#also i hope all good stuff come to all the mordreds out there

[queer-ragnelle]

random question! do you have any recommendations for any Arthurian/knight related horror/vaguely spooky movies?

(i apologize if you have a post like this already, tumblr's lack of functional search engine is really something)

Hello!

The only Arthurian movie with horror elements throughout would be The Green Knight (2021). From the outset the entire film is shot very dark, the score is eerie and haunting, the color scheme of green life/rot and red blood plays into the horror as well. There's the obvious violence of the beheading of the Green Knight, but even before that, Morgan's spell and the possession of Guinevere to read the Green Knight's letter are pretty scary! One of my favorite scenes in the whole film. Later, Gawain is captured by scavenger bandits and left for dead, he meets a dead woman and retrieves her severed head, and immediately following his consumption of some mushrooms, he hallucinates moss growing on his hands, and then everything from that moment onward gets a little freaky for him. ;^)))))

Next best example would be Excalibur (1981), specifically the Grail Quest portion. It's a solid 20 minutes of non-stop psychological (and occasionally physical) torture. Arthur is the Fisher King here and rotting away, along with his land and people. Percival and all the knights venture out for what appears to be close to 20 years, as Mordred grows to manhood during this time. Percival is slowly debilitated from cold and hunger, assaulted by angry townspeople, psychologically tortured by Morgan with visions of his dead comrades, hung from a tree and left for dead, and even cosmically harassed by a glowing entity bombarding him with questions. There's also one scene in which Lancelot has a nightmare in which he fights his own suit of armor ("himself") which ends with a self-inflicted injury that never heals for the duration of the film, an allegory for his shame. Insanely good stuff.

After that I would suggest Starz Camelot (2011), which is a show. This has aspects of it I would definitely consider horror or at the least spooky. Morgan's storyline especially as she tries to gather magical power to herself and incurs the wrath of some demons. Morgan is also able to shape shift into other people and it's shot like a grotesque and painful experience which results in blood seeping from her eyes, nose, and mouth. Likewise Merlin deals with these same setbacks while using magic and is haunted by the people he's killed which drives him to madness at one point. Stepping away from the supernatural, the deaths in this show are especially gruesome, somewhat like Excalibur as well, but more of them with the longer run time. There's a scene with a character drawing themselves along a spear to finish their opponent (like Mordred at Camlann), beheadings, even a torture scene with a guy impaled on a stake and unable to flee while [redacted] continues to wound him in non-lethal ways to draw information out of him. So a lot to work with here!

The only other option I can think of is a bit of a stretch, but that's Merlin and The Sword (1985). The Knight of the Cart is adapted here, except that Guinevere is taken to the other world which can only be entered by magical means. Lancelot and Gawain venture there to try and rescue her and come across many corpses and skeletons along the way, which they joke about (they're so normal) but ultimately split up and deal with trials along the way. It has an element of unreality to it, as no one is said to return from there, and the fay rules challenge their every move. Lancelot also brutally murders people along the way including choking a guy with the bar of a spear, lifting his feet off the ground while holding the man to his chest. It's overall pretty camp, but if hopeless quests into other worlds is your thing, that movie has it in spades.

Tragically, that's all I got for you. We need more Arthurian horror! Thanks for the ask, I hope this helps.

[nasuverse-most-breedable-tourney]

i appreciate the time you put into this but if youre going to make a note that youre using older ushi you should be vetting character ages better, youve got mordred who says hes 16 during camelot and gareth whos his younger sister, the nobu whos in their early teens (changed to older teens in NA profiles but it still says early in JP and koha-ace), marie who says shes 14 in orleans...i hope this doesnt come off as weird im just concerned about the one note and dont know if you just dont know about the rest? or if i should just steer clear. and thought i should say something while round 1 is going on and its fixable...

I was going to make a post prior to the tournament but no one really reads my announcement posts especially once a poll round starts lol but this is a submission based poll from other tumblr users and my only rule was no children like Jack, prisma illya stuff, lily units, visual designs that are elementary, etc. I'm not denying there are other teenage submissions in this tourney, I'm very much aware.

Ushi has multiple different looking art for different looking ages (summer, avenger) and not every servant like Mordred has an official older looking self. If I can, I also wanted to have characters shown at their most well known design which is why I have 17 year old Rin, Shirou, etc for clarity sake for people not super familiar with the nasuverse so even they can be like "oh yeah that character I remember seeing them before". Mash and Guda are considered forever minors no matter how much time passes lol. Marie in fgo makes quite of few statements about her kids as a loving mom. Lasagna deciding to give her a 14 year old body was literally out of our control but I'm going to simply disregard Lasagna age canon and view her as the adult she died as and not be weird about it, please understand. For Ushi, it wasn't my intention to be weird about her. I winged it and made the conscious decision to have her as an adult since she does have so many different and good sprites and official art. I have a transparent Rider Ushi in her background for clarity for those that only do know her as Rider.

I run this blog with the assumption we're all responsible adults here and we're not going to be weird about fictional characters to the same severity that we treat irl people. Fate, Tsukihime, etc are porn works, there's nothing wrong with that clearly, but serious and non-serious sexual acts with characters under 18 do happen and some of the characters submitted in this tourney are under 18 but I'm choosing not to be weird or a creepy about it so please don't think I have sus intentions with this tourney. This is a silly tourney theme that was selected and voted for. I'm just hosting it to the best of my ability while being respectful and fair as I can (sorry avicebron for the queen medb matchup, literally somebody had to go against her ;n;).

[icharchivist]

fucking done finally, it only took me NINE FUCKING HOURS REALLY

my brain is really mushy so i don’t know if i can make my thoughts  clear but as it goes,

As it goes, Wales brothers wise, it’s all i ever wanted. The brothers have a good dynamic, Lamorak was fleshed out so much that now i genuinely think he’s a fav character for good and not just because of, yknow, Wales association. I’m fascinated by his motivations and i kind of am cheering for him?

Percival is getting a grand and it’s great. his new design looks amazing and i’m so happy.

Aglovale’s development was really deep as well and i’m feeling so much for him. this event does a lot to endear me to him. 

I didn’t expect to love Dindrane as much as i did, and i do hope we see more of them. I do think her dynamic with Lamorak was fantastic, though i don’t really like the worshipping turn at the end. I think they could have stayed the same it would have been better. That said i am delighted she’s back and excited about what it’s preparing if they’re now working on making the early element of the saga work with the new stuff. Tho also i do want to want more about her family branch and how the Wales house used her.

Tor is always my bestie uwu and Gawain’s involvement was wild, the guy is really just, talking about Lamorak all the time. What a lad.

Aleis was a very cool antagonist imo, and i really loved what she brought to the plot as a mirror version of the Wales’s loss.

The event was really great imo and i think the pacing was really nice, i didn’t feel bored reading it (god knows there’s event where i get upset bc the first 3 chapters slugs to get to something and only then it gets interesting)

so no Lamorak unit at the end of it, makes sense in a way. As they built him up i can see that it’s not the right time for this.

I do think the build up is really managed really well, but it is going to be agonizing to wait one full year to get a follow up on that. At least i’m feeling lucky we’re still garneted to have a follow up but still...

It does feel a bit more of a transitional event as nothing really gets resolved, but i’m really happy with it. 

I kind of expect the next Knight event to give Siegfried a Grand, so i could see perhaps going back to Feendrache and specifically talking about the war that destroyed Merlin’s country, perhaps also allowing us for some Mordred’s identity reveal and perhaps therefore an unit for him as well.

tbh i feel like this event also set up that Lamorak won’t get an unit until the Merlin’s story is resolved, and i doubt it will be resolved next year. So long sweet boy....

That’s all that’s coming to my mind rn but my brain is fried DLKJFDF

it was such a good event though i’m really happy with it

[astriiformes]

from ur tags yesterday: folk music recs? 💜(:

also I hope you’ve gotten home and are feeling better! sorry about the grocery store):):

Ah see here's where I get to explain something fun because while I could also give folk music recs, what I was offering in the tags of that one post were filk music recs, which was not actually a typo.

Filk is basically the folk music of fandom -- which does not always mean it's about fiction or other nerdy topics, although it very often does. You'll hear it played at concerts or in music circles at some more old-school conventions, which is the context it first emerged in, although these days there are also virtual filk circles, filk podcasts (like FilkCast, which is a great place to find more filk if you like any of these recs), and music by filk musicians available on platforms like Bandcamp or Spotify -- or floating around on tumblr blogs like @filkyeahfilk. It's a really joyful and close-knit tradition with a very cool history and a lot of people making fun, funny, creative, moving, and clever music -- sometimes all at once -- mostly just for the sake of making music, no matter how weird or unpolished or niche

As for some recommendations coming to mind at the moment:

Dawson's Christian is an absolutely classic filk song (and space ghost story) with about a dozen versions out there at least. The version I linked is my favorite though, by Vixy & Tony

Talis Kimberley's song Kitchen Heroes wins in my book for having an excellent and extremely metal chorus about the importance of practical hand skills over, combat ones ("It's the stock and the cellar and the hearth and the hive / will decide who falls and who survives")

Beth Kinderman & the Player Characters are some friends of mine who make really phenomenal music; some of my favorites of theirs include Refusal of the Return (off a concept album inspired by/deconstructing the Hero's Journey), which has been giving me Big Luz Noceda Feelings for a while now, and The Dread Gazebo

Cheshire Moon are some other friends with really phenomenal stuff; I really like The Witch in Your Story, Banshee, and Build Your Wings

Oops We Split The Party by Clearly Guilty is a song that I feel very called out by as a D&D player, and also delightful

Heather Dale’s Mordred’s Lullaby is an amazing, haunting Arthurian legend inspired song and definitely liable to wedge itself into your brain and stay there in the best possible way

I always recommend Tim Griffin's Lucy on the Line to people with the warning that they WILL be crying by the end (for good and deeply hopeful reasons) -- which all the friends I have linked to to have admitted is exactly what happened. Absolutely give it a listen but maybe have, like, some tissues at the ready.

I have loads more recs in my #filk tag on my blog (as well as links to my duo Astrisoni's music, we don't have a ton up on Bandcamp but we have some stuff here on tumblr too, along with the EP & single there)

[elstreem]

Compilation of the flower shop AU Bedi drawings I made.

The last one here is actually the first one I made and the rest is just stuff of me building up on his character.

All info I have on him so far below (super long, because I thought about this way too much):

What was left for the last loyal Knight who witnessed the destruction of his kingdom and the deaths of those he held dear?

To console Bedivere, Merlin told him that he foresaw there would be a peaceful time, far off into the future where all those he knew would be reborn, without memories of their past lives but free of their tragic fates. Merlin also offered a choice for Bedivere - to travel to that distant age and meet them all again as he still was, or to live out the rest of his life and find peace there.

Bedivere decided to take Merlin's offer and is sent off to a place called Chaldeas Castle Town. To further help Bedivere adjust, Merlin gave him a pair of glasses that acted as Crystallized Knowledge - giving him basic info on the place and age he was no living in. Merlin also gave him the flower shop, Garden of Avalon, to look after.

...some might say that he was taking free labor out of Bedivere in doing so, since Bedivere does everything for the shop and even adds to it, later on offering services in magic botany and selling pharmaceuticals.

Bedivere slowly adapts to his new life, burying his past as a knight and settling in as an ordinary shop keeper, all the while waiting to see his King, and so, to hope that she was smiling in this life. And...he holds a secret desire in his heart, buried deep, deep down, that he would see his brother Lucan again, and apologize for not being able to save his life at the end of Camlann.

In the meantime, he meets the many people of Chaldeas and slowly but surely opens up to them, and finds new friends in the process.

One of his first friends are Arash and Boudica, who run a joint diner and tavern. Bedivere thinks he's fairly good at keeping his emotions in check and he's right, but Arash's keen eyes and Boudica's instincts are sharper. Boudica is a mom to everyone she meets and sensing that Bedivere was in grief, often comes by to offer a warm meal. Arash makes sure Boudica doesn't overdo her mom act lol, but is also a good friend to Bedivere who often checks on him and coaxes him to get out of the flower shop more.

