Merlin Fic - Blog Posts
Does anyone else kinda hate how merlin fanfic writers sometimes make merlin just vanish their clothes when their about to get it on?
I had a lot of fun working with Griffon on this fic! I had a blast writing the identity shenanigans between Merlin and Emrys!
A big thank you to my beta reader, Sage_Owl on Ao3, and to the reverse bang mods for organizing this event! :D
Merlin BBC Reverse Bang 2024/25 - Mitosis and its Consequences
Author: @ramblings-of-a-chaotic-neutral Arthis: @griffonskies Rating: Teen and Up Pairing: Merlin/Arthur Summary:
“Merlin, do you know this fiend? Has he threatened you into allowing him to take your appearance somehow?!” “Yes, I do know him, but he hasn’t stolen my appearance or anything of the like. It is, technically, his face too.” Arthur’s brows furrowed with confusion. What was Merlin going on about now? “This really wasn’t the introduction I would have liked, but I guess it’s too late for that now. Everyone, I’d like you all to meet my twin brother, Emrys.” ~ After a ritual gone wrong, Merlin's soul is split into two different bodies: one with magic and one without. And because destiny apparently had it out for him, the knights catch both of them in the same place. Without any better explanation, Merlin blurts out the only believable lie that he can think of: that the two identical Merlins are twin brothers.
Link to fic HERE
Are you still working on what to do when an eldritch god decides you're friend shaped? It's really good (not to say I don't love your other fics which are also really good)
Hi! Yes, I am still working on 'What to do when an eldritch god decides that you're friend-shaped'! I'm participating in a couple of Merlin writing fests this year though, so that's taking up most of my writing time. I've got the rest of the story for that fic outlined, and I'll get back to working on it after I'm done with the fests! I love writing that story, and I absolutely will finish it (some day)!
Now that the gifters have been revealed for the Round Table Gift Exchange put on by the lovely folks over at the Merlin Fic Book Club discord, I can officially post on here that I have another fic up on ao3 called "The Sweet Innocence of a Dragon"! This fic is a gift for Brechtjeeatscheese on ao3, who gave me some very cool ideas in their prompts!
I had a lot of fun writing this Mergwenthur fic, which was supposed to be 5k words but evolved into this 11k beast of a fic that's Mergwenthur getting together from baby Aithusa's POV. I hope you all enjoy!
Check it out here!
This probably won't happen in my Eldritch Merlin fic, but I think that a scene like this would be funny!
Merlin: *Is in his true form as Emrys, which takes the form of golden, twisting strands of magic surrounded by an uncountable number of glimmering eyes centered around a blindingly bright golden light, its shape ever changing and fluid, emanating pure magic and power*
Emrys: *Speaking despite not having an actual mouth* Be not afraid!
Most of the knights: AHHH HOLY FUCK!
Leon: Sighs
Gwaine: ... You know what? Smash.
Arthur: *Turns to Gwaine* Be more afraid!
Oh, this is one of my favorite Merlin fic tropes. I'd read (or write, if I had enough time and caffeine) a thousand of fics involving this specific story element and I'd never get bored! I love fics exploring all of the possibilities of god-of-magic Merlin SO MUCH!!
(As my readers on ao3 can probably tell, based on the relative words counts of my Merlin fics. 😅 A certain fic of mine centered around this premise is much longer than the others lol!)
I legit need this fandom to refer to Merlin as “god of magic” more often, I desperately need it.
Fic Update!
Hello everyone! I've (finally) finished the latest chapter of "What to do When an Eldritch God Decides that You're Friend-Shaped: A Guide by Sir Leon the Long-Suffering"!
Here's the link if you want to check it out, and feel free to let me know what you think! 😊
Writer's block do be blocking. I've been trying to work on one chapter for a fic for days and still nothing 😭
Hopefully the muse will return to me soon! In the meanwhile, please enjoy this meme!
The first bonus scene for the "Archeologist Merlin and Immortal Camelot" story has been posted on ao3! This is the first of three bonus scenes that will serve as the epilogue for the story! In this bonus scene, the noble Knights of the Round Table embark on a brave quest to find an elusive magical artifact for Merlin: the treasured "grant"! (And ignore any banks they rob along the way!)
I hope you all like this new chapter! :D
I'll be finishing up and posting my Lancelot au idea in the next few days!
See you all again soon!
