#i remember writing really heavy gore during family troubles

[supercalvin]

I see your ficlets are open and I wanted to request more superhero!merlin . i didn't know i liked that until i read yours lol. preferably hurt/comfort because i love that too. also I just wanted to say your fics are amazing

I’m going to be honest @elizabethleestorms…I have no idea which superhero AU you mean, because I think I’ve written a couple, but that doesn’t matter, I’m delighted by this prompt. Sorry this took so long, thank you for waiting.

Really tried my hand at #whump and I ended up writing a very long ficlet again.

(Not intentional, I was writing this already before I heard about Chadwick Boseman. RIP to the King.)

Prompts + Ficlets

***

It had started small.

Merlin would use his magic to save an elderly couple from a mugging. A man about to fall onto the train tracks would find himself falling back onto the concrete. He would trip a bloke who was bothering a girl in the streets.

Magic was banned in Camelot and had been for over thirty years, and Merlin had grown up learning to hide his magic. Not even his closet friends knew. But when he started university in Citadel City, Merlin had felt an overwhelming need to use his magic. There were so many problems he could fix and so many people he could help.

So it started small and soon escalated into something a bit more complicated. He started going out at night, slipping on a mask to hide his identity, and saving people from whatever he could find. Most people thanked him and quickly ran off, freaked out by the sorcerer in a mask. But then word got around, gossip and whispers about the sorcerer who would swoop in at just the right moment. People would try to ask him who he was, so Merlin had to learn to teleport so he could get away from them.

Then he started to up his game. He would listen to the police scanners and seek out places he knew criminals loitered. He was becoming a bit of a legend. People had a lot of different names for him, up until a pack of wyverns attacked the city. That was the first time he had been spotted during the day and photographed. His blurry figure was all over the news for a week. It had been a hassle, but it had earned him a proper title. Dragon Lord.

It had been years since he had first started being ‘Dragon Lord.’ He had gotten into a routine. He worked at the police station during the day, gathered intel as a lowly administrative assistant, and then went out at night as ‘Dragon Lord.’ He was exhausted most days, with little sleep to spare, but he wouldn’t change it for the world. He was exercising his magic, helping people. and he had started a rather heated debate on the magic ban in Citadel City.

All was going well for Merlin.

Until his boss, DI Arthur Pendragon found out about his magic.

It had been an accident, of course. The only other person who knew about his magic besides his family was Deputy Lance DuLac, whom Merlin had saved from a fluke griffin attack back in his university days. Merlin had saved Arthur’s ass from a few operations-gone-wrong, but Arthur still didn’t know that his assistant and Dragon Lord were one and the same.

Until the night when Merlin had been out as ‘Dragon Lord’ having heard about an arms deal planned by Cenred Cain, an infamous crime boss. But apparently Arthur and his team had also been keeping an eye on Cenred, because they had stopped the deal before Merlin could interfere.

It was all a bit of blur. The adrenaline in his veins and the magic in the air making his memories fuzzy.

Dragon Lord and Arthur had been cornered as the building was about to come down, and although he was able to create a safety-bubble around them, the backlash burned part of Merlin’s disguise from his body and face. He woke up with a horrible headache and Arthur’s face hovering over him, looking equal parts horrified and furious.

After that night, Arthur hadn’t spoken to him about it. But to be fair, Arthur had not said much to Merlin at all. Arthur had sworn that he wasn’t about to arrest Merlin, but that didn’t mean they were friends. No, Arthur made it clear hat he was done with Merlin.

Merlin figured it was a fair deal. Merlin had saved Arthur’s life and in turn Arthur wouldn’t arrest Merlin for several acts of sorcery. It didn’t mean Merlin wasn’t heartbroken. He wished Arthur would understand that magic wasn’t evil and that Merlin just wanted to do good in the world.

So over the past week Merlin had not gotten much sleep, to say the least. After Arthur had found out, Merlin had trouble sleeping, which was never good because his night-and-day schedule. Then there was the fact that his magic had been exhausted after stopping a building from collapsing on top of him and Arthur. But that had never stopped him from going out. Crime didn’t stop just because Merlin was a bit tired.

So when a bulette attacked downtown Citadel City, Merlin was already off to a bad start. Bulettes were as large as cars and built like tanks with armor plating all over their bodies. They lived underground, and although the bulette was just minding its own business, it was causing buildings to sink into the ground and minor quakes to rock the city. So when Merlin had tried to gently coax it back out of Citadel City, it had only felt the need to defend itself.