Astolfo and Sieg, who run the Hipogriff Delivery Service together, come to know Bedivere well too. Astolfo loves dropping by the shop and is often buying up posies himself.

And one fateful meeting is an errand boy for the staff of Chaldeas Magical Academy, a young man by the name of Fujimaru Ritsuka. Since Ritsuka also often stops by Garden of Avalon to pick up all sorts of pharmaceuticals for the Chaldeas staff, he and Bedivere get to know each other well. Whenever Ritsuka has free time, he stops by the flower shop, often bringing Mash with him (a Magic Knight in training which Romani asked Ritsuka to look after).

Bedivere does get to see his old friends throughout his time at Chaldeas: Mordred and Lancelot are Magic Knights in service of Chaldeas, Gawain and Gareth open up their own restaurant, Tristan is a traveling bard, and so on. It's always a bittersweet feeling for him to see them.

He is yet to see Altria and Lucan again, but by the time he does, he's also learned to smile himself.

Now for the fun stuff!

While the Crystallized Knowledge Merlin gave him helps a lot, Bedivere made sure to be diligent and studied up a lot before working at the flower shop, and he remains studying even during his works hours. He's become quite learned at flower arrangements and magic botany after a few years.

Due to the circumstances of his time travel, he is temporarily ageless and remains at the age he was at the end of Camlann. The effect wears off after ten or so years, and then he'll start to age normally again. In the meantime, everyone who gets to know him is surprised to know he's technically in his forties when they meet him.

He did return Excalibur to the lake in this AU, so his prosthetic arm is just that - a metal arm. Merlin tinkered with it so it can store a bit of magic energy, but it does not have any added combat capabilities. Bedivere can move the arm as well as if he had been born with it and can do delicate tasks with it, even handling flowers. He takes it off when sleeping.

With Merlin's help Bedivere was able to store his knight's gear into his pendant and can re-materialize his armor by wearing it. He doesn't really have any reason to do so, and often keeps the pendant on his bedside table. Occasionally, he wears it again and practices swordplay just to keep his skills sharp, but very few people know this.

One time, someone's pet frog got lost in the flower shop and Bedivere took care of it for a few days. After the experience, he was interested in it himself and soon got to take care of some frogs himself. Merlin isn't particularly fond of this, but he is happy to see that Bedivere got a hobby that makes him happy. Ritsuka and Mash adore the frogs too and often come by to see them. Bedivere made sure to put a protective spell around the frogs' enclosures after having Oryou as a customer, though.

As for other animals, Bedivere is actually really good at getting along with bees and butterflies. He's never, ever been stung once and can get the insects to land on his hand when he's near. It amazes Mash every time.

And that's the info pertaining to Bedivere specifically in this AU! I also have profiles for the other characters but really I made this whole thing to revolve around Bedi so he got the most lore lol. I've written a few bits and pieces for it, but this is more of a comfort project for me that I come back to because I like it.

[creacherkeeper]

LOVR ur aelwyn and the bad kids series and can’t wait to see what you’ve got planned for the other three bad kids!! got any headcanons in general about them?

thank you so much!!!! <3 <3 ive REALLY enjoyed writing the series so far, and the comments and encouragement has been so lovely ;; fantasy high fandom my beloved <3

*slaps head* this babey can fit so much headcanons in it

okay ive talked about this with a few people but i totally think season 3 will have a siblings motif. we already know a few characters who are NOT only children (fabian, ayda) which hasn’t been explored, and have some characters who also have the potential to not be only children (they called fig ‘first born daughter’ in hell?? weird choice of wording for an only child) (also either set of gorgug’s parents could have more kids - adopted or bio). and i’d just really like to see more of kristen’s brothers and OF COURSE adaine and aelwyn. riz just has such strong only child vibes im sorry i dont see that changing

i REALLY HOPE we meet fabian’s siblings but my PERSONAL headcanon for them is that he has an older sister who is like. SUPER COOL and badass and can kick his ass in a second flat and literally everyone is in love with her. and also an older brother who lives in bastion city who is a completely normal and extremely boring accountant

(also fabian’s cool older sister and aelwyn become friends ok thx)

so adaine definitely has the potential to be a very physical person (like even early early s1 she’s throwing spells, punching, The Ladle) but obviously was raised in an environment where she was expected to be very self contained. i think as she gets used to mordred manor and living with jawbone and tracker and ragh especially, she gets VERY about physical affection. like, okay, one, the child is touch starved we all know this. but i think she goes from awkward fistbumps and pats on the shoulder to like. BIG bear hugs, hair ruffling, people sitting on her lap, etc etc pretty quickly. like just embracing that physicality she has in a positive way

also jawbone and tracker (in a safe way, we know they take measures to not spread lycanthropy) totally bite as affection. and adaine picks up on it and one day just sort of chomps aelwyn’s arm a little bit and aelwyn is like. hey. so what the hell was that. and adaine was like it was affection it means i love you. and aelwyn is just like. literally what the fuck is up with this house.

ALL the bad kids have trauma For Sure but (as i hinted at in the first fic) fabian definitely has ptsd from leviathan. i think his presents as less emotional stuff and more as like. a ton of hypervigilance and irritability/snappishness when he’s triggered

okay i could literally write an essay on all the bad kids mental stuff and neurodivergence and everything but 1) kristen is just a unit of cPTSD with freckles 2) adaine and aelwyn have the SUPER WEIRD combo of adaine being the externalizer and aelwyn being an internalizer and i think that’s the thing that like. yes DID fuck up aelwyn for a long time but ultimately is what saved both of them. like i believe very strongly that if this tendency had been flipped they’d both be completely screwed

okay speaking of aelwyn 1) claustrophobia now right?? like we can all agree on that ?? 2) this is NOT just me projecting (yes it is) but i think aelwyn has chronic pain/fatigue for a good while after s2. like you cant spend almost a YEAR at five levels of exhaustion doing one extremely restricted repetitive motion and not like ???? completely fuck up your body??? like yes she and fabian totally swordfight and duel and stuff but also i think it takes a WHILE before she can do any physical activity without getting completely wiped out. because spells do seem to take SOME level of energy or whatever from you (spell slots, otherwise you could just do them all the time) i think this probably includes spells

gorgug is like. extremely good with kids. toddlers especially. he talks to them like they can totally understand everything (great for development!) and is just very patient and kind and good but also does not mind being used as a jungle gym and WILL throw a child into a beanbag chair for two hours straight (ALSO great for development!). fabian also thinks babies are the cutest things on the planet but will NOT admit that so he mostly tags along when gorgug babysits because he’s “just SO bored he CANT find anything better to do UGH” and secretly is like. babies <3

let aelwyn MULTICLASS!!!! paladin and barbarian are my faves for her

i know this is a common hc but like. all the bad kids share clothes. for sure. literally the bugs bunny OUR closet meme

kristen has a total green thumb she’s GREAT with plants and tracker is just like <3 its because youre a lesbian <3 even though tracker will totally kill any plant she comes in contact with by accident

kristen and tracker are the academy’s GSA moms. theyll be like “hello my child” and the other kid will be like im four months older than you??? and theyre like “that does not matter <3″

adaine and aelwyn were DEF forced into like. piano and violin lessons growing up but when fig finds out shes VERY EXCITED they can play together and like. does piano and violin and bass sound good together?? dont worry about it. its the first time playing music is actually fun for the two of them

ayda, after more research and understanding, is totally the type of person who’d walk up to someone in the grocery store and be like “hello i believe you are autistic like me let me explain what that is” and fig is like. babe. babe. we were just here for fruit snacks. babe.

okay i will stop here for now because i super need to shower but also if people wanted more/specific headcanons i might be .....,, persuaded ...

[nikosheba]

Ok, oh boy. @misswhalie you asked for it!! Under the cut so if you don’t want to see my Maeglin opinions (and they’re not Super Positive) you can just cheerfully scroll on by! I’m not here to hate on anyone for liking him or the way anyone portrays him, I just have a very clear idea about him in my head.

Ok so the first thing is, I’m not a huge fan of a Wholly Unreliable Narrator, and most of the Maeglin Stanning I see comes directly from that. It seems to me to be like “I like this character” > “but he did bad things” > “so maybe he didn’t do bad things” > “the book is wrong because Pengolodh was a big old meanie”

Edited to add: most of this is based on TFOG Maeglin, because it’s the most complete account we have extant, and a few things are referenced from The Shaping of Middle-Earth, which included some updated passages. I do tend to give those accounts more weight than the published Silm if there are conflicting narratives, and especially if there are narrative holes, because if canons conflict I’m going with the one that was written by J.R.R. Tolkien and not his son.

Whereas I see that there is a level of unreliable narration, but more in the sense of...I don’t think it was obvious at all at the time to most of the Gondothlim that Maeglin was Up To Something--in TFOG he’s not unpopular, he’s close in the King’s counsel, when he chooses to he joins in the dances and the merriment and this isn’t something that’s seen as wholly out of character, just that “Maeglin is softened.” So the most I really enjoy the unreliable narrator is to the extent of like...I kind of think that Pengolodh may have been trying to make it look like when you live next to a serial killer and you want to insist that you totally suspected him, you weren’t taken in, you knew he was bad all along! I’m not a huge fan of Unreliable Narrator in general; it only appeals to me when that unreliable narration is an actual plot point (like THE TRUE STORY OF THE 3 LITTLE PIGS BY A. WOLF), not as a place to start with, because then is it even interacting with the text? Like, an interesting fic for me would be something like “Here’s what really happened--and here’s why Pengolodh has a grudge against him, and how that got changed.” But “none of that stuff happened, here’s a story about something else” doesn’t appeal to me.

Maeglin’s character for me is a mixture of Mordred le Fey from Arthuriana and Loki/Ben Solo. And frankly, they’re all sort of callbacks to the same type of character; the one who was sort of an outsider, who was loved and accepted but never saw it that way due to his perception of himself as different, who eventually betrayed those that loved him and got them killed. 

(I also don’t know where the “Maeglin was a torture victim” thing comes from. In every edition of the text I’ve read it says he was threatened with torture, but I haven’t found one where it says anything actually happened to him. In TFOG he just immediately offers the city in exchange for his life, and for Idril as his prize.)

We also know from ósanwë-kenta that it’s not possible for an elf to read the mind of another without permission, which leads me to believe that the reason Idril knows all his horny dreams is because he’s deliberately slamming I SHOWED YOU MY DICK PLS RESPOND over and over into her brain at 2am every morning. At the very least, he’s being very unguarded--and again, in all versions of the text written directly by J.R.R.T., he’s explicitly motivated by his lust for the throne of Gondolin rather than by any genuine love of her.

So like, being honest? That scene at the battlements. I cannot get over this. He drags his cousin by her hair through the city as she fights him, commands his soldiers to stop or kill her husband, and deliberately goes up to the very top battlements because he wants to make her watch her seven-year-old son burn to death. He tries to stab said child and is only foiled by 1. Brave Baby Boy and 2. Baby Chain Mail.

Also I’m pretty sure i mentally live in Gondolin most days lately and You Betrayed My City. 

So in essence: I’m a canon purist. I try very hard to make all of my fics and headcanons work as closely within canon as possible, and my motto is that good fanfiction adds, but does not subtract. I’m very careful to delineate what is canon, what is headcanon, what is fanon, and what is AU. I 100% respect that this is NOT how everyone approaches fandom, and that’s fine with me. I do enjoy AUs, but I have strict personal rules about them. 

(My ONE RULE FOR A GREAT AU:

1. Change Only One of the Following: Who What Where When Why How; everything else different should follow from that one thing. Be very specific about what it is. i.e. you can have The Fellowship In Space or you can have Sam Leads The Fellowship but once you have Captain Sam of the S.S. Fellowship it gets really murky as an AU for me, and starts losing all connection to the original.) 