Hello everyone! I've just updated my "Eldritch god Merlin befriends a very long-suffering Leon" fic on ao3! If you like my writing over here, I would highly recommend checking out my fic!
Chapter Two of my Farmer Wants a Wife AU is up!
'And so it was not even ten o’clock when Arthur sent the beautiful girl he’d been on a date with off to bed, and curled up in his own bed to call Merlin.'
Read it here:
Tag list: @neptunesyellowsands @atlasflower @sibrino @221b-bitch-st @josephinthepast @sugar-coated-prat-dragon @incorrect-camelot @idk-anymore-mydudes @thedaughterofkings @toomanyfanficsbruh @ace-does-writing (as always feel free to let me know if you want to be added or removed from the list)
ok i have a dumb Merthur fic idea: Farmer Wants a Wife AU
hear me out:
Arthur is a rich bachelor who owns a farm
Merlin is his farm hand who lives in the local town
He’s been working for Arthur for 3 years- they got off on the wrong foot by insulting each other but since then have become close friends (not that either of them would admit it)
Morgana secretly signs Arthur up to the TV show Farmer Wants a Wife
Arthur has to host 4 beautiful women on his farm and take them on dates (and everything is being filmed)
Arthur starts to realise he misses Merlin- that he would rather be mucking out the stables with him, than on a boring picnic date
Maybe he kisses one of the women and realises he’s not attracted to her and he’s like Oh Shit: Sexuality Crisis
Of course some fun banter between Merlin and Arthur around the farm when they’ve stopped filming for the day- Merlin teases Arthur about the whole Wife thing
Maybe one of the women is Gwen and she Notices how much Arthur talks about Merlin, and she Notices how awful it was when Arthur kissed her, and she puts the pieces together
Maybe Arthur and Gwen become close as friends, and at some point he confides in her (off camera) and she’s like “I know.”
MAYBE ALL THE GIRLS HAVE INDEPENDENTLY FIGURED IT OUT- and they compare notes “yeah, he was SUCH a bad kisser” “definitely gay for his farm hand” AND THEY WORK TOGETHER TO COME UP WITH A PLAN TO GET ARTHUR AND MERLIN TOGETHER
Arthur doesn’t know what’s going on, but the girls keep calling in “sick” and he keeps ending up on romantic dates with Merlin???
Don’t really know how to end this, but of course they end up together, Arthur’s a good kisser when it’s Merlin he’s kissing, he remains good friends with Gwen and the girls, and they make television history
(Edit: I started writing it. Stay tuned)
(Edit: chapter one is up- read it here)
Sliding my timely fic into the reblogs here. Credit for the prompt goes to @futurepastme
Love Hold You 'til the Morning Sun
https://archiveofourown.org/works/61994113/chapters/158533081
Teen and Up | No archive warnings
At the whims of his magic and the demands of the world's various turnings, sleep never came easily to Merlin, that is, until he met Arthur.
Or
Lifelong insomniac Merlin discovers that he sleeps better next to Arthur, and better still in his arms.
You cannot convince me that Merlin and Arthur didn’t cuddle on trips through the forest. Like come on, Arthur literally sleeps holding his pillows and you cannot convince me Merlin doesn’t run cold in his sleep. There’s no way they didn’t cuddle, even if they didn’t mean too, they definitely woke up curled around each other. They never spoke about it, but it just got to the point where they’d place their cots right next to each other because they knew they’d end up snuggling at some point through the night.
Eeee finally, the old man yaoi Christmas story I've been waiting for and it's PERFECT 😭❤️! Look at our not boys being nervous and brave. And their mistletoe plans at the end, I squealed. Thank you @liviapeleia for this Christmas miracle.
for the @merlinmicrofic prompts "And the truth?" and "frozen" Gaius/Geoffrey, G, no warnings, 490 words + 500 words, AO3 link
Summary: After Alice had to flee Camelot, Gaius finds a sympathetic ear - and possibly more - in Geoffrey.
Dedicated to @mightybog, who has proven a staunch supporter of my idea that Gaius and Geoffrey should go on a Christmas market date. So, happy Advent season, and happy old man romance season!
oh hush the noise, ye men of strife, and hear the angels sing
chapter 1 (prompt: And the truth?)
Sometimes it's not the search for bookish wisdom that drives a person to the library. Sometimes a person might shuffle wearily that way because it is the path they've always taken when at their wit's end.
