. Arthur’s eyelashes were clumped together with water, his lips blue and his face streaked with patches of mud. He dropped his dead weight back onto the ground, trying to catch his breath for the moment. Arthur scrunched his eyes in frustration and pulled his weight up off the cold slurry besides the lakes water. His once prided bright red cloak stained with mud and drenched, turning it a dark maroon. Arthur winced as he tried to pull himself up to a standing position, clutching at a spot somewhere high on his chest. Arthur was sure he could hear the soft voice of a woman, barely there. Ringing in his head or off in the distance? He couldn't tell.

From the pain in his chest he staggered, stumbling over a large round object on the ground which rolled and slid away in the slurry. But he gained momentum and scrambled up through the tall bushes in front of him. The sound of the woman appeared to be getting increasingly closer and Arthur hoped that it was someone who could be of help. Pushing aside the foliage with his gloved hands in haste and catching a few twigs in his hair, Arthur finally tripped through into the clearing. His boots hit solid ground, dull black in colour and massive like one big piece of rock but not quite. His head snapped up to the sound of a low rumble and in the blink of an eye a bright light and massive yellow force collided with him. Ten times worse than his nastiest injury during a jousting competition. The force and excruciating pain that went through Arthur’s body knocked him unconscious. His body got tossed to the side and landed back down onto the road with a dull thud

Just know that the fic was intended to be a set of 3 works and I had written a solid outline for the first 2. Theres like 50-75k worth of non-linear, scraps of work across all the 3. If there was any motivation to continue writing it- I'd probably be able to confidently get the first one finished. Perhaps the second. But I've spent all these years hesitating over all the fine details trying to link up Easter eggs, timelines, OCs backstories and all that jazz.

Anyway! Have this 🙃💜

[justaz]

merlin (immortal) giving arthur (pendragon) the only blade that could kill him

[sneakyboymerlin]

Merlin is kind of like a dog to Arthur. I mean this in all of the good and all of the bad ways.

[imagine-to-be-a-pike]

Mf by like: we love good ED and queer representation, We need more exclusivity and understanding

And then they love him

[merlins-strawberriesandroses]

Freylin lovers… all four of you out there…. please talk to me abt them. I will love u forever

[kateis-cakeis]

rewatching bbc merlin really has me like buzzing in my mind with so many thoughts. Like I'm kinda watching it backwards atm going from S5 to S4, I think I will jump around 3, 2, and 1 but just,,,, there is so much especially in S5 that makes me !!!!!!!

Honestly, I feel like this fandom has to give the writers more credit. Like they did a damn good job, and to me, it's such a good tragedy. Especially how S5 plays out, it takes everything and just tears you down, and down, and down. It's perfect, perfect with flaws! But still perfect

[nerdyfangirlingbooks]

I've had a stupid merlin au idea stuck in my head for days now and I know I'll never get around to writing it the way I want it written but I kinda wanna try anyway even though I am 100% of the target audience

[fluffypotatey]

Gwen is not only a woman, but a woman that is the obstacles of the main gay ship. No way they would ever treat her well

when will we ever learn 🫠

[springs-hurts]

Lmao I hate these fics(little things, single sentences, I'm so overwhelmed that I start crying ffs...) And yet I want to read them all the time

[giftedpoison]

The other day i went into a bookstore and i saw a book that was a Merlin/Arthur story right.

And i got so excited like PUBLISHED MERTHUR

It wasnt.

The "Merlin" character was in fact pretending to be a guy. For plot reasons.

[yourstormthlaylirahh]

.

[icharchivist]

Lamorak's motivation is actually really interesting, I feel like you don't get to see that often. When does selfless lead you on the path to villainy, indeed

FOR REAL he fascinates me!!!

Like we joke and joke about how he's the "i can fix him" type of guy, but also like, how rare it is to have an antagonist being set up fully on the fact that he just wants to help the main antagonist getting better, even if it means playing along with the villainy yaknow?

And i just think it's fascinating, especially with the thematic going on with the Wales Brothers and all.

Aglovale dealt with his grief seeing everyone as the enemy, he became uncaring, unloving, seeing the worst in people even when they did nothing wrong to him.

Lamorak dealt with his grief the complete opposite way. He started to care too much, to love too much, to see why everyone walked with a broken heart just like he did, seeing constantly what good was inside a person no matter the amount of villainy in their action.

Percival is the one who balanced it out. He's kind and caring but if someone is acting vile, no matter their reason to act this way, he will not let it stand. He still has problems and everything, but ultimately he came out of it with a pretty healthy outlook on how to connect with people in a way neither of his brothers did, because Aglovale gave too little, and Lamorak gave too much.