But it seems to me that every time I see a “sympathetic Maeglin” it doesn’t mean “maybe he had reasons for doing what he did beyond what we’ve seen,” it means “I don’t think he did those things at all.” And for me, that just kind of feels like it’s a different character than the one in the text. 

And frankly? If someone can make a 100% canon compliant TFOG Maeglin sympathetic, I think that would be fascinating. Tag me in that! 

Additional salt: I would really like some nice family art of Idril, Tuor, and Eärendil as a happy young family, but probably 80-90% of the art of them is like:

[ENORMOUS LOOMING MAEGLIN SNARLING OR LEERING]

                                  (house of the wing)

Hope that wasn’t too brutal lol.

[to-many-towered-camelot]

book notes

for anyone who is interested in a nuanced take on fairy beliefs vs the Christian Church in the Middle Ages, this book by Richard Firth Green was actually so good, if your library has it:

[Image: Front cover of the book ‘Elf Queens and Holy Friars: Fairy Beliefs and the Medieval Church’ by Richard Firth Green]

like, obvs it’s just one person’s take on a very complex topic, but it’s well-written, well-researched, and it uses a bunch of Arthurian examples throughout to explore this dynamic (see under cut)

really interesting exploration of how the Church’s response evolved from the early-High Middle Ages (”dude, you believe in fairies? hhhmmm, do penance for 10 days”) to the Late Middle Ages/Early Modern Period (”kill them for heresy and witchcraft!”) 

and how it enfolded vernacular/fairy beliefs into Christian doctrine as fairies being either a) demons or b) the illusions of demons (and how dangerous/bad these demons were depended on the time/location/cleric in question - some packaged fairies as “neutral” demons who fell when the rebel angels did, and who must be punished on Earth but will return to Heaven on Doomsday - potentially doing this to soften things for their parishioners, who often held these fairy beliefs and reconciled them with Christianity, uh, differently than the Church officially would prefer)

and enduring belief in fairies existed in both common and aristocratic circles (can see this in medieval romances, although they’re not the only source of evidence), rather than just being used as cultural “decoration” by a more sceptical upperclass

aaaaand because of this conflation of fairy = demon, you get a really interesting blend/overlap with medieval demonology and enduring “folk” beliefs (obvs not all of medieval demonology was just rebranded fairies, but some of it defs was - you see stories being retold with “devil” instead of “elf”, for example)

INCLUDING in Arthuriana - how you get Morgan the Fairy (”le Fay”) vs Morgan who was raised in a nunnery and learned dark magic there, the Lady of the Lake as a (largely) positive force, Merlin inexplicably as a (perceived to be...) Good Guy despite being the literal antichrist, the Green Knight and all the overlap with Christian symbolism in that story, etc, etc. and they all just either??? co-exist in the same stories or appear through either more fay or more ~Christian lenses depending on the version

and it creates a very interesting and very confusing soup of Stuff stemming from a very confusing - and sometimes dangerous - soup of official and unofficial beliefs evolving over hundreds of years

anyway, WRT Arthuriana it’s got (and ymmv on these, but they’re all interesting thoughts):

(i think in Gottfried’s Tristan???) apparently Tristan has a rainbow fairy dog called Petitcriu...name a knight less deserving of such a Good Boy smh

Chretien’s Yvain flooding out Laudine at the fountain (...jerk) as a continuation of the beliefs surrounding a magical Spring at Barenton 

Gingalain moving from being the son of Gawain and the fairy Blanchemal (and having a fairy love interest, Pucelle) in the French OG version (~1200-ish) to being the son of Gawain and his human mistress (with Pucelle also being human) in a later 15th-C Middle English version)

AJDKN UJ IOE E Merlin’s conception, that one’s a wild ride - theologians REALLY didn’t like the idea of demons being fertile, and the work-arounds they came up with were...incredible. but skipping over that sheer comedy, the author draws links between Merlin’s conception and the general trend of claiming a fairy lover/whatever when a difficult-to-explain pregnancy arose. He also theorises that Geoffrey’s idea for Merlin’s father being a demon/fairy may have come from Nennius saying that Merlin/Ambrosius’ mother “never knew a man”. Later adaptations of this storyline made it even more fay-like (when they weren’t, like Robert de Boron, making it more fucked-up) by making Merlin’s father invisible (Wace) or a super attractive guy in swanky gold clothes (Layamon) - and Vortigern’s advisor explaining the creatures that lived between the earth and the moon until doomsday, etc, etc (walking that line between fairy and incubi, whichhhhhh was not clearly delineated in the Middle Ages the way it is now). also there’s one 13th-C Anglo-Norman poem where Merlin’s father is a bird that transforms into a dashing young squire, which isn’t terribly demon-y. So even though most versions of this story describe Merlin’s dad as an incubi-demon, what people understood this to mean may have been more fay-ish that we’d expect nowadays (depending on the reader, and also on authorial intention - some are pretty explicit that he’s a demon [many clerics keen to push this as the main narrative], while others refer to him as an elf or fairy). some contemporary scepticism during this time about Merlin having any sort of supernatural parentage as well

[none of the same Church anxieties about explaining away how the Plantagenets and other aristocratic families claim a female fairy ancestress - maybe bc there’s none of the stress about patrilineal bloodlines??? who knows! but yeah, much less thought given to those stories in ecclesiastical circles, and they were very popular in vernacular romances (male aristocratic wish fulfilment?). also, fairy enchantments =/= necromancy, so there are stories like the non-cyclic Lancelot where the Lady of the Lake is found out to be “a fairy by education, not by nature or heredity” (Elspeth Kennedy), with the spirits used in necromancy being demons, not fairies. also potential trend of female-associated magic becoming more passive and book-learned, gradually demonising it leading up to early-modern witch hunts.]

Geoffrey of Monmouth in his Historia and in the Vita Merlini being actually pretty circumspect about saying whether or not Arthur was alive/dead, returning/not returning, maybe due to his work/text being a (hypothesised) defence of the Welsh as being “civilised” (and having been so for centuries before the Normans came) - with the corollary that believing in Arthur’s return was somehow “uncivilised”. Author argues that this may be due to an association with fairy beliefs, and that Layamon is the one that makes Avalon explicitly fey. Also the author describes Arthur as living in a “feminised version of the Christian heaven” (iconic) and says that later writers and people could be very scornful of this belief held by the Britons/Welsh/etc, and that it was contrary to orthodox ways of thinking. 

Links the “discovery” of Arthur and Guinevere’s bodies in Glastonbury in the late 12th-C as similar to when individuals found the bodies of their loved ones, thus making it much harder to believe (and hope) that they were still alive in fairyland. Makes a suggestion that the monks in Glastonbury who “found” these bodies may have been trying to curry favour with the English crown (i.e. champion/hope of the Welsh isn’t coming back) but also may have been trying to “help”/”save”/correct the thoughts/ideology of the Welsh (i.e. “set them on the correct path to salvation”). Lots of medieval writers describing Arthur as living in “fairyland”. Precedent of people visiting fairyland and returning, so Avalon/fairyland =/= a place only for the dead (i.e. Arthur isn’t dead). An Arthurian example, albeit a less explicitly fay one, is Lancelot getting in and out of Gorre (with Gorre as a “typically supressed and rationalised” version of fairyland) in Chretien’s Knight of the Cart.

Some stuff about the wild horde (distinct from the wild hunt) being presented by some writers as very penitential (i.e. they are departed souls that may look like they’re bearing arms/hunting/whatever as they did in life, but really they are in agony e.g. because their weapons burn them) and tbh demonic (black armour, carrying torches, ominous aesthetic). Other writers thought maybe it was - once again! - demonic impersonators rather than actual mortal souls. (Should note also that the wild horde/wild hunt motifs were not always associated with their being dead). Relevant in the Arthurian context because Arthur and his court were sometimes associated with the idea of the wild horde (as in, sometimes the wild horde is described as Arthur’s court living it up in a cool, undying sort of way - “in the likeness of knights hunting or jousting, commonly known as the household of Hellequin or of Arthur” [Etienne de Bourbon, a medieval writer] - with Hellequin’s household often being used to encompass either the wild hunt or the wild horde). Ultimate point made by the author (props to him, he’s always like “if i’m right” lol) that for many clerical writers, it was very uncomfortable to leave people with the impression that Arthur and his court were living it up in fairyland (and similar for other figures associated with the wild hunt/horde) and this idea needed to be corrected/shaped to suit more orthodox perspectives - e.g. tying in with notions of purgatory, etc. 

Aaaand this one was exciting to me just bc i’ve vaguely heard about Arthur and his knights snoozing under a hill, but for some reason i could only remember this being in Victoria-era-and-onwards poetry. 3 versions of the same tale, where a servant looks for his master’s lost horse on a Sicilian mountain. Version 1) servant of a bishop finds his master’s horse in the beautiful palace of Arthur’s court beneath Mt Etna. Aside from the fact that the ancient wound Arthur received from Mordred opens once a year, it’s not very purgatory-like. Version 2) a dean’s servant is told by an old man that King Arthur has the horse on Mt Gyber (Mt Etna). he is told that his master must attend Arthur’s court in 14 days, but the dean laughs it off...then sickens and dies on the appointed day (whoops). Enough differences to this story compared to the first to suggest an oral circulation. Also a note in the version/text that such mountains are said to be the mouth of hell, and only the wicked are sent there, not the chosen. Version 3) Etienne again! Also likely changed with intervening oral circulation. The master is not an ecclesiastical figure, and Arthur’s palace is now a populous city - also Arthur is not referred to, just a nameless prince. There is a gatekeeper who warns the servant not to eat or drink while he’s there (that...is a very fairy-ish proscription). This mountain is apparently reputed to be the site of purgatory. The book author (Richard, i mean) ties these versions in with other stories/accounts of different entrances to purgatory (e.g. one on an island in an Irish lake) as being part of a gradual process of “rendering [...] fairyland purgatorial”. 

Finally, Gawain in Roman van Walewein: To get to an ‘earthly paradise’ [i.e. King Assentijn’s garden with its fountain of youth - side note that ‘earthly paradises’ were often popularly described to be fairyland/where fairies live, in addition to their theological functions, e.g. Avalon was sometimes described as an earthly paradise...i should also say that purgatory was frequently thought to be located beside earthly paradise, so there’s the proximity element] and the castle containing it, Gawain must cross a river (guided by a magical talking fox) that a) has waters that burn like fire, and b) can only be crossed by using a bridge sharper than a razor. His reaction? “Is it the enchantment of elves or magic / that I see?”. He is then guided by the fox underneath the river through a tunnel, and is told that the river’s source is in the depths of hell, and “[the river] is the true purgatory / All souls, having departed from the body / Must come here to bathe.” So it’s a very strong intermingling of fairy and purgatorial imagery/ideas!

I dunno, I just found this very ??? satisfying to read

it leaned towards lit-crit at times (which, considering the subject matter, is honestly fair enough), but it was more respectful of vernacular beliefs than so many other academic takes i see (ofc ymmv re: anything to do with non-Christian major religions, but i think the author’s pretty solid on this!), and it had an explanation for the survival of these beliefs that imo made a lot of sense, especially from a pan-European perspective, not just a Celtic one 

plus it explored the undeniable damage done by Christianity over history without making up some “ranged battle between paganism and the Church” that i see  e v e r y w h e r e  in casual Arthurian circles...which, like, i empathise with the vibe, but also! that’s just straight-up historical revisionism! (i blame MZB and the 80′s for that one)

(there was a fantastic post floating around a while ago about how the religious syncretism in Arthurian literature is much more interesting than peeling away all of the Catholicism in the medieval lit (...you ?? don’t end up with much left?) and saying that this is more “accurate” to some obscure original)

anyway yeah yeah ymmv but it’s v interesting 😊

[mythologyfolklore]

We're adopting you, sign the papers - introduction

(A/N: A modern AU for Arthurian mythology, where Arthur is a temporarily blind pop star, the Knights of the Table Round are his band, body guards and friends. Arthur, Guinevere and Lancelot are in a romantically supportive polyamorous relationship (there are not enough threesomes out there). Morgan Le Fay doesn't dislike Arthur, she's just not so fond of Guinevere (doesn't hate her either, though). Mordred (Arthur's nephew, not his son) is a scarred teenager with abusive parents, who has a parental relationship with Arthur and Gwen. Also, Morgan and the Lady of the Lake are still Fae and Merlin is now one too, because why not, and Avalon exists. And Mordred is transgender. Deal with it.)