Alice had been rescued, and yet, to Gaius, she was lost, once again. He doubted he would ever see her again, and under the circumstances that was for the best – he couldn't have gone with her and left Merlin to his own devices, the foolish boy, and Alice could not stay, too great the risk of discovery.
Uther's laws had driven her from Camelot a second time. Whatever resentment Gaius might feel at that, he neatly packed it away. It was not so bad, the life of an old bachelor. At least he would wake no-one if he snored.
The library was blessedly quiet. His feet carried him to the medicine and anatomy tomes on their own accord. So much time had he spent here with Alice, more than two decades ago. Back then, the collection had been so much more expansive. Now, half of it was missing. Knowledge hidden, shunned, burnt.
He stared at the bookshelf like it was a metaphor for his own life.
“What is it you're looking for, old friend?” came Geoffrey's voice from somewhere next to him, surprisingly gentle and surprisingly close. The man could be more quiet than you'd think, or maybe Gaius was just developing paracusis.
“A book.”
“You'd think so, in a place like this.” Geoffrey sounded vaguely amused, but then he focused his gaze and his concern firmly on Gaius. “And the truth?”
Gaius hummed. “Maybe I needed to get out of my workshop for a while.”
“Escaping the young folks?”
“Merlin was right, and I was wrong. Sometimes it's not easy to admit. That you've been blind. And wilfully so.”
“Is it about Alice?”
The bluntness felt like salt in the wound, though probably it was cauterisation, painful in the moment but beneficent in the long run.
“I had thought we could continue where we'd left off, twenty-odd years ago. But I realise I chased a dream. We've both changed, we're not the same people anymore who fell in love back then.”
“And she also tried to murder the king,” Geoffrey added pointedly.
Despite himself, Gaius chortled. “That too, I suppose.”
Geoffrey betrayed his own amusement only with a twitch of the corner of his mouth, an assassination attempt being no laughing matter after all, but it was enough to show his commiseration, and for them to connect over the absurdity of the situation.
“For what it's worth, you still have me. And now you better go back to supervise your boy before he sets fire to the workshop.”
Gaius saw right through the attempt to pry his attention away from the books, from the past, from Alice, but let it happen nevertheless, secretly grateful, and took his leave. “Thank you, my friend.”
“Anytime.”
chapter 2 (prompt: frozen)
Sometimes it's not the need for a remedy that drives a person to the physician's workshop, though by the time he reached the end of those stairs, Geoffrey might actually need one.
Winter had settled over Camelot. The days were cold and crisp, the windows opaque with frost flowers, and Geoffrey's old knees a bit stiff and achy as he made his way upstairs.
“Ah,” said Gaius, looking up from a phial and owlishly squinting at Geoffrey before remembering to take his reading glasses off.
“I've never quite understood why they put the physician in a tower,” Geoffrey huffed, trying to catch his breath. “Am I interrupting, are you busy?” He almost hoped he was, so he could have an excuse to delay his plan – whoever claimed that being nervous undertaking endeavours in the area of romance were the sole domain of young folks was clearly wrong.
“Nothing that can't wait. You are a most welcome visitor for whom I gladly set aside my experiment.”
Most welcome? Geoffrey stood an inch taller.
“I was wondering if I might tempt you to a breath of fresh air? The merchants have set up the winter market, and...” Whatever he had planned to end the sentence on fled his mind.
“If you don't mind being seen with an old fool?”
“Please, Gaius, I've never once considered you a fool.”
“I'll fetch my coat then. Merlin, if you're done with your reading you can finish this, see if you can perfect the tincture, just–”
“–don't blow it up again, I know.”
Geoffrey hadn't even noticed the boy sitting there, looking back and forth between them with dawning understanding and something between fascination and juvenile mild disgust.
Was it so obvious? Geoffrey's face was suddenly burning.
The market was lovely. Frost-coated trees glistened in the sun. Fire baskets created pockets of warmth as respite from the frozen world.
They each got an earthen cup of mulled wine to warm their hands on, which Geoffrey insisted on paying for, then took to ambling, admiring the artisans' work. Geoffrey bought himself a knit hat and preened when Gaius called it “quite fetching”.
Gaius acquired a bag of roasted almonds and insisted on sharing, and then they carelessly reached for it simultaneously and their fingers brushed, and both of them stilled and the touch lingered for a moment. After a conspicuously inconspicuous glance, Gaius hastily pointed out a vendor's impressive supply of dried herbs, a welcome treasure in the winter.
