You had plenty money 1922

okay, that Merlin fic I've been writing?  It's clocking up the hits and kudos gradually, but the comments are... interesting?

You know me, I occasionally try to go a bit historical and 'try-to-work-out-how-it-would-work'.  Merlin fandom is a fun and interesting place.  You often see fic that examines political stuff and the vague historical period that the  show very rarely ever did.  (well, Uther would occasionally do it - Queen Annis, plus regular bits of Uther - see the bit where he tells Arthur that a mistress is all very well, but don't think it's going any further than that.) Girl!Merlin fic often does it, because it's the nature of genderswap to examine the angles and changes and nuances.  And with this one, I pondered what would happen if Merlin had grown up at court, thinking through and discussing it with mates.  Originally I'd had Merlin and Arthur falling for each other in conventional fashion, only the way it gradually played out after I re-wrote the first concept it became more like intense friendship.  With some other undercurrents.

And..um...several of the comments I've got are in the fluff and 'twoo wuv, they're totally getting married!' sector.

I am deeply confused.  Does it seriously read like that?

You may recall the girl!Merlin thing I occasionally mutter about.

I decided to start posting the occasional snippet at AO3 - still *utterly* lacking a plot as it's more of a 'verse, which will be almost certainly be completely out of order but at least I'll have something there if I ever manage to get a plot. There will almost certainly be lots of snarking at each other dialogue.

Daughter of the Dragonlord snippets, starting off with a bit of establishing backstory.

Currently attempting to tell bunnies to fuck off. What I should be doing is knuckling down and searching through the many and varied notebooks for the various versions of the parents view of national service Pevensies so I can tidy it up and post it. Of course, last night as I'm dropping off I get 'hmm, so, Pevensies meet Merlin and Arthur...' There's already been a couple of crossovers, but with the premise that it takes place during the Golden Age while the Pevensies are ruling, and I'm pretty sure I couldn't pull that off as well as they have. Bunnies are prodding me going 'so, what if you chuck them into Uther's court as strangers with all their training?' (yes, I do want to see Arthur and Peter go at it in the arena, Morgana vs Susan, etc) Which would mean post-LWW. Then was trying to figure out how the hell they'd do a time-travel, tossed a couple of things around like the wood between worlds, which is *way* too unwieldy and finally settled on a possibility that something went a bit ... wrong when they were called to Narnia in Prince Caspian. Course, problem would now be proving noble credentials on a bunch of youths in weird clothes who admittedly did foil an ambush on the Crown Prince and retinue, even if they do carry themselves perfectly. Mind you, Sophia and her dad did it. Peter and Susan are old enough to be considered adults in medieval/dark ages. Edmund and Lucy, not so sure. Er. Now I have the situation, I just don't have any further actual plot. Aside from the first blinky treefrog of the Pevensies going 'That's Arthur and Merlin? Really?'

Happy Birthday clanwilliam. May your plans for world domination continue unabated.

oh, woot. I has caught the cold that was going round the department. The occasional cough of yesterday is now full bore strewing my way with tissues (or rather my store of coffee and sandwich shop napkins). Fortunately not at groggy stage yet. Fingers crossed it doesn't a) develop into flu and b) buggers off by friday.

Drinking lemon and ginger tea. I hate lemon and ginger tea. (tastes in combination are fine, just not as tea) Oh well. at least it's not the Durian sweets (actually more like a paste) that ming fed us at the pubmeet. And yes, Durian deserves all the bad reputation it has garnered. Holding your nose DOES NOT WORK.

Pubmeet was silly, fun, and included a Good Omens casting round. With 'wistful if only' codicils but rules were very firmly 'Who's available *now*'. Paul Bettany was very quickly confirmed as Crowley. 'There are others...' 'Paul Bettany.' 'I was thinking...' 'Paul Bettany.' we didn't really settle on Aziraphale though Kenneth Branagh and a few others were tossed into the ring. War, also not settled. Anathema Device considered v. difficult. Famine? 'Robert Downey Jr. Look, it's the beard!' '...Damn you.' Pollution? 'er... needs to be really fade into the background. Martin Freeman? He does always play everyman...'

Segued at one point into True Blood and Thor, with me sulking about the fact that Alexander Skarsgaard wasn't cast, as hello, viking, and I really can't see Thor as cornfed. Cue Steve going 'don't mind her, she has a thing for blonds.' 'Lies!' 'Last three shags. This list of your shallow moments.' 'The evidence is stacking up, Heather.' '...Dammit.'

Watched Merlin last night. it was squee and joy making and... the writers have been reading the fic again. I spotted at least three non-smut fic preoccupations in there, with exactly the same outcomes/actions as the fic. Rather impressed that there was such a huge amount of slash in what was supposed to be a het-focussed ep. And awwwww, Merlin needs more romance. So. Cute. Though I am glaring at the writers for wrongly labelling the monster of the week.

ETA: how to know you have a cold. you get the pepperami panini that says it has jalapenos in it because you'll be able to taste it. You eat and go 'huh, pleasantly spicy'. Peel back bread. find it's stuffed with jalapenos like they were rocket...