.

In a big mansion near the Welsh town of Newport, Lancelot was standing at the hearth, cooking and making tea for Arthur and Guinevere, who were out for groceries. No thanks to the Table Round, the previously stuffed fridge had gone empty within less than a week, so his two lovers had gone out to refill the supplies. And Arthur's half-sister Morgan was coming along to help, because there was going to be a LOT of stuff to be carried.

Lancelot silently prayed that Gwen and Morgan would not engage into a spat like they did almost EVERY TIME THEY WERE TOGETHER!!!

The water boiled and the Frenchman poured three separate cups, Darjeeling for Arthur, peppermint for Guinevere and coffee for himself. Also a glass of vodka for Morgan, because nothing cheered the crazy, headstrong Fae up like hard alcohol (she didn't get drunk easily either, so Lancelot wasn't too concerned).

Just as Lancelot had set the table in the living room, someone rang at the door. He frowned; there was no way they could be back so quickly.

“Coming!”, the brunet Frenchman called out, before setting down the tablet and going to answer the door. One the way he picked up his gun; one could never know if it wasn't some stalker here to creep on Arthur or Guinevere. Or him, for that matter.

But when he looked through the spyhole, he sighed in relief and opened the door to reveal a flaxen-haired teenage boy with silvery eyes, who was wearing an over-sized grey hoodie and worn-out jeans and looked like he had run the whole way here.

“Hello, Mordred”, he greeted kindly, but his smile vanished instantly, when he saw the kid's state: his face was flushed from running, he clearly couldn't breathe and was on the verge of passing out and his eyes were red and filled with grief.

“Hey … Lancelot”, he gasped hoarsely, “Is … uncle …?”

“Come inside first”, Lancelot said and supported the boy's weight with one arm. “Warm up and catch your breath, before you faint on me!”

Mordred was too out of breath to protest or agree. He just let the older man help him into the nearby kitchen, only to collapse before they even neared the table.

“Merde!¹”, Lancelot cursed and laid the teenager down on the floor.

“I'm really sorry for this”, he apologised, then stripped the younger of his hoodie and shirt, then undid the bandages around his chest (bandages! Why was the boy not wearing a binder?!), before administering first aid.

At last Mordred's eyes fluttered back open.

“What …”

“You fainted!”, Lancelot snapped – and instantly regretted it, when he saw the other wince. He sighed and continued more gently: “Pardon. I mean, you collapsed and fainted, because you couldn't breathe. Come on. I'll help you into the living room and you can lie down on the couch.”

Lancelot had to help him put his shirt back on, because Mordred was still a bit too out of it. Then he helped him into the living room and onto one of the couches, then folded the boy's hoodie and placed it on the table.

“Stay here and breathe deeply”, he told Mordred, “I'll be back.”

And hurried back into the kitchen, this time to make the other some hot chocolate, heat up the tea for Arthur and Guinevere and gather his own nerves and thoughts.

This was the third time this week that Mordred had run away from home. It was nothing uncommon (unfortunately) and often Mordred's older brother Agravaine would be with him, when things became too much at their parents' home.

Lot and Morgause Orkney led one mess of a family life. Lancelot didn't know details, but it had to be awful. When their eldest son Gawain had left home, he'd taken Gareth and Gaheris with him (they had been nine and seven at the time). But he hadn't been able to take Agravaine and Mordred with him too and neither had forgiven him for leaving them behind.

The two never specified, what happened at home.

Lancelot wished Mordred and Agravaine would trust them enough to tell, but to pressure the boys into doing so would do no good.

He sighed and returned back to the living room to bring the boy his hot chocolate.

Mordred smiled just a little bit, when he accepted the cup.

“Arthur is out shopping with your aunts Gwen and Morgan, they'll be back soon”, Lancelot informed the flaxen-haired boy, who nodded in acknowledgement.

“Until then”, the Frenchman continued and put a chair next to the couch, “you and I will have a little talk, jeune homme.²”

Mordred tensed up, clearly afraid. It made Lancelot's heart crack a little.

“Easy, mon cher³”, he cooed. “I'm not angry. It scared me a bit, when you suddenly dropped back there, but I'm not angry. I promise.”

Mordred relaxed and finished his hot chocolate.

“Still though. We need to talk about your bandages.”

“I …”

“Listen, I know you have … uhm, what's the English term for it?”

“Gender dysphoria?”, Mordred supplied.

“Oui! That! Anyway, I won't pretend to know how that feels like. I can imagine that your breasts make you uncomfortable, but … bandages?! Sacré, Mordred, mais á quoi pensais-tu?!⁴”

“… English please?”

Lancelot sighed in frustration; sometimes his brain refused to supply even the simplest English phrases or words, so he'd say it in French instead. He took a deep breath to sort his mind and remember the translation.

When it came to him, he tried again: “I said: Dammit, Mordred, jus what were you thinking?! Surely you must know that there are binders for that and you use bandages to flatten your chest?! That's dangerous! I have seen the scars where they cut into your flesh! They were so tight they cut off your air supply too! You're lucky I knew CPR, because an ambulance wouldn't have made it in time! You could have suffocated, Mordred! Are you aware of that?!”

The flaxen-haired boy let out a small whimper.

Lancelot sat next to him on the couch. Then he hugged the younger tightly and they both cried.

.

After they had calmed down, Lancelot gave Mordred a pack of tissues to wipe his face.

“I will make us both some tea”, he said. “Chamomile is good for the nerves and we need it. Do you want more hot chocolate?”

Mordred nodded, smiling. “Yes. And thank you, Lancelot. You're an amazing uncle.”

Lancelot couldn't help but grin like an idiot.

It was nothing new, that Mordred and his siblings called him “uncle”, but being reminded that he was seen as part of the family felt good every time.

At first the children of Morgause had been apprehensive towards this outsider. But after seeing his loving and functional relationship with their uncle and aunt-in-law and how genuinely he cared about them all like they were his own children, they had quickly warmed up to him. And before he had known it, he was part of the family. One day Mordred's oldest brother Gawain (who was only twelve years Lancelot's junior) had just strode up to Lancelot and declared, that he was their uncle now and there was nothing he could do about it. The younger four Orkney brothers had followed suit (it was one of the few things they all unanimously agreed upon) – to their uncle Arthur's great delight and their parents' chagrin.

Lancelot gave Mordred another brief hug and went to make more tea and chocolate.

With chagrin he noted, that his coffee and Arthur's and Guinevere's tea had got cold and he had to warm the latter two up for the second time (his coffee could stay cold, he didn't mind that). Oh well, at least the stew hadn't burned, while it had been left by itself.

As he came back into the living room, he saw that Mordred was reading one of his uncle's books.

“What are you reading?”

“A collection of poems by William Blake”, Mordred replied. “I want to get better at reading Braille, for uncle Arthur.”

“That's sweet of you. He'll appreciate it.”

Arthur had gone blind ten years prior and hired Lancelot for help. They had become friends quickly. But then Lancelot and Guinevere had fallen for each other, complicating things. After a year of secret and shameful pining, they had chosen to come clean in front of Arthur – both of them loving him too much to want to go behind his back. To their surprise he had taken it well, especially after Guinevere had assured him that she loved them both equally. That was how they had ended up in a polyamorous relationship. Along the way Merlin and Morgan had offered to magically restore his eyesight, but Arthur had made clear, that he didn't want to rely on their magic to fix everything. Instead he had adjusted to his blindness, acquired books in Braille and learned to read them. But he was going to have an eye surgery in a few months and hoped that soon he'd be able to see his wife again and “get to know Lancelot's colours”, as he'd put it.

Back to the story, Lancelot had just turned off the stove and Mordred had struggled through the Auguries of Innocence⁵, when they heard the front door open and close, two women's voices bickering and the next moment three people came into the room, each of them carrying two heavy, over-stuffed shopping bags.

First a tall woman with purple eyes and purple extensions in her long raven hair, clad in black from head to toe and with an air of mystery around her. That was Morgan Le Fay.

Then a petite woman with auburn hair and brown eyes, who was struggling with her bags. That was Guinevere.

And finally a stocky man with short flaxen hair (just like Mordred's), who evidently had no problem with the heavy bags, but clearly relied on the voices of the two women to orientate himself.

“We're back~”, Arthur announced.

Lancelot laughed: “Bienvenu⁶. I just finished dinner, so bring the stuff into the kitchen and sit down with us.”

Arthur immediately listened up. “Us?”, he echoed.

Now Mordred quietly spoke up: “Hello.”

The older man beamed: “Mordred! What a nice surprise! What are you doing here?”

“'Sup, nephew!”, Morgan said flatly, though her eyes betrayed her pleasant surprise.

Guinevere greeted the boy with a smile.

Mordred smiled weakly and waved back, but apparently didn't want to speak. So Lancelot waited, till they all had stored the food, then chose to brief Arthur on the situation: “He came about half an hour ago and looked like a complete mess, but he didn't tell me what the matter was, so I made him some hot chocolate.”

The boy only lowered his head, sighed and hid his face behind his long and messy flaxen hair.

Arthur stopped smiling, felt his way over to where his nephew's voice had come from and found him, carefully feeling down his arms and crouching down before him.

“What happened, Mordred?”, the blind man asked concerned, “You're so quiet. Who hurt you?”

Mordred mumbled something that sounded like: “My father.” Then he bit his lip, obviously trying to hold back a sob.

Now Morgan stepped forward, her brows furrowed, but her eyes soft with concern.

She knelt before him and asked him to show her his arms.

Lancelot wanted to object, as it was obvious that the teenage boy didn't want to do as she said, but there was no arguing with Morgan Le Fay.

Her nephew hesitated, before rolling up his sleeves, revealing direly bruised and scratched arms. Guinevere looked deeply disturbed and hurried to get a first aid kit to tend to the bruises and cuts.

Mordred winced, as his aunt-in-law applied the disinfectant to the sore wounds. Once she had finished cleaning them, she allowed Morgan to magically heal them.

“There”, the Fae said. “Can't do anything about the psychological hurt though, that's old man Merlin's thing. Shit, Mordred, what did your father do to you?!”

“I …”, the boy swallowed, “… he hit me with a chair. Kicked me some. Choked and punched me … called me things …” He trailed off.

“Does this happen a lot?”, Arthur questioned, frown increasing.

“… Yes.”

“And your mother doesn't intervene?”

“Never.” A sniffle. “She thinks it's right … that he disciplines us, my brother and me.”

“Where is Agravaine anyway?”

“He's staying over at one of his friends”, Mordred told his uncle. “I have to call him later and tell him I'm here.”

“The phone is all yours”, Arthur offered and his nephew mumbled a thank you.

Then Lancelot asked tentatively: “What about the cuts? Why did you do this to yourself?”

“…”

“Sweetie”, Guinevere spoke gently. “It's awful enough that your parents hurt you. Why do you feel like you have to hurt yourself too?”

“…”

Lancelot felt his heart crack.

He had known that it was bad, but he never would have imagined that it was this bad! What more happened at Mordred's “home”, that he was too ashamed and Agravaine too proud to mention? How long had they gone through this and none of the four adults here had known?!

Guinevere sighed sadly: “Why didn't you tell us sooner?”

“Because I … I …”

The rest was cut off by a whimper and Mordred curled in on himself, sobbing hysterically. Arthur embraced his nephew loosely, mindful of his state. Guinevere, Lancelot and Morgan made it a group hug.

They waited until he had calmed down, before letting go.