Which meant it started attacking people.

Merlin would be the first to admit that he wasn’t at his peak power either. His magic was still tired from the week previous and his fight with Arthur had mentally drained him. He had coped by going out more at night, but that meant he had only accumulated a handful of hours of sleep over the last seven days.

It barely flinched at the enchanted spears Merlin threw at it. Moving the ground beneath it did little to stop it. Burning it only made it angry. His movements were slower, barely dodging it’s attacks. He made rookie mistakes by trying to attack the bulette’s armor in the first place. Normally he would be able to evaluate its attacks and predict its next movements, but his mind was moving too slow.

He was a wreck, to say the least.

Then the bulette used its thickly armored tail to slam Merlin into a nearby lorry, which rocked with the impact. Merlin remembered hearing the crunch of metal, but nothing until he woke up to someone shaking him.

“Dragon Lord, you have to get up! Please! Sir! Please! It’s coming back!” the voice sounded young and very frightened. Merlin opened his eyes to find a young kid, eyes burning gold as the boy tried to wake Merlin’s magic with his own.

Merlin gasped, his entire body aching as soon as he was conscious again. His vision spun in and out for a moment, and he felt overwhelmingly nauseous. Concussion, he thought dimly.

“You have to get out of here,” Merlin grunted as he tried to get up. His ribs were killing him.

The boy shook his head, “You’re hurt…”

Merlin had to hold his breath as he got to hit feet, the pain almost making him black out as his ribs shifted to the new position. He closed his eyes and tried to take deep breathes, although every inhale and exhale felt like a thousand knives.

“Get to safety,” Merlin said, letting his magic wash over him. It wasn’t a spell he used often. It took too much energy and he was already tired as it was, but he was desperate. The kid scrambled back as Merlin began to glow gold, rising above the crumbled asphalt.

Merlin’s vision turned entirely gold and he spotted the bulette’s weak point, right under its front legs, where the armor didn’t cover. With his last enchanted spear, Merlin gored the beast.

Merlin dropped to the ground, his head spinning and his vision going black. He couldn’t pass out in public. It was too dangerous. One last spell, he thought. Fingers crossed that he would make it back safely.

He teleported into his flat, recognized that he had made it successfully, and then he dropped to the floor like someone had cut the strings from a marionette.

Merlin’s whole body hurt. Even when he wasn’t entirely conscious, he was aware of that. The blunt force trauma had certainly broken his ribs and given him a hell of a concussion.

He was aware of someone moving him from the floor, arranging his limbs onto his bed. Then he felt someone open his mouth slip some pills onto his tongue and guide him to drink water, then wiping up his face when he choked on the water and it spilled it over his face.

When he woke again it was to a dull feeling that he recognized as heavy painkillers. He opened his eyes to find Arthur hovering over him, checking his pupils with a flashlight.

“You’re not a doctor,” Merlin mumbled, not coherent enough to fully process what was happening.

“No, but you refused to go to A&E. So here I am.”

“I did?”

Arthur sighed, turning to Merlin’s bedside table where there was a glass of water with a straw.

“Drink. You need fluids. You’ve been out of it for a day.”

Merlin obeyed, his mind too foggy to argue.

Arthur left the room and Merlin was left to stare at the ceiling, watching his vision blur for a few seconds before he drifted off again.

He was a bit more coherent when he woke again, this time to Arthur whispering, “I know it hurts, but I need you to tell me where it hurts.” Arthur pushed down the bed sheet and prodded his ribs, watching Merlin’s reactions carefully.

“Hold still. I’m going to give you some lidocaine, okay?”

Merlin didn’t think he had much of a choice, but if it would stop his ribs from hurting, Merlin wasn’t going to complain. After Arthur injected the lidocaine, he softly ran a hand over Merlin’s numbed ribs. “Better?”

Merlin nodded, although the movement hurt his head. He realized the only light was his desk lamp, and even that minimal light caused him to flinch.

“Why are you doing this?” Merlin asked.

Arthur’s face was in shadow, but Merlin could see the pinched expression anyway.

“It was all over the news, Merlin. The live video of Dragon Lord dropping like a stone. Then you disappeared after looking like you were about to faint. I rushed over to your flat as soon as I could.”