“And look at that, fresh mistletoe,” he noted, and after clearing his throat and shuffling his feet added, “I should get some for my apothecary. And you could get some to decorate the library. Or your home.”
“Hm,” Geoffrey said, heart racing. “Only if you help me hang them. And you could stay for a while. Admire the decoration.”
“I'll take five,” Gaius told the vendor, and then, mistletoe and almonds in one hand, and reaching for Geoffrey's own hand with the other, marched back towards the castle.
Arthur & Merlin or Arthur/Merlin (you decide) | Teen & Up | No Archive Warnings Apply | Word Count: 500
Arthur Pendragon Returns | Angst | Language Barrier | Sad Ending
For @merlinmicrofic with the prompt "frozen"
Arthur returns but Merlin finds he can no longer understand him.
“You can't understand me, so I will say this-” “I’m sorry I couldn't stay the same.” “If I was afforded the choice, Merlin, if there were only one thing left of my kingdom, one soul, it would be you.” “I've lived so long, I've lived too long.” “So please.” “You deserve someone who could’ve held on for you.” “I need you to understand.”
☾ ☾ ☾
A snowstorm, a series of blue arrowheads and an infernal swirl on the television, arrived a few days before the winter solstice. The dead silence, the disappeared roads and finally, the sudden interruption to the electricity called to Merlin’s slow, ancient mind the way the world had once been, quieter, colder.
It was then that he felt Arthur’s impending return, unmistakable, a change in the seismograph.
The lake was solid and as blue as the dawn sky above it.
The ice was singing like steel cables and whale song. He had waited here many times before, mad with certainty and loneliness that this was the day.
But this was the day.
The song rose in tempo, and in a sudden crack, a familiar boat.
Merlin stumbled forward, fell through where the ice was thin and before he knew it, the once king, the future king, was gathering him, shivering, in his arms.
Merlin clutched onto him and in his ear Arthur said-
What were these words? Hard consonants so wholly unfamiliar that Merlin wondered if he had ever understood them, if the same sounds had ever passed his own lips. Emotion broke every other syllable, he could understand the utter relief in them, but the words themselves?
“I don't- Arthur I don't understand.”
***
Before they could understand each other without words, but no longer, not when there was so much to say.
Merlin tried, but his eroded memory had too long forsaken learning. The weeks went on, and in the tense and then pleading sounds that Arthur made, Merlin understood two things: Arthur had been frozen and had emerged from the lake perfectly intact; Merlin however could not breach the surface of his own stagnant pool.
Arthur continued his noises, his hard consonants and the occasional gnashing of his teeth, and Merlin despaired.
***
It wasn’t fair, Merlin knew. Time meant denial was robbed from Arthur’s grieving. Now Merlin was asking him to bury understanding along with their friends. Instead he piled all of that denial onto Merlin’s unyielding tongue.
One day in the dusty, moldy space that Merlin resided in, that he struggled to keep in order with time rushing past him as it did, Arthur snapped. He seized his arms, his eyes wild, wet.
“You’re not trying!” he cried, angry, in that language Merlin no longer possessed.
“I don't- I’m trying.”
“You're all that's left.”
“I’m sorry, Arthur.”
Sometimes a word would prick Merlin’s ears, and he would hear Welsh, Latin, or else it would stir something in his long memory, but it was recognition without comprehension. The words transformed and melded together, evading his grasp.
“You can't understand me, so I will say this-”
“I’m sorry I couldn't stay the same.”
“If I was afforded the choice, Merlin, if there were only one thing left of my kingdom, one soul, it would be you.”
“I've lived so long. I've lived too long.”
“So please.”
“You deserve someone who could’ve held on for you.”
“I need you to understand.”
for the @merlinmicrofic prompt "harvest" Gaius/Geoffrey, G , no warnings, 290 words, ao3 link
seedling
You'll want to wait for the grain to wither, to go brittle-dry, before you take the scythe to it. Not meant to be cut are stalks still full of sap, unless nature made them weak. Or so Death would reason if it had a voice.
By Uther's wrath though, old and young alike fell before the reaper. The king's most trusted were tasked to ensure bountiful yield. There were lists.
Gaius felt sick. He had sworn, he'd sworn to leave his old life behind and all that came with it. Magic. Tradition. Conscience? “I couldn't bear it,” the king had said, “if any harm came to you,” and Gaius had cowered before the threat.
There were lists, and Gaius felt sick. “So many souls.”
Geoffrey looked up, gaze sharp, quill idling. “Do you not love our king?”
