See the Masterpost for header information or read the whole thing on the AO3.


( Read more... )

See the Masterpost for header information or read the whole thing on the AO3.


( Read more... )

See the Masterpost for header information or read the whole thing on the AO3.


( Read more... )

See the Masterpost for header information or read the whole thing on the AO3.


( Read more... )

See the Masterpost for header information or read the whole thing on the AO3.


( Read more... )

See the Masterpost for header information or read the whole thing on the AO3.

( Read more... )

Major revisions: done!
Line beta revisions: done!
Proofing/spagging: in progress!
Title & summary: DONE OMG!

I MIGHT JUST GET THIS POSTED THIS WEEKEND!

Not looking forward to the epic chopping up I'm going to have to do to get it postable on LJ. Stupid word count limit! My largest part is 12,600.

It's actually tempting to just post to Dreamwidth and cross-post the master post. Seeing as I tend to disable comments for all but the last part anyway... But omg, need validation for this story so much that I don't want to not allow comments somewhere I might get feedback!

Cannot believe how close I am to having this thing done, seriously.

When I first saw last night there was a frotfest, I was all "haha, oh, MERLIN FANDOM, you have fests for everything!" But then I went and wrote two stories for it in two days. Yes, stories, even though it's supposed to be commentfic, because we all know that I can't write anything short any more.

Anyway, if you fancy some too-long frottage porn comment fic that smells of the lamp*, here: Gwaine/Merlin in the library, Gwaine/Gwen and sex pollen.

And, because I've been meaning to link it for a while and this seems an appropriate opportunity: I've been curating a porn tumblr, which you can find at frigging. (Gosh, I love the internet. I totally just gave you my porn stash, you guys! Clear my cache if I'm in a plane crash or something, will you?) I probably don't need to say this, but it's absolutely NSFW.

And if you need to know if it's okay for you to look at before you click: Sometimes it contains people consensually engaging in rough/kinky sex (without trigger warnings). It also contains men doing men, men doing women, women doing women, women doing men, trans and genderqueer people doing and being done by other trans and genderqueer people and men and women, multiple combinations of the above at the same time. It also contains people doing themselves, people just posing and looking delicious on their own; all of the above including people who are fat and thin and in between. Most of them are naked.

Basically, my brain is just a giant, polymorphous, pansexual slut (and I say that with totally reclamatory intentions), and I reblog/post anything that pushes my varied buttons.

Speaking of which, this photo in particular (again, NSFW) has been frantically mashing my button with a sweaty fist for several days now. I probably don't need to explain why if you've read any of my fanfiction lately.

If you're also a lover of tumblr for its fantastic porn curation, rec me your favourites? (including yours, if you've got one :D)


* the interpretation of which meaning I stayed up way too late writing it, rather than the one where I laboured long and hard to result in great literature.

Firstly, this story pretty much sums up in fictional form the glee I expressed for this relationship dynamic in 3x08:

Title: Aqua Pura
Author: hope / angstslashhope
Wordcount: ~7,200
Rating: NC-17
Pairing(s): Gwaine/Merlin, Gwaine/Merlin/Arthur
gwaine_quest Prompt(s): 47. Arthur/Gwaine/Merlin - Quest timeout for skinny dipping shenanigans! Hooray! combined with 71. Gwaine/Merlin - Skinny dipping at night
Notes: Thank you to eyebrowofdoom for the fabulous beta (and associated keymashing).

Summary: On their way home from the quest, Merlin, Gwaine and Arthur stop for a dip in a lake outside the Perilous Lands.

Read on the AO3 or read on gwaine_quest.

*

Secondly, this is just ridiculous and I have no excuse:

Title: Because You're Worth It
Author: hope / angstslashhope
Fandom: Merlin (BBC)
Wordcount: ~1,700
Rating: R
Characters: Gwaine/Leon
Notes: eyebrowofdoom is an awesome beta.
gwaine_quest Prompt: 66. Gwaine/Leon - Bathing together and washing each other's hair.

Summary: Gwaine certainly doesn’t realise that Leon is the one who gives him orders, because somehow they end up in the baths below the castle, and it was certainly not Leon’s idea.

Read on the AO3 or read on gwaine_quest.

*

HAVE AT IT.

Social Mediæ has had nearly 700 hits on the AO3 in the 3 days since I posted it, which is over what my next most popular Merlin story has had in nearly 2 months. Hah!

But, I have much glee over people loving puns as much as I do.

If you see it recced around, can you let me know? I'm assuming it is in at least one place, as the count is steadily climbing with each refresh.

I like to keep track of such things (and of course, they give me extra glee to read!)


In other news, I am working on re-writing the Epic Romance with beta feedback. WHEE.

And working on a gwaine_quest story.


And, you know that bit in the S3 finale where Gwen says, "My mother was a maid in Sir Leon's household, we practically grew up together"?

WHY THE HELL ISN'T THERE ALREADY FIC ABOUT THIS? Because that was totally not the first time she made him wear a dress. (MAYBE I'LL JUST HAVE TO WRITE IT MYSELF, THEN.)