Arthur cleared his throat: “I think that's enough questions for today. Either way you're staying here, Mordred. I know you're not comfortable with hiding away here, but we're not letting you go back there. I will not stand for that. Not with how terrible people they are. One should expect that Morgause – my own sister! – would've had the common sense and decency to dump that scumbag and take you with her. But no, she just stands by and lets him hurt you and your brother in the worst ways possible. That's unforgivable. You deserve better, Mordred. I promise, you do.”

Mordred sighed shakily. Clearly he wasn't believing it.

Lancelot deduced, that the boy had been made to believe the opposite for pretty much his whole life, that his parents had drilled into him, that he was worthless, useless and whatnot. Agravaine likely had to deal with the same shit.

This was wrong, so terribly wrong.

Family was supposed to be a safe haven, loving, nurturing and supportive. Not … this.

The Frenchman felt his blood boil and it took a lot of self control not to show in Mordred's presence just how angered he was.

Instead he took a deep breath and stood back up. “It's dinner time. We're having stew. Later you can call your brother and we'll give you a room where you can sleep. You must be tired. We also should find you some spare clothes, since you had none with you.”

The boy shuffled awkwardly at the reminder, that he had run away from his parents' home without thinking to pack spare clothes.

“We'll worry about that later”, Arthur decided. “Personally, I'm starving!”

“As usual!”, Morgan scoffed.

“Oh shut up, you eat more than I do!”

“Hey, magic takes a lot of energy! I need to eat as much as possible to keep my magic and body functioning!”

“Excuses! You just don't want to admit, that you have a black hole for a stomach!”

“You take that back!”

“Never!”

Guinevere chuckled: “When you two are done, let's sit down and eat already, before dinner gets cold.”

.

Later, after Morgan had washed the dishes (meaning she had magicked them clean and levitated them back into the cupboards), Guinevere showed Mordred one of the guest rooms.

“One of your cousins was here for a visit last weekend”, she said and handed him pyjamas. “These are Yvain's. He's your age and currently at boarding school, so you can wear his spare clothes for now. You take a nice, relaxing bath and get some rest. Tomorrow we will get you new clothes. The ones you wear are atrocious.”

“And good binders”, Morgan added, “Lancelot told us about the bandages and you gotta stop. We'll find some binders that won't cut off your air supply at the slightest physical activity. What do you say?”

Mordred swallowed the lump in his throat and nodded, smiling weakly.

“Sounds good”, he mumbled.

Guinevere smiled gently and gave him a hug, before handing him the phone. Then she and Morgan left to give him privacy, while he talked to his brother.

Mordred took a deep breath, before dialling Agravaine's mobile phone number.

A few anxious seconds later, a gravelly voice answered the phone: “Hi, uncle Artie. What's up?”

“Aggie, it's me.”

“Momo? What are you doing at uncle's place?”

“I …”

Three seconds of trying to come up with an answer were too long, apparently.

Agravaine started freaking out: “Mordred, what happened?! Are you okay!? Are you hurt?! Wait, of course you are, that's why you're at our uncle's place! Shit, answer me, what's wrong?!”

“Bro.”

“Are Artie, Gwen and Lance taking care of you? Are you in pain? Who hurt you?! I will fucking kill-”

“Agravaine!”

“What?!”

“Calm down. I ran away, but now I'm safe at our uncle's home. Our uncles and aunts fixed me up.”

Mordred heard Agravaine sigh: “Alright. But still, what happened?”

He was hesitant, but he also knew, that he couldn't lie to his older brother.

“Father happened. He got mad and beat me up.”

For a few seconds, there was silence.

Then: “He whaaaaat??? That's it, I'll murder him! … My friend here says he'd help me hide the body and get rid of the evidence.”

“Aggie, no! He isn't worth going prison for murder! And our uncles and aunts promised, that I won't have to go back there and neither will you. They'll sue him, Arthur said.”

“… Fiiine. Say hi to them from me.”

“Will do.”

“Love you, little bro.”

“Love you too. I'll get some rest. You and your friend have fun.”

“Thanks, bye. I'll come by tomorrow.”

“Okay. Bye.”

Mordred hung up and went to return the phone.

He was looking forward to a warm bath and a good night's sleep.

.

-

.

1) "Merde" - French: "Shit!" 2) "jeune homme" - French: "young man" 3) "mon cher" - French: "My dear" 4) "Sacré ... mais á quoi pensais-tu?!" - French: "Damn it ... what were you thinking?!" 5) The Auguries of Innocence is a moralistic poem by William Blake that was published after his death. 6) "Bienvenu." - French: "Welcome."

A big thanks to @saemi-the-dreamer for her help with the French. <3

[cheerfulimp]

Cursed....characters

ok no I wont wait days...and I will talk about characters, I’m not gonna compare it with the book I haven’t read. Just what I saw

Arthur 

I didn’t like the Arthur at all....like at all...I’m not judging him being in a band, he was abounded kid, and stuff, didn’t know what to do blalal...but come on like he STOLE the Sword, and then after Nimue went after him and demanded the Sword back...he was like “hey nothing really mattered, just a sword sis chill,  why are you talking with me like that and stuff..pff...why are so rude to me, why why”...aagghhh...and after, through the series, I can’t explain it, aghhh I hope there will be a NEAT character development for him...I really hope...how do they even fell in love?

Green Knight aka Gawain

Boi my boi....such a perfect character, again I hope to see his character development. Because heeere what I didn’t liked at all. He told us a story about his close friend being killed in front of him blalal, and it was tough yet the right decision, to let him die. AND THEN we have windmill scene, where another yet fairy is tortured in front of him, they demand him to come and fight, BUT hey oh my lovely Gawain whom I really love, this time you’re not alone, it’s not only about your life, there were kids, and honestly you didn’t even know that fairy, so the reaction you gave was really stupid. Yeah Yeah we all can agree that that fairy life really mattered, plus he remembered his friend’s death etc., but come on we all know  he saw/witnessed/went through that same things after many times. And sure that stupid behavior of this only was written in order for ARTHUR to kill himself that poor fairy, so Gawain would not kill his own-kind, though he knew it was the only logical move. Come on people, we saw/ read plenty of movies/books with similar situations.

Nimue

I love the actress. Her character is not set well yet. She was not really practicing with her powers during her childhood, neither she can really fight. Idk we need more I hope we will get more. I’m not talking about her sometimes crazy behavior under the RING’s influence , sorry SWORD’s...this LOTR RING and CURSED SWORD have SAME ENERGY honestly =D However I must say something. The scene where Dof died, let’s be honest she didn’t even really tried helping, like “man i’m so tired after all that and stuff, i might not be helpful blala...sorryy my best friend since childhood...welp he’s dead sorryyyy” and immediately when the other viking dude announced that now they with  Red Spear are allies, she immediately had that smile on her face, like good good thanks!! Sure in that time of trouble it’s good to have someone on your side, But I mean let’s be honest she didn’t even tried hard enough to save that man. And we all remember that on the other hand she really tried  hard to save dead Gawain. Double standards? like IDk who is this man so nope im tired, GAWAIN my childhood ( i feel he was a crush) i will try to undead you. Remember Vinny? yeah had that vibes

Merlin 

How can you hate Floki?Sure Floki killed Edelstein, but it was in the past. And his Flokiness was coming out in Merlin. Nah really good character....we need more of him agaaain to understand him, well ok not understand  rather than  justify his actions. True there’s a lot went between him fairy people and human (not mentioning shadows, creatures and other dimensions ) during his loooong lifetime. Man can have depression and anxiety. IDK we saw lot’s of characters that live long life and vie life differently idk idk. He tried at least saving his own daughter, that is a start I guess, and now his powers are back, who know what craziness awaits us.  ALSO NOW he has no connection with humans, neither with shadows, and fairies, he is all by himself. This can lead to something interesting? morality? He will train Morgana? who knows? he still have fairy fire or smth .I was not going to talk about him honestly. I love Floki

MORGANA 

Before knowing who is she. I hated her, cause for no reason she slapped Nimue..like dude wtf she just woke up she don’t know where is she, who are you and who was that future bitch little nun sitting in front of her. WHY SLAP?? ANd then we found out her love towards Fairies, and i loved her. then we heard her version of letter she said her fav part, that was “ damn i feel we gonna see it in the future”. Plus How did she killed  the Widow?? spider? sword? Graphics  were weirdish. And with all due respect, you left the “one you really loved that hard” in the monastery, and then “I will do shady things to return to you..more like dead version of you”. We all know this is not her but the spider, and Morgana is supposedly  smart, why is she not considering that option? blinded by pain and love? naah...this is ridicules, but heey she is not fully doing shady things so far she returned to Nimue, idk how becoming a Widow on the way...maybe this is some king of time paradox type things...anywaay let’s seee...SHE IS THE MORGANA PEOPLE>>>SHE MUST BE BAD ASSISH

Percival=PERFECTION nothing to add. He’s gonna be trained by best out of bests!!!

Weeping Monk? Lancelot!! He did nothing wrong! And in this fandom we love him!

When I first saw him, I was like ok ok i know your backstory. Definitely fairy raised killing machine. For a little brief moment in the very beginning i though he might be Mordred (first two episodes), but then we had Gawain, so i was like “ okaay I see some epic Lancelot revel coming soon”, cause the whole squad is here already.You can’t have Arthur, Gawain, Morgana,Nimue,Perci,Merlin, but magically bring Lance in the end or somewhere in the middle of seasons. Have you noticed that “Weeping Monk fighting against Trinity Guards had the SAME energy of Ben Solo fighting  agains Knights of Ren” ?I will go down with this character...perfection...

Red Spear 

Is she Guinevere ? Maybe i forgot some knight with a spear..Sir Balin? he was not part of round....but idk this book i haven’t read, so why not he was one of the Savagest one...I ship my/this theory

[day-time-dream]

ok so im posting this conversation transcript so ill ((hopefully)) be able to find it later and also yall should read the wild stuff @nocturnal-and-chaotic and i came up with while discussing HNOC a while ago

CHEL-i like to think that literally the only reason brian bothered to give any prophecies was that he was trying to keep mordred from getting him stuck in the sun

NOCT-yes

but also he tries to be a good person

CHEL-which comes with the lovely mental image of every time mordred passes the hanged man hes like ‘is that prophetic statue.....glaring at me?’

NOCT-gorgeous

wanna hear my latest mechs hot take

CHEL-sure

NOCT-the hanged man rusts is just brian rolling 2 nat 1's and a nat 20 on a charisma check

CHEL- noice

also he was stuck on means justify ends that whole time and thats why he couldnt just get down

it would have been rude

NOCT- oh my god youre so right

or maybe he wasn't actually hanged, he just got himself stuck and everyone sort of assumed he had been hanged and he was to embarrassed to say anything

CHEL-thank you. im very into your idea that brian just fucked up and got himself stuck

and then people started using ‘the hanged man’ as a cautionary tale and he couldnt just get down!! that would be a bad example!!