And i also just adore how Lamorak's whole thing, the whole reason he's like this, is because he failed to heal his mother, and he failed to be able to develop healing magic, so he's going to "heal" people the only way he has left. He doesn't want failing healing people anymore, and since he can't heal them physically, he will heal them mentally, emotionally, as much as he can.

and this is because he has this healer motivation that he's currently an antagonist. He's villain because, at heart, he's a healer. How rare is that as well?

And of course his motivations on the long term is still to sabotage Merlin, to not have Merlin cause the destruction he seeks, but in order to save Merlin from his own grief, Lamorak still has to play along with his plans. He will bear the price of being a villain if it means staying at Merlin's side so that eventually down the line he could help him get better.

Lamorak is such a fascinating character and i'm obsessed with him.

[justaz]

kilgharrah warned merlin and told him that excalibur was only to be wielded by arthur. merlin used excalibur to kill morgana. arthur died on the shore of the lake.

[potatoknitsmysteriouscoinkidink]

Is there a way to turn of that hold down on selected words and pictures to share them thing? Or just stop them from being able to be shared on like whatsapp? Because i really hate failing asleep reading fanfic or scrolling tumblr and then waking up in a panic and having to make sure I didn’t accidentally send anything to anyone

[mythmerth]

does anyone ever get into a magic reveal wherein Arthur is upset not only about why did you never tell me but also grieving that I was hurting you for so long and never even knew.

Cause I see a lot of complex emotions in Arthur and merlin surrounding various magic reveal scenarios- the betrayal, the love, the sadness of now being trusted by the one you trusted the most, thinking you had someone’s full heart but it turns out you didn’t, the confusion and love lingering behind the anger, but what I don’t see often is Arthur being consumed by the thought that, all this time, he was causing the man he loved so much fear and pain. Yes he wishes that merlin trusted him sooner, but he also realizes that he’s been seen as a weapon by the person he always let his guard down to the most and grieves for merlin that that’s who he was to him. I also think this is why there is no way that Arthur didn’t know how much merlin loved him in the end. he realized he was loved so deeply that even if merlin subconsciously feared him as a weapon and arbiter of death, he stayed with Arthur and cared for him and valued him above any other for no other reason than love.

but seriously could you imagine finding out that someone you share a soul bond with and that you love so deeply and purely fears their life while existing around you? Id be devastated on their behalf, like the last thing I would ever want is for them to fear me but I’d also be in awe that they stayed anyways and I’d do anything I could to ensure they felt safe around me like I do around them. magic reveals can be explored in so many different ways and I would love to see more people flesh out that response

[ambros1an]

foxian ears — jiaoqiu

summary: Foxian tails are said to be off limits, but no one said anything about ears.

cw: none

Foxian tails are said to be off limits, but no one said anything about ears.

Maybe it was the fabled “pheromones” foxians are said to give off. The ones are said to induce a type of romantic attraction. Or maybe it was the way his ears perked up in attention to the sizzling of the grill.

They twitched if the steam rose too high. They swayed to the side when someone called him, while still focused on preparing the dishes.

What would it be like to touch them?

“Seems that there’s something on your mind. I’m not just a cook, you know,” Jiaoqiu lightly fanned himself, “I’m also a healer.”

“I’m not so sure you can sort this one out,” you look off to the side. How can you just tell a foxian that you want to touch his ears? You feel warm at the thought.

“How can you be so sure?” Despite the lack of eye contact, there’s a mischievous grin attached to that face.

—

It should’ve dawned on you that attempting to hide anything from the adviser of the Merlin’s claw would end in failure.

Normally, his eyes were closed, but now they were locked onto yours. His eyes were a beautiful golden. You would’ve described Jiaoqiu as having a serene presence. One that soothed the mood, with his soft voice and caring disposition. But, now, it was intense.

Your hand must’ve stopped in mid-air because suddenly, Jiaoqiu was guiding them to his perked ears. He seemed…eager?

“Weren’t you so interested in touching them? Take this as a cure for your curiosity.”

The soft fur grazed your knuckles, then your palm. It wasn’t that different than petting a cat or dog, but you kept that to yourself for your own sake. Outstretching your hand, you lightly caress the inner rim of the ear, while lightly scratching the outer ear where it meets the head. Jiaoqiu couldn’t help but reluctantly lean into the touch.

The white inner fur tickled your fingers. It was even softer than the pink fur around it. You could tell it was sensitive. Although, you had barely touched the white fur, Jiaoqiu’s ears twitched.

“How is it?” You inquire.

The man had simply hummed or leaned in as a response in lieu of talking. He didn’t dare express his thoughts. Though the swishing of his own tail betrayed him, unwillingly wagging back and forth.

“Just don’t offer to touch any other foxian’s ears. I’ll be your only cure.”

It seems he’ll have to cure your curiosity for his tail next.