“And do you not love me?”
It was as much as either of them could say out loud. The moment lingered, then something broke between them. The quill resumed its scratching. The reaper bound sheafs.
Sneaking out in the night was not something that came easily to Gaius. He cursed this bout of courage as fear constricted his throat, a premonition of the hangman's noose.
Up in the tower over the courtyard, there was a light in the window. The infant prince must be keeping his wet nurse up again. Would he one day have to pick the fruit grown from his father's bitterness, and choke on it? Had fate, moving its playing pieces into place, already entrapped him in its vines?
“Gaius?” The blonde girl's eyes shone bright with fear and magic both. “What of my sister?”
“Don't be afraid. She will be safe.” Gaius took her hand. “Come, Morgause, let's go.”
Gwen & Merlin | Teen & Up | No Archive Warnings Apply | Word Count: 500
Post-Canon | Ghosts | Grief & Mourning | Immortal Merlin
For @merlinmicrofic with the dialogue prompt "almost" and the @tavernfest Merlin Horror Month 2024
An elderly Gwen summons Merlin to Camelot on Samhain. Their old friends walk the Earth again for a night.
☾ ☾ ☾
She was sitting by the fire in the chambers she had once shared with her husband. The flames sputtered in the grate, attacked by the late autumn winds. Upon the hearth there were food offerings; it was Samhain, the eve of the night the dead woke from their sleep and roamed the Earth once again.
“Merlin,” Gwen called to him softly, her eyes shining and a little cloudy in the light, evidence of the cataracts laying claim to them. She stretched out her hand and he hobbled over with his staff and took it. It was soft, wrinkled, but strong.
Gwen had received him earlier in the throne room but this, with the night blackening the windows, was when they could truly speak.
He sat down groaningly beside her. Immediately, she leaned towards him in her chair and poked his knee. “I heard a rumour.”
He leaned as well. “A rumour?” he croaked.
“I’m told that you're not as you appear to be. That you…” she seemed to search for the words. “They say nature has not taken hold of you as it has me.”
He opened his mouth but she stopped him.
“Let me see you as you really are... Please.”
He changed, letting go of the glamour he had assumed.
By the way she reached out, he knew she couldn’t help it. She cupped his unbearded face, swiped a thumb over his cheek like there was a tear there just as her own eyes filled.
“It’s like…” she trailed off in wonder.
“Seeing a ghost?” he guessed.
“No,” she shook her head, retracting her hand. “No. I should know… I called you here because-”
There was a knock at the door.
She cleared her throat, emotion leaving her voice. “Come in.”
A knight entered.
“Is it time?” she asked.
“Almost.”
“Help an old woman up, Merlin?”
They were on the ramparts of the outer walls, it had been a struggle to get up here, but Gwen, now bundled in Merlin’s cloak, had been singularly determined.
It was a full moon but the night was choked with mist.
Merlin’s magic prickled, beyond the walls something had stepped back onto the mortal plane.
He tried again to implore her to return to the palace. “Gwen, it's Samhain, we shouldn’t-”
“Just… Watch.”
He grimaced but did as his queen bid.
A horse whinnied faintly, like the tail end of an echo. From the mist, three caped figures on horseback were given form. Ceremonial Camelot banners, washed grey by the night, waved silently in a non-existent wind above them. Their shape, their faces, tilted up, serene, their eyes on the queen – Merlin startled. “It’s-!”
“Gwaine… Lancelot… and Elyan,” she finished, her voice breaking more with each name.
“But..? Gods, why-?”
“They came last year, and the year before that,” she said, breathing. She drew her borrowed cloak closer. “I know now. They're waiting for me.”
In Avalon his friends would be together again. Death had never been kinder, and fate more gruel.
for the @merlinmicrofic prompt "nightfall": Merlin/Lancelot, G, major character death, 100 words, AO3 link dedicated to the most lovely @thefollow-spot, inspired by her drabble "Untitled" (Dusk) midnight
This is how you'll grieve – in quietness.
Behind closed eyelids is where now he lives, in dreams, it is not merely night that falls but memories, like rockslide, and you're trapped, but oh what sweet suffocation it is.
He gifted you his nights, he held your secret in his palm, you might've given him your heart as well, and he would've kept it safe.
The veil looked at you and blinked and he was gone, and you think, did he have regrets? You recognised then love as his undoing, and hope he knew of yours.
This is how you'll remember.