NOCT-no no, he's physically incapable of getting down, and it would be rude to ask for help

the real reason it takes the crew so long to fish him out of the sun is that they keep picturing his face when he got stuck and then they start laughing again

CHEL-i cant tell if i better like the idea that brian was there alone and wrote/told the others about hnoc or if the others were there and thought it was the funniest fucking thing he’d ever done

NOCT-every single one of the mechanisms would have laughed directly in brians face

CHEL-i think thats where the angst or comedy branches off

oh absolutely

jonny comes by once a week to ask someone in town to ‘explain what this metal man thing is. why is it up there? what does it do?’ and brian is hanging there like, if it were not for the laws of this land and also the fact that i am stuck up here and also my morality being on mje i would slaughter you

NOCT-ivy walks past after jonny, commenting about how foolish the hangman must have been to tie such easily escapable knots

although i like to think they all left when they saw which way the wind was blowing, and just,,. forgot brian?? and then when they realized, the series of fuck ups were just too funny and they laughed at brain for a couple decades before picking him up

CHEL-*the mechs, drifting through space, having a grand old time*

tim: hey lets go to -random planet-

*three days later*

tim: why are we not on the planet yet

ashes: idk ask brian

tim: brians not here

mechs:..........

jonny: FUCK we forgot brian

NOCT-screeching

CHEL-the reason it took them so long to get back is no one else can fucking fly the aurora

NOCT-nastya and aurora were on a break

CHEL-yea nastya could ask her to take them there but it takes a Lot of persuasion and its very uncomfortable for everyone else

NOCT-eeeeeeeeeeeeewwwwwwwwwwwwwwww

CHEL- -marius

NOCT- -jonny

i mean its definitely both

CHEL-brian gets back on board and no one will look at each other and hes like ‘i hope you all fucking learned your lessons i am the most important fucking crewmember on this ship’

NOCT-no, he assumes everyone was drunk and forgot but had no other problems, and everyone makes a silent agreement to never tell him the truth

CHEL-no i think ive gone from ‘brian was just Too Nice to come down from the gallows and the other mechs thought this was hilarious’ to ‘brian purposefully got himself stuck in a sun for a thousand years so the others would start giving him some goddamn Respect’ and i like this

NOCT-ok i'm on board with the exception that everyone else THINKS my version is what happened but in reality they all got played

CHEL-oh yes absolutely

NOCT-raphealla*** writes lost in the cosmos because she feels bad

CHEL-vksjebksjfna WHAT

NOCT-i cant spell

help please

CHEL-its raphaella i think

but i was thinking about that conversation

NOCT-idk i just thought raphaella would want to apologize without admitting they forgot brian so she goes,

you know what shows we care? a backstory song!

CHEL-brian: yea you all left me in a sun huh?

raph: yes and while you were gone i wrote you a song for us to perform together

brian: cool!

*after listening*

brian: its...,very beautiful......and well written?

raph: do you not like it? its kinda an apology.....

brian: as an apology for you all leaving me alone in space you wrote me a song-

raph: yes!

brian: -about my agonizing death alone in space?

raph: ....ah

NOCT-raph, scribbling in a notebook: reminding people of trauma is not a good way to handle lesser trauma. got it

jonny, reading over her shoulder: i just thought of a great way to bother tim!

CHEL-and thats how gunpowder tim vs the moon kaiser was written

NOCT-canon

[haljathefangirlcat]

Okay, pls tell me about this: "heartfic au"

As you MAY have already guessed ;) it’s a fic inspired by @janiedean’s beautiful ASOIAF heartfics. 

For those unaware: one day, an anon suggested Janie write an ASOIAF fanfic set in an AU where, after suffering too much pain and trauma, people’s hearts (represented by glowing spheres of light) may crack and bleed and, eventually, spontaneously disappear from their owners’ chest to reappear wherever their soulmate is. Said soulmate then takes care of the heart, trying to heal its wounds and/or stop its bleeding, until they’re finally able to give it back. And then, ofc, romance and (more) hurt/comfort ensue. I think the initial prompt was JB, because iirc that’s what the first heartfic was? But Janie also wrote similar fics about other ships, like Davos and his wife getting Stannis’ heart or Sansa getting Sandor’s.

Janie has said on a couple of occasion that she’s fine with other people using the same concept, since it was that anon who came up with it. I decided to write Arthurian fic about it because the whole idea was just screaming GALAHAD/MORDRED!!!! over and over at me. 

Basic plot is “kid!Galahad gets a cracked, bleeding heart and figures it’s that of a damsel in distress he will have to save one day because ofc, he’s Miracle Boy and everything, but oh no, all the ballads say brave noble knights marry the damsels in distress whose hearts they heal, and he has to stay Pure to find the Grail!! ... but hey, maybe they can be just friends?? Then he grows up, goes to Camelot, starts this weird friendship (?) with Mordred as the two Local Subtly (Or Not So Subtly) Ostracized Awkward Prophesized Bastards Of Very Important People, and realizes it was never about a damsel at all. Cue DRAMA on both sides (”WAIT HOW DOES IT WORK DOES THIS MAKE IT BETTER OR WORSE I MEAN CAN WE HAVE LIKE A PLATONIC VIRILE FRIENDSHIP OR DO WE HAVE TO --” “OH GREAT I’M NOT GOOD ENOUGH EVEN FOR MY GD SOULMATE NOW” and a bunch of other stuff) until Galahad leaves on the Grail Quest and experiences a lot of horrible shit until his own heart goes to Mordred to protect itself, proving they truly ARE meant to be together and prompting Galahad to refuse the Grail and ascending to Heaven (after a lot more internal turmoil, probably) so he can come back to him.”

Here’s a peek from a scene I’m particularly proud of:

As it turns out, he wasn’t lying.

Mordred can’t deny it as he stares at the thing Galahad took out of the chest under his bed, the thing that was in the leather pouch, the thing wrapped in wool like it was fragile and precious. The thing in Galahad’s hands, held gently, shivering like a branch in the wind, glowing like live coals, pulsating – no, not pulsating, beating.

The void in his chest longs for it, aches for it, covets it. No. No, it’s more than that. It’s not just desire but a need, a hunger. It makes him helpless before it, pulls him towards it like a riptide, and it’s all he can do to struggle against it and resist it, holding his arms rigid by his sides and not moving an inch from his position.

«It’s yours,» Galahad say, uselessly, and he opens and closes his mouth and lowers his gaze like he doesn’t know what else to say.

«Yes. It’s mine,» Mordred replies, just as uselessly. Then, after a moment, he adds: «Those are even my colors.» More because he’s just noticed than for any other reason. His bewildered tone probably makes his words sound even more foolish. But he won’t blame himself for that too much, not right now, because the first thing he noticed was the redness – the blood. The splotches of blood and the many, ragged scars. Hard to notice anything else, after seeing that.

His heart is an ugly thing. That’s not surprising, at all, but he chokes back bitter laughter all the same. 

Galahad’s head whips back up at the sound, and he looks startled and a bit confused. «Uh. Ah, yes, that’s true. I hadn’t thought… or, mh, noticed…» He stops, frowning.

Right then, a thought strikes him like a slap across the face, part hope and part dread and entirely stupid. «Gaheris has silver and purple in his arms, too.» Mordred hesitates and bites his lip, feeling inexplicably like a child about to confide some secret that’s at once all too important and too silly to be exposed, and then continues: «Not only that, but the silver reminds me of Orkney’s sea in winter… and that purple, of a flower that blooms sometimes on the heaths near the sea. My brothers and I all used to play on the coast as boys. They already did it long before I was even born.» Another pause. «As for the flower, I think we all picked it for our mother at least once.» And now, its color is dirtied and muddled by bloodstains.

Galahad shakes his head. «I’ve never thought too much about what the colors might mean. But I’ve also never felt like it could belong to any of your brothers.» There’s a light flush on his cheeks, now, a thin note of something that’s almost stubbornness in his voice. Mordred is aware that he could use that to tease him.

He doesn’t feel like teasing him. «Still… how can you be so certain?»

Galahad blinks and then stares him right in the eye, and suddenly his chest is tight, full of something that itches and stings and prickles under the other man’s calm, blue gaze. «Aren’t you? Don’t you feel it’s your heart?»

He does. He does, and that’s just the problem. The itch grows more intense, more unbearable with every moment he keeps his mouth shut to avoid answering. He drops his gaze to the thing that’s still in Galahad’s hands, the thing that’s calling to him and only him and seems to be beating faster and brighter the more he looks at it and does nothing else, almost like it’s yelling at him in its own way for making it wait so long.

«What if I don’t want it,» he says, and his voice sounds rough and weak to his own ears.

«Why wouldn’t you want it?» Galahad asks that like he honestly can’t think of any reason why, like this is the first time anyone in the whole world has ever said anything like what Mordred, not-so-secret bastard prince and prophesized kingslayer and kinslayer of Camelot, has just said. Maybe it is. He’s pretty sure he’s never heard any songs about any beleaguered damsel who simply told the dashing hero at the foot of her dreary tower, oh no, my good sir, you may keep it, I was fine without it and I will not need it anytime soon.

But Mordred is not a vulnerable maiden or locked up against his will and at the mercy of a cruel brother or uncle or eagerly waiting to be rescued since he was half his current height, so he steels himself and tries again: «What if I’m just fine the way I am now? What if I don’t need it, after all? I’ve spent years not feeling anything, I’m used to it.»

He looks up in time to catch the flash of naked hurt that crosses Galahad’s fine features, briefly replacing startled incredulity before it turns into barely concealed worry. «Are you sure?» Then, he seems to really think about it… and the fingers of his right hand start stroking the thing, lightly and unthinkingly. «I… I can imagine something has happened that you may not want to remember. Maybe you’ve felt things you don’t want to feel again. But is this really better? Would you really keep living like this?»

The spark of anger mixed with spite that flares up in his gut – at Galahad’s questioning and his assumptions that he can imagine and that he knows what living like this is like, those soft caresses that feel so impossibly familiar and intimate when at most they should be irritating or even disturbing in their presumptuousness, the way he feels himself ache for entirely new reasons – tempts him to say that yes, he would, and yes, this is better. It has to be. Has to be better than this ridiculous, confusing, terrible mess that Galahad’s dragged him into. Had he never come to Camelot, or least, had he never come to him with truths that sounded like bad jokes and his honest, open gaze and their stupidly engaging arguments and the quiet evenings spent together hiding away from everyone else and…

«Aren’t there things you’d like to feel? For your family, or your friends, or…»

Mordred sighs. There were lots of things, back when he had first given up his heart and spent his every waking moment wishing to get it back somehow. That was years ago, though, and after some time had passed and he had finally figured out that wishing never helped with anything, all of them had started to seem less desirable, less important… just, less. They didn’t matter anymore, and so he didn’t want them then and doesn’t want them now. And yet… it seems foolish to even think about it, like he’s slipping back into stale old fantasies and half-forgotten, senseless hopes, but… maybe there are a couple of new things, now.

He sighs again, this time trying for a slightly exasperated but mostly careless tone, and holds his hands out in front of him as soon as he’s sure they’ve stopped shaking. He swallows and says: «Alright, I think I’ll give it a try. But know that I might just throw it out again and then you’ll be stuck with it.» He tells himself that he’s not afraid. He is, of course, but he’s such a convincing liar, he knows he can convince himself. It can’t be too hard, right?

Galahad grimaces, and that’s not too encouraging, even if he’s quick to school his features before he slowly, almost gingerly reaches his hands out to him, too. Mordred has half a mind to snap at him and say, look, I was only jesting, I’m not saying you’ll really have to keep it or that I’d care if you left it on the wayside or threw it into a well, but then he worries that the bile might blend with actual pity and so he says nothing except for: «How am I supposed to do this, then?» The songs, of course, skip the boring technical details.

Galahad fits the glowing sphere between his palms like he’s putting a newborn into the cradle, touches his fingers to make them curl over it as if he’s afraid he’ll drop it. The sphere is light as a breath, yet somehow solid, and warm like a living thing… which it truly is, all things considered, although that thought still feels a little absurd. Galahad’s skin is warm, too. «I’m not sure,» Galahad admits. «I’ve… never done this before.»

«Yeah, well, neither have I.»

[shadowsong26fic]

Coming Attractions!

Yes, I know it’s Friday, not Monday. <.< ANYWAY.

Before we get started, plugging my Discord server (which is p. quiet lately but it’s there if you want to talk somewhere other than here!); and also we’ll do another Open Question Night because Why Not!

As I said last month, while my askbox is always open, tonight I’ll be actively around to answer questions--about writing in general, anything I’ve posted about here on tumblr; anything on my AO3...let me know what’s on your mind!

