Title: Four Seasons in One Day
Author: hope / angstslashhope
Fandom: Merlin (BBC)
Wordcount: ~35,000
Rating: NC-17
Pairings: Arthur/Merlin, Merlin/Gwen, Merlin/Morgana, Merlin/Gwen/Morgana, Merlin/Arthur/Gwen/Morgana, Merlin/Gwaine
Genre: modern university AU
Notes: Thank you to copracat, nixwilliams, emeraldwoman and eyebrowofdoom for reading and cheering me along.

Summary: Estranged from his dad and determined to work out life on his own, Arthur lives with his boyfriend and his boyfriend's girlfriends in a sharehouse in Melbourne. This is their (unfinished) story.


WARNING: This is an unfinished story. Granted, there are complete arcs within the 35K of it that there is, but there is no grand conclusion and it hasn't had the beta it deserves. However, given the meandering style of it, I decided it was worth posting anyway. Considering I've drifted out of the Merlin fandom, this will never be completed.



Read on the AO3

*


ALSO: eyebrowofdoom wrote fanfiction of this fanfiction BEFORE I EVEN POSTED IT. So I’m making her post it now. READ IT ALSO FOR IT IS DELIGHTFUL AND PORNY AND THERE ARE WRENS: The once and future Kinglake.

Title: After the Storm
Author: hope / angstslashhope
Fandom: Merlin (BBC)
Wordcount: ~2000
Rating: PG
Pairing(s): Merlin/Gwaine
Beta(s): Thank you to the lovely trianne!
Summary: Set a little while after the climax of 4x13. Gwaine is recovering. Merlin is freaking out.

Read on the AO3 or:

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Title: Post Meridian
Author: hope / angstslashhope
Fandom: Merlin (BBC)
Wordcount: ~3,800
Rating: NC-17
Pairing: Arthur/Merlin
Warning(s): Spoilers for 4.03, and (highlight to reveal) brief dubcon (sex is initiated while one character is still asleep)
Beta: ella_bane is awesomesauce :D

Summary:

“What is it,” Arthur says, gentler; he’s always less acerbic when he’s got his clothes off, and Merlin has an expression like that: like he’s so wide open that even a playful assault could wound him. “You’re too good for a tumble with a king?”

read on the AO3 or below:

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I made a couple of graphics for merlingwainebar's banner contest. Posting here for posterity because I'm a completist.

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It's been a while since I've made fanart. I forget how nice it is to stare at pretty faces for hours on end when doing graphics! Still wish I could draw, though.

It's still pretty frivolous, but I tidied up the Merlin/Gwaine story I wrote for the frottage fest months ago and posted it on the Archive: In the Library.

This message is brought to you by it being nearly midnight and me procrastinating starting a pomodoro to get 25 minutes of writing done before I go to sleep. Sigh.

So, since last week I've written about another 8K words - the uni AU is now at about 34,000.

I've finally written to the end of the major plot points/conflicts that I knew I wanted to hit/had planned out, so I'm taking a few days to figure out where to go next (though I think I've got it, now). I'm still not sure how it's going to be concluded, though.

Though, I have some concerns for my pacing - the first 15K spans over two weeks; the second 15K covers a single day. Doh. Ah well, that's what beta reading is for :D

Here, have another snippet: ( Read more... )

Oh my goodness, I think this is my fave Merlin fanart ever (scroll to end of parade!).

I might have to make Arthur and Merlin my phone background or something.

HEART.

I just had a random procrastinaty 45 minutes of reading back through my entries of the past few months, and of course came upon my endless squeeful in-progress posts about writing the Epic Romance. And boy, that was fun!

And I realised I haven't talked much about my latest story, the Uni AU, despite it also rapidly climbing into the tens of thousands. In fact, right now it's just over 26,600 words. And probably has at least another 10K to go. And then lots of re-writing of early scenes, because it took a little while just to get a PLOT going.

Anyway, even though I have the next scene or three all cued up to be written, I'm having trouble getting enthused about writing at the moment, so figured perhaps fishing for some encouragement might help.

So here's a scene. Please read and get excited at me, if you're thus inclined! Naturally, I'm super-freaking-verbose, so the shortest one I could snip and still make reasonable sense still ended up over 1K.

Background for this scene: ( Read more... )

( kicking the footie around in Edinburgh Gardens )

So. I've pulled out of merlin_muses - not because I can't write anything, but because the story I started for the prompt has taken on a life of its own. So, rather than trying to rush it and make it fit the prompt, I decided to just let the story take free rein and be what it needs to be and take as long as it needs to take (*sniff* the lil' tyke!).

This also means that I can ramble about it in my journal while I'm writing it (yay!), and also post it when I want it and how I want it, which is exciting, because I think I'll end up including other media in it as well.

So. I am writing a modern AU set in MELBOURNE, supposedly a university AU but so far not much has happened at university (one of the ways I'm departing from the prompt). The 'pairing' is Arthur/Gwen/Morgana/Merlin, and the story is basically about them living in a poly relationship in a sharehouse together.

It is SO FUN to write. So much so that I've written nearly 17,000 words of it, and there's definitely much more to come. It's been a while since I've written actual alternate-universe AU, and characterisation is weird - made weirder still because I'm writing about my home town and stomping grounds, so sometimes the degree to which I'm sinking into autobiography is worrisome.