Also, for the first time ever while I'm in a fandom, I'm deliberately spoiling myself, and ooooh, it's fun! I think that the best way for me to enjoy Merlin is to know as much about it beforehand, or you know, have watched it beforehand, so I'm not in a constant state of tension over impending fail.

Title: Social Mediæ
Author: hope / angstslashhope
Fandom: Merlin (BBC)
Wordcount: ~5,000
Rating: PG-13
Genre: Crack, gen (canon pairings)
Notes: Most of this was written verbally with nixwilliams and dancantdecide, who deserve at least equal billing for coming up with the puns. Thank you to eyebrowofdoom too, for excellent beta reading services.

Summary: With the beginning of Arthur’s reign and the unbanning of sorcery, a new era of communication begins in Albion. Soon even parchment will be obsolete! (Warning: Here be puns.)

Crossposted on the AO3.

( Read more... )

I think I'm in dire love with my epic romance story. I've been trying to make myself not read it since I sent it to the betas, because I know that'll just make me change things. And, well... I've only changed things in the last part, ok! (And now I love those new things, and want to read them again...)

Deep breaths. It's a long story. I must be patient... Besides, *my* fresh eyes on it if I can leave it alone for long enough will make editing much better.

Rewatched the finale of Merlin season 3 with nixwilliams last night (so much better watching with someone else!), and felt pleased afterward that it all gelled pretty smoothly with the fic (which launches off pretty much right after it, and I'd only watched it once before). Also made me go KNIIIIIGHTS and make silly faces and kick my legs a bit. (Quote of the episode from nix: "HOW DOES HE EVEN SWAGGER ON A HORSE??" answer: like that.)

But, during dinner with nix & DB, ideas for an epic crackfic were formed, so I really ought to focus on writing that because it's something the world really, really needs.

And I have heaps of other ideas, too! I've identified 8 stories from writers who've listed themselves on remix_goes_wild that I want to play with. And I also want to do a sequel to my threesome porn, which will be yet more porn, but with more threesome-relationship-development plot in it.

(Speaking of which, according to the KMM delicious, I am the only one who's filled a Gwaine/Lancelot/Merlin prompt!??? Surely that can't be right? Are there any other stories of that threesome in the fandom at all? PLEASE POINT ME TO THEM!

Also, it makes me sadface that even so many of the non-Arthur/Merlin prompts on the KM are basically "Merlin/other to make Arthur jealous". I WANT EVERYONE TO BE HAPPY AND SEXING, OK? In summary: going to write far more threesome/poly fic. Actually quite tempted to fulfil ALL those those threesome prompts on the meme. Except for the pining/jealousy ones, hmph.)

Anyway, there are another handful of KMM prompts I have bookmarked too, and other ideas-of-my-own... Oh, and I signed up for a few prompts on gwaine_quest.

Phew :D

There are also emails I need to write, but eh, who cares about those.

Okay, definitely starting that crackfic right now. It's only 8pm! I've got hours to go wild with it.

Instead of partying on my weekend away, I finished the first beta-ready draft of the Epic Romance.

CHECK IT OUT:



Thasright, the wordcount has come in at almost 61,300. I have just sent it off to my first round of betas (I am staggering my editing iterations, so if you volunteered & haven't received it, your time will come!), and this is one of the most exciting bits - sharing for the first time the massive blurt of words that I've sorta kinda fallen in love with. Please be gentle.

And now I can do that nerdy thing where I begin to craft the header to post with it. And the horrible thing where I rack my brains to try and come up with a suitable summary. Sigh!

And now for deep breaths and walks in the sunshine. And FOOD. I just remembered that sustenance is required in order to function, and not just easter eggs.

Current wordcount: 33,200 (and I need to finish this scene tonight, so it'll probably end up being more like 35K+ by COB)
Current mood: ( think I might be a shipper after all... )

Title: Fit to be tied
Author: hope / angstslashhope
Fandom: Merlin (BBC)
Wordcount: ~5,000
Rating: NC-17
Pairing: Merlin/Gwaine
Notes: Originally posted anon on the kink meme.
No warnings, but Contains: (highlight to reveal) consensual bondage/restraint & gagging

Prompt/Summary: Prompted on kinkme_merlin: "Gwaine/Merlin, finding other uses for Merlin's scarf."

Crossposted on the Archive of Our Own.

( Read more... )

EPIC ROMANCE: I finally just finished this very long scene, which is mainly politics and exposition and original characters. I think it still needs a lot of work (i.e. paring back me going over the top with 'formal' language), and I still have the lingering uncertainty that contributed to it being difficult to write - that it's not porn, that it's original characters, that it's world- and character-building (of OCs), and that that's not what people enjoy in fanfiction.

But the story is epic! It's a big political setting for a hardcore romance, okay? (And I just keep reminding myself that *I* like epic stories that have solid world-building behind them; it makes the id aspects of it all the more grounded and therefore resonant.)