Star Wars:

SWBB:

Take a Bond of Fate is officially up! (Previously referred to as just SWBB 2021 or the Dragonshifters AU because I literally titled it less than twelve hours before posting <.<) Well, the first 20k are up, anyway. I will be updating throughout the month and the fic will be complete by the end of the month, per the event rules. (I originally planned to do updates on Tuesdays and Fridays; tonight’s update will be delayed and who knows how well I’ll actually stick to it after tonight but it Will be posted in full by the end of May, I can say that much for sure XD)

As always, I think there are a few things I could’ve handled better/that feel a little rushed, but I think it turned out pretty good! There are some upcoming scenes I’m particularly fond of, but we’ll see if everyone else agrees. The core of this actually ended up being Bo and Padme? Which I was not expecting--I was expecting it to lean hard on the Bo and Anakin parallels, but here we are.

Anyway, there’s some fun bits to come!

Precipice:

No solid update ATM. Uh. Various Life things got bonkers over the past month or two, so TaBoF took pretty much all of my fic brain. However, since that project is essentially finished other than finalizing/polishing each update chunk as I post, I should be able to turn my attention here this month. Which means, fingers crossed, we’ll have a start date sometime in June for Protectors. I’ll post the first Preludes segment at the same time; it will involve Kallus, Lavinia, and Mara Jade, set just before Kallus is reassigned to Lothal.

(Others that I have planned will involve: 1) some combination of Kanan, Ezra, Hondo, Obi-Wan, Ahsoka, and Anakin; 2) Hera and whoever her contact is in this AU, as Ahsoka is otherwise occupied; 3) Whatever Maul is up to in this timeline; 4) Something to do with Palpatine’s fifth apprentice; and two more I haven’t decided on. I am taking suggestions! The purpose of Preludes is to patch some holes now that I’ve decided to write Rebels into the canon, which was not part of my original plan as I hadn’t yet seen it when I started planning/posting this AU. So these are more plot-relevant than the things that turn up in Bonus Content, which is why they’re in a separate fic, but not really enough to make a full arc between Milestones and Escalation, so, there it is.)

our faces like a mirror:

I’m now leaning towards sitting on this and using it for next year’s Big Bang? Because then maybe I’ll finally finish it, lol...anyway, I’m also going to see how people respond to stuff in TaBoF, because that will either Boost my enthusiasm for the project or, uh, the opposite, depending on how people respond to how I write Bo-Katan. So that may change, and I may finally get it out this year instead of next. We’ll see how that goes XD

Other SW Projects:

One of the SW discords I’m on has revived a prompt game we did last summer. I pulled my first prompt but haven’t actually, uh, done anything with it yet. <.< I’ll do that at some point.

As for various outlines or extant AUs I haven’t updated in forever...well, like I said, what little fic brain hasn’t been on BB the past month or two has been drifting back towards Precipice or occasionally co-opted by OFLAM so...yeah, nothing serious to report on that front, lol.

AtLA Projects:

I’m semi-planning/hoping to start posting At Least one of the two longfics I’ve been poking at sometime this summer. I’ve mentioned them here before, but one is long and tragic and focuses on Lu Ten; the other is an Avatar Zuko AU. Not sure which will draw my focus and get up first, but I do plan to write both of them! And possibly more. Because this fandom just Does That to me, lol.

Also, as I’ve mentioned in various times and places--I am pathologically incapable of not creating a bunch of OCs when I seriously fall into a fandom, and my AtLA work, in particular, will probably reflect that. I don’t super plan to write anything really centered on any OCs (I mean, apart from characters who Exist but have very little Canon Characterization (i.e., Lu Ten himself for that one fic, lol); and Lu Ten’s love interest because that’s an important part of the story), but they will be There and Prominent Characters. This is mostly mentioned because I know OCs aren’t for everyone, so that might put you off of my AtLA fic and I figured it was fair to give you a head’s up.

(...although actually I think none of my old fic that I crossposted to AO3 had significant OC involvement except for Glory...but then again that’s all oneshots and a little different.)

Other Fandoms:

BSG/SG-1 (BSG1?) crossover AU is still coming; I keep getting sidetracked from actually finishing it <.< I haven’t even finished the New Caprica and Haven section, I still have to get to the algae planet and then the Resurrection ship and...maybe I’ll end up posting this in chunks...

Uh, nothing else super planned, but as I mentioned last month, this outline might draw me back into BSG fandom a little more actively because it’s another forever fandom of mine.

Original Fiction:

I’m actually really proud of the Regency AU I wrote for a challenge last month, based on my Apocalypse In SPACE ‘verse Lux.

I need to update the Lux and Farglass Cycle archives still, and will hopefully be posting at least one other thing to RF this month, but we’ll see how that goes. I also might or might not be diving into Arthuriana in all its weirdness and glory this summer to prep for actually writing that Lady Mordred idea I had. And there are always other projects on the back burner, but that’s where things stand here.

...I think that pretty much covers it! Not all that much of an update, but as I said, Life got all...Lifey at me, plus BB had a hard deadline, so that’s where the most detail is.

But what about you guys? What are you working on/what do you have in the pipeline? Like I said, it’s an Open Question Night, and I’d love to hear what’s on your mind!

[nikibogwater]

A Shot in the Dark: Chapter One (Author’s Commentary)

(read the fic here)

General Notes:

(So I kind of stole this idea from my friend @unexpected-possibilities after she made an author’s commentary post on one of her fics, and I was like “Oh. Wait, I actually find this kind of stuff SUPER interesting to read." So...yeah, here’s mine for anybody who feels similarly lol)

I have been dying to write this kind of story pretty much since the completion of my second Wizards/ToA fic back in August, but it took me a while to suss out the plot. I generally try to keep my fics as canon-friendly as possible (not that I have anything against AUs, that’s just not a direction that I usually go in) so it was tricky to create a high-stakes adventure story that didn’t mess with canon too much. 

That being said, Chapter 1 is pretty chill, apart from the scene at the end. But it is incredibly important to the plot, because it sets up elements that will be very relevant later in the story. It also serves to re-establish the three-way relationship between Douxie, Archie, and Nari, which will give their interactions in the future chapters more weight. 

One last general note before we get to the passage-specific stuff: The song “Protector” by City Wolf has always been my go-to theme for the Douxie-Archie-Nari relationship, but I think it really captures the feel of this story in particular (or at least, it will once the whole thing is posted lol). I’ve never associated a particular song with any of my other fics before, but this one really was a huge part of what inspired this story, so I highly recommend that you give it a listen, if you are so inclined.

Passage-Specific Notes:

Two pairs of luminous golden eyes were hovering uncomfortably close to his head and staring at him fixedly. Douxie yelped and threw off his covers, scrambling upright and fumbling for his magic vambrace nearby. A small green hand held it out to him politely, and after a bit of confused blinking, Douxie finally registered the faces of his companions. Nari and Archie were sitting on the floor next to his mattress, looking at him eagerly. 

Two short things: One: I had no idea how I was going to start this scene, and then I remembered that one Calvin and Hobbes strip where Calvin wakes up to find Hobbes hovering over him menacingly, and I was like “Yes, that will do nicely.” Two: I still have no idea what Douxie’s magic bracelet-thingy should technically be called, so I settled on vambrace. I know Merlin refers to it as a bracelet in the show, but Merl, I’m sorry, but you clearly know nothing about jewelry. That thing is NOT a simple bracelet. (Also I had to research the difference between bracers and vambraces in order to determine which word to use. Bracers are apparently protective gear that is exclusive to archery, while vambrace is a more general word for any kind of armor worn on the forearm).

“It’s also the day you promised to bring Nari to Central Park,” Archie informed him.

This is a callback to a previous entry in the series, Home Away From Home. Although each entry in the Immortal Bonds series is written in such a way that it can be enjoyed as a standalone, I do weave tiny threads of continuity throughout all of them.

Mornings for Nari looked very different than they used to, she realized as she set the kettle on the stove, stepping back so Archie could light it (due to her somewhat complicated relationship with Bellroc, she was still wary about anything that involved fire). As a demigoddess who had existed for hundreds of millenia, she had never had much experience with something as human as family domesticity.

The scene where Nari and Archie make Douxie’s tea was originally going to be much longer and feature a lot more introspection on Nari’s part (I even researched the British tea-making process for it, since I’m fairly certain Douxie is the one who taught her how to make tea). I was going to start exploring the idea that Nari is still insecure about her place in this little found family, but I realized after about three paragraphs that there’s no way Nari doesn’t know how much Douxie genuinely loves her--she is already proficient in reading his emotions at this point. So that’s an internal conflict for another day.

“Keep very still for me, Nari.” He closed his eyes and took a deep breath, his aura flowing out and wrapping around her like a warm, familiar cloak. “Celare,” he murmured, and Nari felt a sharp tug on her spirit as the spell washed over it, cool and comforting like the shade of an old tree.

If you’ve read previous entries in this series, you know that I can wax poetic about the physical sensations of magic for DAYS. It is one of my favorite aspects of writing Tales of Arcadia fanfiction. Also Celare (kel-ahr-ay) is Latin for “Hide” or “Conceal.” I had to get outside help for this because I don’t speak Latin, and Google Translate is (as I found out) completely unreliable for even the simplest, single-word translations (it gave me the word for “clothe” when I used it 😑)

The first time she had walked the streets of New York City, Nari had been on the verge of tears. There were so many sensations assaulting her mind at once, the feeling of countless souls buzzing around, a crowd of spirits so thick that sometimes it felt like a wall. Even without tapping into her roots, she was drowning in a sea of tangling energies, as hundreds, even thousands of voices echoed in her soul all at once.

Oooooops, is that a parallel for Sensory Processing Disorder? Well, how did that get in there??? *shoves my own mental health issues under a rug with my foot* I have no clue.

This is probably as good a time as any to discuss auras vs. life energy. Basically, aura is the energy radiated by the presence of magic. Magical creatures who share close bonds can become very sensitive to one another’s aura, and because magic is so inextricably linked to emotion, Nari is able to read Douxie’s aura to pick up on whatever he’s feeling (though this is because she is extra sensitive to magical presence--Douxie is attuned to her aura, but he can’t read hers the way she can his). Life energy, meanwhile, is the energy given off by every living soul, magic or otherwise, and that’s what Nari is able to sense via her powers as a demigoddess. I sometimes interchange the word aura with spirit or soul or something similar, but if Douxie or Nari are sensing one another in any capacity apart from their actual physical senses, it’s their auras. Archie also has an aura, but it’s not as intense as that of a true magic-wielder.  

He was fashionably dressed, (“business casual,” the humans called it), with an elegant black trench coat hanging nonchalantly off of his arm. He had dark brown hair, handsomely trimmed and styled, just a bit shorter than Douxie’s, and was wearing a large pair of expensive-looking sunglasses. He looked thoroughly uninterested in the world around him, and had the appearance of someone who was waiting to meet up with a particularly tardy acquaintance. But Nari couldn’t sense that he was waiting. She couldn’t sense anything from this man. He emitted no life force, no aura or energy of any kind. He was like a standing, breathing corpse.

I have had this character floating around in the back of my mind since August, and I was just waiting for the opportunity to use him. Also fun fact, he was originally conceived as a sort of prototype for who I thought Mordred Le Fey would be in the ToA universe. But since canon is technically still ongoing and the ToA writers could still bring Mordred into the picture, I decided to adapt him into the original character Rivan (whose name will be properly revealed in the next chapter).

Beside her, Douxie’s aura was rippling with unease. But a moment later, his spirit stilled, and he put an arm around her to turn her away from the alley...

...A minute later, the crosswalk signal changed once more, and they continued on their way. Though Douxie’s spirit was radiating a placid energy, Nari couldn’t help noticing that he kept his arm around her for the rest of the journey.

It was important to me that Douxie not look like a complete idiot in this scene, which was a little difficult since this part isn’t told from his perspective. Homeboy absolutely knows better than to ignore something suspicious like this. But he is also acting as Nari’s brother/guardian in this scene, so he tries to play it off to keep her from worrying too much. He promised her a fun day in Central Park, and he’s not willing to bail on that just yet. But I’m hoping that the fact that he has to force his aura into a state of calm and physically holds Nari close to him as they walk are good indicators that he has gone on high alert.