BUT IT'S STILL FUN! Even though I never thought that flippant idea would require so many words.

Title: Handfast
Author: hope / angstslashhope
Fandom: Merlin (BBC)
Wordcount: ~1,700
Rating: PG
Pairing: Gwen/Arthur/Lancelot
Notes: Thank you to doro & msilverstar for beta reading.

This is set within the Along a Wandering Wind ‘verse and timeline, though it works well enough as a standalone.

Summary: Gwen gets married twice in one day.

Read on the AO3, or:

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I should start this off by saying that while I adore the Merlin fandom, I find the show itself problematic. Really, this isn't that different from any other fandom I've been in (hello, Supernatural) and obviously I negotiate enough value from the show that I can enjoy it anyway. After all, most of the time a text *has* to have a certain amount of fail in it in order for me to want to engage and re-write what I perceive as aspects that are lacking.

But, the balance is a bit different for this fandom - whereas I used to be a horrible problem-denying person of the "don't harsh my squee" variety (cough, Supernatural, ohmygodimsosorry), I've got to a point in my fannish mentality that I can't *not* see the awful things.

Part of the reason I've managed to actually find a place in the Merlin fandom regardless is because I read enough fanfic that the fanon became the more valuable thing to me. I know this will be an unpopular opinion, but I have been so disappointed with the seasonal arcs and character 'growth' that I watch every new episode bracing myself for the next fail. So these long months of fannishness without any new canon has been great for me! It means I can re-watch episodes having already processed the stuff that upsets me, and tease out the stuff that I like, enjoying it far more than I did the first time around. And, of course, paramount: reading and writing things that dwell on and explore those tidbits that I adore.

ANYWAY. That was a big introduction. Today's ahah moment was me realising what I think is actually one of the lynch-pin problems of the show for me. ( I probably don't need to say at this point, but WARNING: critique of Merlin within )

Well, I claimed a prompt on merlin_muses that had a relationship dynamic that delighted me; it also happened to request it in a modern university AU, so I figured... I'll probably never write more than one university AU, so I might as well make THIS one the Australian one.

Which isn't mean to my prompter, is it? I hope not. Because it's way too fun to write.



ETA: oops, sorry for the sudden slew of posts, LJ flisters! All the crossposting from Dth finally went through for the past few days of downtime.

waltzing_mice has made more gorgeous fanart for the Epic Romance: this one is called Merlin's Letter. Squee!


ETA: and omg more podfic! of an old Firefly/Deadwood crossover I wrote, read by tinypinkmouse.


Fans are AWESOME.

nixwilliams requested more Gareth from Along a Wandering Wind in my timestamp meme, and lo, fanfiction of my fanfiction is born *g*

Speaking of Gareth, true_statement asked me a while ago if I'd done any fantasy casting of my OCs, and at that point I hadn't, but she sowed the seed and so I had my eye out since. And then, what do you know? I found some pictures that made me OMG YES. Here is my fantasy casting of Gareth: Ethan James (picture one, picture two). Though I think that's perhaps a slightly older Gareth - perhaps 19-20 rather than 15-16. And I think it's probably the sullen, put-upon expression that makes it work for me more than anything else :D

Anyway, that was fun! Timestamp meme is still open for requests on Dreamwidth or Livejournal. The only other request I've got/filled is for lolafeist, who requested the day after the sex pollen threesome. (I haven't posted that elsewhere, because I think it might be the start of something else, FYI.)


And now, on with the fic:


Title: Tourney
Author: hope / angstslashhope
Fandom: Merlin (BBC)
Wordcount: ~3,000
Rating: PG-13
Pairing: background Merlin/Gwaine

Notes/Summary: Set in the Along a Wandering Wind universe; nixwilliams requested “Gareth +1 year” in my timestamp meme. (Gareth being one of my OCs in that story.)

Read on the AO3, or:

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Because you know how you procrastinate writing by making playlists? Yeah.

( 5 songs behind the cut )

I have been working for some time on an Epic Romance playlist, but that still needs much more work.

Okay, so this may be the fever talking, but you know how there are a million college/university Merlin AUs? And half of them are set in a US university?

Well, I'm seriously tempted to write one set in an Australian university.

Please, someone either talk me out of or in to this...

Title: Along a Wandering Wind
Author: hope / angstslashhope
Fandom: Merlin (BBC)
Wordcount: ~64,000
Rating: Mostly PG-13, eventual NC-17
Pairing: Merlin/Gwaine, peripheral Arthur/Gwen/Lancelot
Notes: This story could not have been completed without the support of my various alpha, beta and gamma readers: winterhill, vanessarama, true_statement, doro, msilverstar and the amazing neifile7, who helped me make the major changes that carved the story into a much better shape (and also came up with the summary. Seriously, thank you). Title is from Tennyson.

Summary: Just when Gwaine finds a reason to end his roaming, he must leave Camelot again, this time on royal orders. Whether and how he returns may depend on the secrets Merlin—and others—are keeping from him. (A romance of letters, intrigue and knightly apprenticeship, set post-S3.)




ETA: Also check out the lovely fanart by waltzing_mice: Thinking of the Quill and Merlin's Letter.