So, current wordcount: 14,178
Current mood: Gwaine is a sullen little butterfly.

Anyway, ALSO TODAY I made nixwilliams watch most of the Gwaine episodes of Merlin, which he hadn't seen before. I think that was largely successful :D It was good to watch again, and I did discover that I actually need to watch it with someone else laughing and making off-colour jokes about it, lest I get preoccupied with the fail.

And very amusing to be paying more attention to my fave characters now that I have those fannish goggles on; you can wring so much more nuance out of it. Like these series of looks in "The Eye of the Phoenix":

Arthur: *says/does something brattish*
Merlin: *gives Gwaine "ISN'T ARTHUR JUST THE GREATEST?" eyes*
Gwaine: *gives Merlin "Are you for real?" eyes*

(Which just cements my belief that Gwaine's decree of Arthur being a worthy noble is him just going, "okay, I suppose this noble is tolerable enough that I can stick around for Merlin without having to storm off in a sulk".)

That whole episode is basically just one big delightful romantic misunderstanding romp, where Gwaine is clearly all hearteyes about Merlin, and Merlin is totally oblivious/preoccupied by Arthur. And Arthur is self-absorbed and brattish in general, the usual farce of his ignorance of Merlin's magic dialled up to comedic 11.

(Also, in his first episode Gwaine refers to Arthur as a thoroughbred. This amuses me.)

Anyway, that descended into a bit of a ramble. How was your weekend?

You guys, it is so damn awesome to have my writing mojo back.

The Epic Romance is now 12,000+, but I took a break from it today to start writing some porn for the kink meme (1,000+ words so far). And there are a couple of other prompts there I'm itching to write for. Need more hours in the day!

Also this weekend I started futzing around with developing a custom skin for the AO3 (more info on personalised AO3 skins here), which I am growing increasingly fond of, though I discover re-used classes where I don't want them to be every ten minutes and am thus spending half my time happily coding and half tearing my hair out.

I also got it into my head that I might make that "a model, idiot" Eoin Macken icon, but upon doing a google image search, became quickly overwhelmed by THE GIANT NIPPLES. Google image searching also turned up this photo of EM & Mr James, which, WHAT? (I'm sure I'm already late to the party that is that photo, but still, allow me to have my moment of WHAT?)

Anyway, that's all I got. Do I have to go to work tomorrow? I want to stay at home and write trashy smut instead. CanIcanI?

I pretty much just finished Part 1 of the Epic Romance - coming in at just under 10,000 words.

( check out my cumulative graph of the past 6 days! )

I have a working title but I don't know if I want it to be the title for Part 1, or the whole thing. I suppose if titles occur to me for the other parts, then that'll answer that question.

Meanwhile, I have canon/fanon questions for Merlin peeps! I have done some Arthurian research on these, but am curious as to what the fanon standards are: ( Read more... )

THANKS, TEAM MERLIN!

I have written over 6000 words in four days.

Cumulative graphs are fun.

I rewatched the Gwaine episodes to better characterise, and now my story has both pickled eggs and evil!monster!pheasants in it (indeed, in the same scene).

I got some eye candy icons to entertain me when I post/comment. (Sadly, because I no longer want to give money to LJ, the majority of them will be relegated to Dreamwidth.)*

I'm contemplating if I want to post teaser snippets as I'm working on it, as I did with We Happy Few, because I'm seriously having about as much fun with it (it's more sprawling, though, so the scenes are less compact and thus more tricky to snippetise).

Meanwhile, Merlin fandom is fab, and I am getting the most delightful feedback and omgyouguysLOVE <3

In summary, Epic Romance Status:

Current words: 6131
Current mood: N'AWW DORKS.


* Considering Eoin Macken, I have come to the conclusion that I definitely need an icon of Gwaine looking guileless that says "A model, idiot".

I feel bad for having such a good day when there's such shit going on in the word right now, but there we have it. I went out last night but quit while I was ahead, so awoke feeling fresh as a daisy... okay, maybe not. Fresh as a supermarket posy, perhaps, which is still kind of pretty depending on what supermarket you go to.

Anyway, then I lazed around reading and napping for a while, then went to a local artists' market, then I got flirted with by a hot waitress, then went and had a writing day with copracat, in which I wrote 2300+ words of my Epic Romance story. As I'm a touch obsessive and I'm thinking of this *now*, I'm totally going to keep a spreadsheet and generate a cumulative graph of my progress :D

Yes, I am just that cool.

At any rate, the 2300 words I've written are just the first two scenes, so I suspect this might end up being an extraordinarily long story. I might break my record! In which case, it'll be cool to see how my writing habits trend at different stages of the process :D

Anyway, I also wrote a 1300 word outline for the Epic Romance, and made some character sheets, and location sheets, and did I mention I heart Scrivener 2.0?

So, current wordcount: 2,374
Current mood: GWAAAINE I like you even more than I thought I did!


Meanwhile, This Merlin vid is fantastic.