And that’s a wrap for this week! Next Friday, all hell is gonna break loose, so definitely come back for that. If you have any questions/comments, definitely hit me up either in my Ask Box or over on Ao3. As always, thanks for reading! ✨💕

[pendragonssorcerer]

The 10 Best Merthur FanFics I Read In October 2019

So here we go. As I made the list I recognized that it´s almost just modern AU. So I juess i just read way more of them that cannon fics this month.

These are in no particular order ;)

So we´ll start with two more popular fics and move on from there:

The Future Soon (by lady_ragnell)

This is a modern AU. Merlin and Arthur see each other in a vision. Curiosity has it: they are married in the future, but loathe each other right now. So they do everything to prevent this marriage from happening. (As if that ever worked in just any story. And so this was in a way predictable but just so freacking enjoyable!) The way they both despice each other in the beginning is just too good. :)

This Silly Ol' Dance Is Perfect for Two (by SlantedKnitting)

Also a modern AU. Arthur is a closeted soccer/football player. He lives in the same apartment building as Merlin. Merlin is out and proud. He loves glitter, clubbing, has a lizard and thinks Arthur is a real jerk. And so one evening Arthur is really drunk and Merlin has to drag him home. And so the story unfolds. Very cute!

A single man in possession of a good fortune (also by SlantedKnitting, because their storries are really good!)

This is also a modern AU. Arthur is the new bisexual leading guy in a dating show. He needs to decide if he chooses the person he personally wants the most, or the person who would please his dad the most. And also lots of dating show stuff. :) This fic also has fanart!

A Beary Happy Story, A Beary Ugly Bear, A Beary Bad Pun and a Beary Happy Family (by platonic_boner)

I read those cute little fics one night I couldn´t sleep at all and it was exactly the right amount of happy fluffyness I needed. Arthur and Merlin gift each other stuffed animals with very shitty names. It´s amazing.

  War of Attrition (by DLanaDHZ)

This is a college AU. It´s very new fic, just a month old and it deserves all the love. Merlin and Arthur live in the same dorm and play pranks on each other. Arthur hopes to force Merlin to move out with the pranks and Merlin plays along because why should he not? There is beautiful fanart for this fic.

About Time (by rosewatergold)

This is a canontime AU. Merlin travels back in time to fix a few things. Weighty and Troublesome Things (by Skitz_Phenom) is one of my all time favourites, so I just had to check this out as it sounded simmilar. I loved it! It had of couse it´s own twist and storyline, i just love the “Merlin turns time”-trope :) The twist here is that the timeline bevore wasn´t canon: Merlin and Arthur were husbands, running the kingdom together. Now Merlin lands in a time where there isn´t even a little bit of that at all. Merlin is but a servant. And he doesn´t belive that he derserves Arthur a second time.

A New Low (by Rosie_Rues)

Another modern AU. Merlins a diabetic. He´s stuck in an elevator with Arthur and is currently on a low. He needs some sugar. Or stuff. He doesn´t really know, because then he slips into unconsciousness. it has a very protective Arthur and that is just damn cute.

Crush´d (The Sitterfic) (by orphan_account)

Mondern AU. Merlin is a housekeeper and babysitter for the seven-year old Mordred, Morganas son. Arthur is secretly in love with him and visits his sister way to often. This is an adorable, fluffy story. Morded is the cutest and Merlin is just a bit cuter :) It has pet stores, Diseny films and a very pining Arthur in it. It´s a feel-good story that will sure cheer one up.

The Difference of You (by ingberry)

And the next modern AU. :) Arthur meets Merlin on a bus and is intrigued by him. They meet in the bus from time to time and Arthur grows very fond of the nice stranger. This was very cute, and as I meet my boyfriend also by riding the same bus over and over this story made me very happy.

When morning comes (by Starlingthefool)

This is angsty. Oh my god, but it was perfect. The apocalyse came. Arthur went away to fight against the aliens. And so Merlin waits. And Waits. And Waits. And he doesn´t even knows if Arthur is still alive. This was so beautful and unice. If you are in the mood for something special this is exactly what you need.

Bonus:

Arcane Asylum (by new_kate, read by sophinsiba)

I listened to this as a podfic and it was very well read and written.

In this AU Uther locks all the sorcerers into Arcane Asylum. Arthur gets framed and so Uther has to lock up his own son. Inside the asylum, Merlin takes Arthur under his wings. This has a very dark prison vibe and I loved it very much! It´s a really special story and puts together some normal Merlin tropes with the asylum and a resistance and that makes it very cool!

[gccdnews]

Did you see JESSICA DREW from MARVEL walking around Limbo? The CISFEMALE looks like ALICIA VIKANDER, and is NINETY SEVEN years old. I’ve heard she can be VIRTUOUS & WITTY but also COCKSURE & REACTIVE. When I think of them I think of HELPING THE INNOCENT BY HOSPITALIZING THE GUILTY, RAISING SPIDER-BABY, THE GREATEST QUIPS OF ALL TIME BITCHCAKES. They’ve been here WITHOUT their memories as an PI & FIGHTER at BAKER STREET INVESTIGATIONS & UNDERGROUND FIGHT CLUB for SIX MONTHS. I heard they’re seeking a sanctum.

// whew. jess has a history™. it's long af and spans nearly a century so im not gonna go into crazy detail, but it's still lengthy. and i'm also gonna modify just a bit to fit in with the mcu for plotting reasons and stuff. if you don’t really care about her full history then there’s some bullet points toward the bottom.

she was born in england in 1924 and brought as a small child to the transia (it's a small, fictional slavic country) where her father was conducting research. unfortunately due to her being a small child, she contracted uranium poisoning from her father's work and had to be placed in a cryogenic chamber and treated with radiation and a highly experimental serum derived from the blood/genes of various species of spider.

she spent decades in stasis, educated subliminally with special tapes. when she was finally awakened she had only aged into her early teens, but she'd developed superhuman abilities.

grew up, moved away, met a dude, fell in love, then accidentally killed him with her powers. so yeah that kinda torments her still to this day. well, when she still remembered it anyway.

got recruited into hydra who she was led to believe were the good guys, had her memories suppressed, was told the high evolutionary basically a "god" figure, idek evolved her from a spider into a human woman, had an agent pretend to fall in love with her, etc etc. basically got gaslit and brainwashed into becoming a high ranking member until she was put out on a field assignment and told to assassinate nick fury. during the mission he told her what hydra really was and she dropped their asses.

got her memories back from mordred the mystic, then lived in a shitty apartment in london for a while. ended up breaking into a convenience store across the street at one point to get some food, but got noticed by shield agent jerry hunt who pretty much hounded her until she dyed her hair and created a secret identity to hide from him

did the hero thing for a while, moved to l.a., dated jerry, became a bounty hunter, moved to san francisco, became a p.i., superhero'd some more, met carol danvers 😍

went on a mission to finally take down longtime archenemy morgan le fay, and did so, but not before some morgan did some magic shit and separated her soul from her body ?? so she goes to the sorcerer magnus and has him cast a spell to make everyone who ever met her forget she existed.

not long later she was found and revived by two hero pals, breaking the spell, but she was left comatose. dr strange gets involved, abra cadabra, jess ain't a cadava'. but she is however, powerless.

continued working as a p.i. until an encounter with the new spider-woman mattie franklin somehow restored her powers, which came back slowly and were very unstable. meets jessica jones, accidentally zaps tf out of her, then works with her to save the new spider-woman.

eventually struck a deal with hydra to spy within shield so she could get her powers back but the skrull queen veranke was behind it and manipulating her so she could learn to perfectly impersonate jessica. jess ended up held captive for two years aboard a skrull spaceship while veranke took her place.

she and the rest of the captives got saved but because of the havoc veranke wreaked, she didn't exactly receive a warm welcome back.

spent some time rebuilding her reputation until she was invited to join the avengers (for avengers 1 in the mcu, let's say). they did some good work and she eventually fell for clint/hawkeye. they dated a while but things went sideways when he cheated on her (but obvs that's subject to change depending on who picks him up, just leaving that in for now bc it seems kinda noteworthy).

skipping comic spider-verse stuff bc how does that work with the rp, idek.

left the avengers after that and mostly stayed out of their business so she wasn't around for ultron or civil war and instead got back to her roots with some good ol fashioned p.i. work. may have crossed paths with the defenders and other street level heroes during this period.  

then of course, came the snap. jess was one of the ones that vanished. using this instead of her death during secret wars in the comics. when everyone came back she joined all the others to fight thanos and damn right she was part of that moment with all the female heroes like she should have fucking been irl.

when things settled down after y'know, dying, she realized that she wanted to be a mother and raise a child, and almost never got that chance. instead of waiting, she got herself artificially inseminated. which was good too tbh because like, look at her luck with men and imagine getting stuck in one of those relationships she'd been in so far. way better off doing it on her own smh

got invited to an alpha flight maternity ward by her captain marvel but when she went there it ended up getting overrun by skrulls and being super fucking pregnant she called carol for help, but the maternity ward was apparently in a black hole?? bc ofc it was lol. so jess protected all the women there, had an emergency c-section to give birth to her son gerry, then popped right off the table to finish kicking skrull ass. carol got there just in time for jess to collapse into her arms after the fight. headcanon — there was always a crush there but this was the moment jess fell hard.

had a liiittle teensy falling out with carol tho so she ended up kissing roger gocking/porcupine right in front of her during a battle that ended up repairing their friendship. then she went on to have a party announcing she and roger were dating but lbr she did most of this sub/consciously hoping to get a rise out of carol. but her spider-baby ended up crawling out a window and roger was the one to find and save him and there were some actual feelings there too, so. complicated. she kind of distanced herself from everything else to focus on p.i. work and raising her son.

not much later, jess realized her radiation immunity was gone and her powers were killing her, so she had roger take gerry to an upstate farm in case her condition could potentially harm her son, then set out on the search for a cure. that search of course, leading her to limbo city, nevada.

upon her arrival however, her memories quickly started to fade and by the time she woke up the next morning she had no specific recollection of memories. just innate and instinctive knowledge like her emotions toward people she was familiar with, emotional trauma that manifests mostly in her dreams, maternal instincts/yearning, her abilities both physical and learned, her interests and likes/dislikes, etc. things that come naturally to her, for the most part.

interestingly though, the town’s magic seems to have cured her??

gonna say she speaks english, romanian, german, hungarian, symkarian, russian, bulgarian, polish and spanish fluently, and knows a bit about a number of other languages.

incredibly intelligent, she is after all the daughter of a genius, raised among scientists conducting research, and her knowledge/intelligence was only maximized by her stasis education tapes.

exudes a high concentration of pheromones that can attract or repulse people, to put it simply. and ignore the original heteronormative connotations bc women aren't typically the ones she wants to repulse, and men arent always the ones she wants to attract. it's difficult to control but she learned over the years. even now without her memories she has innate control over it, but if she manages to work up a sweat (which isn't all that easy for her tbh) or misses a shower or two, well… it's gonna kick in.

she probably can't do it anymore in limbo because she can't remember how, but with her pheromones she learned to control them so well she was able to elicit fear, anxiety, attraction, hatred, pleasure, etc. and even used them to convince the hulk to make her a sandwich once.

fucking loves butter. she's been known to eat the stuff straight up. and a lot of it. lucky thing she has a spider-metabolism.

hc: she loves making puns, especially spider related ones. she also likes to annoy her spider-friends by spider-throwing the word spider in front of everything though it's obviously a joke, unlike in her cartoon where im pretty sure she was dead serious lol

hates rats. so much. she will tear down a whole skrull army but if one shapeshifts into a rat it's over okay, she already lost.

allergic to flerkens. which is great for visiting her bestie/crush, and her pet flerken chewie.

still has her suit but hasn’t worn it yet in limbo. she found it under her bed a couple days after “waking up” in limbo but put it right back because she figured it was probably some weird sex thing and maybe wasn’t even hers so, gross, yknow?