Merlin smacked his lips which were cracked and dry. Arthur lifted the cup of water again, angling the straw to Merlin’s mouth.

Merlin took a drink and then managed to say, “But I thought…Aren’t you angry with me?”

“Of course I am, Merlin.” Arthur snapped, “I’m furious that you would keep this from me. I don’t get it, and I don’t trust you, but…”

“But?” Merlin swallowed thickly, his head pounding.

“But you’ve been saving so many people. And this…” Arthur gestured to Merlin’s body. Merlin looked down, wincing at the movement. He had gathered a fair few amount of ‘battle scars’ over the years. Burns, lacerations, and general bruising came with the job. Currently Merlin’s entire torso was a horrible splotchy mess of black and blue with tinges of green.

“You’re putting your own life on the line for people who would sentence you to a life in prison… I don’t understand it, but that doesn’t mean I don’t see right from wrong.”

Merlin gave a weak smile, “I think that’s you saying I was right for once.”

Arthur shook his head, “Merlin…”

“I know,” Merlin sighed, his ribs protesting at the heavy breath despite the lidocaine injections. “I just want to help. I just…My magic has to be for something, Arthur. All this power and I can’t use it to help people?”

Arthur frowned, his hand coming up to gently push back Merlin’s hair from his brow.

“We’ll talk about this later. You’re still too tired. Go to sleep. I’ll be here when you wake up again.”

Merlin nodded fractionally, his eyes already drifting shut, watching Arthur get up and head for the door.

“Arthur…”

Arthur turned to look at him.

“Thank you.”

Arthur gave a small smile, “You too. Get some rest.”

***

Prompts + Ficlets

[rimurutempest-bounced]

soft asks, im just gonna answer them all:

1. cherry - what is your sexuality?

gay

2. lollipop - favorite makeup products?

eyeliner. i usually like stuff by e.l.f.

3. daydreams - if you could be anything or anyone, who would you be?

assuming “shapeshifter” is off the table, i’d be an unkillable dragon.

4. october - what month were you born in?

september!

5. caress - do you like to snuggle?

rarely, actually! sometimes i like it and seek it out, but i have a capacity limit.

6. ivory - describe your pajamas?

uhhh, right now? grey t shirt and black shorts. sometimes nothing. sometimes t shirt and underwear. i dont have any specific pjs.

7. golden - favorite stationary product?

stickers. metallic paint pens and, like, gel pens are pretty high up there too.

8. freckles - most-worn article of clothing?

boots or poncho/shawl.

9. twilight - best friend?

@skulloflibitina​, @aftermidnightblue​, @papamoomin​(he’s my husband, so he’d better be my best friend)

10. silk - do you like k-pop?

i only know a couple of songs, and they’re all pretty damn old now. not into any specific bands. i love BoA though, just in general.

11. poppy - favorite pastel color?

lavender

12. dimples - most attractive features of a person’s face?

eyes!

13. sunkissed - autumn or spring?

autumn.

14. buttery - favorite snack?

probably seaweed snacks, i think. im picky though, some days nothing is RIGHT.

15. whisper - how much sleep do you get?

........not enough. usually maybe 6 hours? 

16. pencil - do you own a journal?

i do, but i never use it........

17. cupcake - are you a good cook?

yes! i rarely cook though.

18. honey - favorite term of endearment?

darling, beloved, sweetheart. in that order.

19. clouds - describe one of your favorite dreams?

i have a recurring one about being in a dinghy on a small sound and the water is so calm the surface is like glass. the sky is grey and heavy with clouds. im rowing, or drifting, to a point with a rocky shore, and when i get out, i walk into a beautiful forest(not quite boreal/taiga) and it’s warm and sunny and green. i walk to a stump, covered and surrounded by beautiful cushion moss, and i feel like someone very important to me is with me, but i dont know who.

sometimes there’s more to the dream, but often the other elements are stressful or upsetting, so. that much is really nice and calm though!

20. velvet - who was your first crush?

i guess a boy named ashton i saw during the summers for a few years. he and his family had a summer house up the street. i honestly cannot fathom why anyone would want to leave jamaica in the summer to stay in THAT neighbourhood, it was not a particularly special place imo. he was really nice to me though, and said i could call him my boyfriend. i think we kissed once or twice. his family was wonderful. i think the people who started staying in that house after they stopped going there were pretty rude, but my memory around that is kinda hazy. apparently i was so upset about his family not visiting any more that i keyed my name into the new peoples’ car? i got in trouble for it anyway.

