writing. bollocks.

as a couple of people know, I started messing with an idea a few months ago that was along the lines of 'Girl!Merlin grows up in court due to Ygraine not having obviously died of magic thus it never got outlawed'. Figured out a few bits like status what with Balinor being a dragonlord - not noble, but respected position and powerful, so Merlin ends up as Morgana's handmaiden and has been since a young age. (the fact that she only has Gwen doing double duty as high-status maid & handmaiden is another of those 'dear lord, writers, RESEARCH' things) Of course, *immense* amounts of perceived UST when it comes to Merlin/Arthur by the rest of court due to male-female sniping with added relative intimacy naturally equalling shipping. To the point where everyone warns others away from the pair - Merlin because she's earmarked as the Prince's, and Arthur because everyone's heard the druid prophecy about Emrys. No bugger wants to get on the wrong side of either of those things. Also, Morgana.

So, anyway. It gets to about time of series 1, the attempts on Arthur's life start to ramp up a bit (different reasons than purge) so given that they're a lot magical, Uther assigns Merlin as a bodyguard, with added dumping Merlin in the knights so she works well within that unit too for patrol and battle times. Since Merlin's now moved into the adjoining room to Arthur's, cue even more presumption that she's his mistress.

Written the basic plot and so on, problem is now that I don't think it's in character any more. BOLLOCKS. Not to mention the issues thrown up by Merlin being raised in court which also means character issues and ARGH.

deviance from 'normal' human mode

given all the variation in humans, pondering how much we perceive ourselves as varying from the perceived average. (which is an incredibly odd concept as it is) For instance, from what I've been told over the years, I have:

short toes
wide feet with narrow heels
short, small waist
wide shoulders
tiny back (well, rib cage, given my bra band size)
wide hips
short, stocky legs
big head, or at least hat size.

I'm short for this part of Britain. 5'3. Hourglass figure. Which accounts for some of my bits being considered wide/short. I've always had more muscle (the stockiness) than would be expected for someone of my height, so I weigh more too. (I've varied between 10 and 10 and a half stone since puberty, only ever dipping below when I was running five times a week for about a month, and I expect the weight would go back up if I'd kept it up and gained more muscle, since my weight never varied when I was swimming 1k every morning at school for years, not including PE lessons)

The couple of bits of me that are *definitely* not on the 'perceived normal' variation scale are my hands and eyes - hands are child size and proportioned, eyes have pupils that are stuck on 'wide'. (they don't close down very much in bright light, meaning artificial light on during daylight is irritating and slightly painful, I have great night vision, and I have to actively concentrate to see 3D. I always wonder how much my pupils would fuck with the Voight-Kamp test in Bladerunner.)

Be interesting to find someone who was exactly average. Anyone got a bit of them that's apparently average?