21. paper - favorite children’s book?

the hobbit. or the last unicorn. or blueberries for sal. i dont know, i loved a LOT of books as a kid.

22. peaches - do you have a skincare routine?

nah. not really. i use a face cleanser/wash in the shower, but not with any routine.

23. mochi - favorite studio ghibli film?

princess mononoke.

24. backyard - did you ever have an imaginary friend?

yeah, i think so. i played alone a lot, but usually not with any imaginary friends. but i DID have a tiny pocket journal that i would write letters to my “friend in fance” in. his name was pierre i think. i dont remember writing his responses, and they were in completely different handwriting. even into high school i would sometimes write him a little note when i cleaned my room and found the book, out of nostalgia, and every time i found it, he’d written a reply. usually asking why it had been so long. i think he might have said some kinda creepy/wierd stuff, too. wonder what happened to that little book lmao. (it was a teeny tiny lisa frank notebook i think. with a little snap button clasp to close it.)

25. strawberry - favorite fruit?

obligatory, apples! also blueberries and mango. botannically, non traditionally for culinary speaking, avocado too.

26. kiss - have you ever kissed a friend?,

i kiss my husband a lot, but in a purely platonic way, uh. on the cheek, sure, plenty of times. on the lips, i think only once, and i was not comfortable with it at all.

27. nightlight - do you read before bed?

if social media, wikipedia articles, and/or video game dialogue counts, then yes. if only books do, then no.

28. shampoo - favorite scent?

mint and rosemary, for shampoo. in general, my fave scent is wood smoke. briney, salty, sea air is up there. and pine(especially balsam), cedar(technically cypress), juniper, sage, leather...........

29. skin - what distant relative are you closest to?

uh, idk what’s considered distant honestly. im not really close to most of my bio family, in any sense tbh. maybe my cousin faith? we rarely talk and she lives in north carolina, but i think probably her somehow, lol (she’s my 1st cousin though, idk if that counts?)

30. aphrodite - favorite actress/actor?

mmmmm.......maybe lupita nyong’o? or jason momoa. i also like michael b jordan, elijah wood, shia labeouf, dolly parton, daniel radcliff, robert patterson..... idk, i dont actually usually have fave celebs like that much.

31. cuddles - do you have any pets?

my son, a beautiful but not very bright fat clumsy goblin of a cat whom i love.

32. lace - if you own any dresses, which is your favorite?

no, even when i still wore skirts sometimes, dresses werent really my thing. i gave my skirts to my friend anna, and she still has some. my fave is probably the long, black skirt with autumny coloured vines and leaves. apparently the style of skirt is called broomstick, according to google?

33. sheets - sanrio or san-x characters?

i had to google the difference, but sanrio. they’re all cute though.

34. cream - frozen yogurt flavor?

usually taro! i also like just plain, tart froyo, or pomegranate. i generally go for fruity flavours, aside from taro. it’s also one of the only times i’ll sometimes opt for coconut, esp if it’s paired with taro!

35. watermelon - do films ever make you cry?

almost always. the genre DOES NOT MATTER. im less likely to cry watching horror/slasher/gore stuff (but im also less likely to watch those vs suspense thrillers/psychological horror anyway)

36. sapphos - favorite poet?

emily dickinson, i think. despite my love for simple rhyme and meter, i just love how evocative her writing is. each of her poems is so personal, but because of that, they’re pretty widely relatable, so it’s easy to resonate with them. 

im also very fond of frost and poe’s poetry(and poe’s writing in general, ofc)

honestly, this is making me want to just binge a ton of poetry by poets i havent read before. (if anyone wants to send me recs, PLEASE do.)

37. plush - how many stuffed animals do you still own?

i am not counting them, lmao. suffice to say, too many to count without a good deal of effort.

38. roses - what flower do you find most beautiful?

most beautiful i’d say wisteria, but my faves are chrysanthemums and hydrangeas. wisteria is my 3rd place.

39. sweetheart - favorite mug/cup?

i have a few i like a lot, but my husband bought me a World’s Best Dad mug that is a particular fave right now.

40. sunset - what are your pronouns?

exclusively he/him/his