After shopping for socks and superheroine undies (clearly a hit for topshop, considering how long they've been selling them - and you can now get a Wonder woman bra. Sadly, Topshop doesn't cater for those with big boobs or tiny backs.) Bumped into Adrian and gossed a bit - apparently neither of us knew the other lived in Reading. 'How long've you lived here?' :self makes gesture around waist level, which is true since I remember coming up to my dad's waist when I was 5: Failed in finding a boob tube or sleeveless bodice-type top. came home, curled up in front of Merlin and Strictly. merlin was fab, although sadly continuing this season's thing for giving Morgana bugger all lines, Charles Dance chewed scenery like a pro, and everyone in Strictly was upping their game. Except for Craig Kelly, who much as I love the boy, can't dance. And how adorable was Natalie commenting about how springy the floor in Blackpool was?

Meant to start writing after that, but lo, jaw ache of evil so I spent most of the evening curled up pressing that point and the point in the forehead that the pain spiked up to. Yay. Couldn't eat either. Also realised I really needed to plot a bit of the next scene out before i can get to act 2, so eked out a couple of bits of plotting for today.

New Sherlock Holmes trailer. In which there is not just fabulous explosions, Robert Downey Junior, Rachel McAdams, jude Law and Mark Strong, fabulous explosions and many jokes, but they're actively slashing themselves. MUST. SEE.

( our fanboying of Knight's Tale is showing )

I has new phone. Nokia 5800. It will be poked and prodded and will result in me going 'err.... how the hell do I get it to work?'

...Yeah, it's the whole thing of 'fandom becomes big and popular, it's going to attract the people that annoyed you elsewhere'. inevitable, I suppose.

crabby_lioness has hit merlin fandom, watching all the eps in a rush - and cross-posting her gigantic fucking episode analyses to all 3 discussion comms. Which pontificate on the legend as she sees it, are as pretentious as fuck, motivations, with a wonderfully patronising air. (do not get me started on when she starts talking about applying tarot)

her stuff tends to invoke kneejerk responses in me. Especially when she starts talking as though there's only one version or view on certain characters, and it's always the high romantic version. You really, really, don't do that on a legend which is *another country's*. Seriously. (yes, the brits do get a bit possessive about Arthur and Robin Hood. You may be descended from the British, but those who live and got brought up here get first say.) I got into a... slightly 'Excuse me, WTF? Not in England these days.' exchange with her about the point of the Arthurian legend - she seems to think it's the 'when knights would fight for anyone ideal'. Er, no, it's about a land being united for the first time. Which didn't happen again until the late saxon period. The romantic stuff was *bolted on*. and when i said 'not in England these days', she cited it being an inspiration to William Morris and the British Socialist movement... :headdesk: please note, 'These days.'

Academia is very nice, dear, but you're applying it to a Saturday evening show where they threw everything in the pot and picked out what looked *shiny*, and then wrote it from the perspective it's currently viewed in - the trend in the last twenty or thirty years to go for the dark ages/medieval with added mud, with very little focus on the romantic ideals.

(the other problem is that she's posting these massive fucking analyses episode by episode, when everyone else has already watched the rest and so of course half the analysis has been scuppered by later events, like Gaius' motivations or Uther's reactions)

Right. That's that rant over with.

Doctor's tomorrow. Mum drove me there to get registered to see about my we-think-they're-migraines plus the sleep problems. Oh, this is going to be fun. Especially since I'm re-registering with the GP who's known me since I was tiny. oh well, at least he knows that I only turn up for specific shit and that I'm one of those people who feel like I'm time-wasting when i turn up.

...bollocks.

There's nothing like that point when a baby pairing in a small fandom suddenly gets adopted by a very prolific author that you can't stand. I fear for that pairing, I really do.

other fic reading news :
....you're at part 81, (not including interludes), and you still have no idea when it'll end. No, really. put it down. I was looking in vague horror at the partwork that's 36/55, but at least she has some idea when it'll end. Also, that 81/? is a fucking *sequel*. I FEAR YOU.

oh fuck. vampire fic in merlin. FUCK. OFF. (no, despite the years spent in btvs, and the while spent consuming Vampire the Masquerade sourcebooks, the Being Human adoration, liking Blade, I was never a fan of vampires themselves. I like it even less when they invade fandoms where they're not part of the canon. Seriosuly. There's a WIP in Torchwood that has Ianto as a vampire and I just...eyurgh.)

been tracking the general stuff in merlin fandom. Robin hood, I was always smugly proud that the comm I modded was the biggest with most of the action. Merlin - I may have got my foot in the door first, but other comms are heavier traffic and have more members, though plenty gets cross-posted. On the other hand, interesting patterns - merlinxarthur is the biggest and heaviest traffic. merlin_tv is where most of the news gets posted first. merlinbbc is for some reason the discussion community, with a giant episode post. And where you pimp new communities. Even though it gets the least cross-posting.

But new fandom. I'm on most of the main comms, and like I said, tracking it. And watching so many familiar faces (especially icon makers) get sucked in by the shiny, sparkly pretty.

Merlin : it's like Mamma Mia. Shiny sparkly fun at the point when fandom needed it - mamma Mia got the economic downturn, Merlin got the lull in Torchwood and Who and SGA (the previous big slash fandom) winding down on tv.

..And you know how fandoms get crackish tropes quite early on which the old hands reference and then newbies reference without knowing the original source, and then one day someone screams 'WTF is this thing for doing *this* to a character and why will no-one explain the in-joke? I HATE YOU ALL, IT'S STUPID.' SGA - penguins and the crack it led to. Torchwood - mpreg. (which was actually canon). For some reason merlin fandom has a thing for putting Merlin in a dress. No, I don't know why. I saw the first fic and I *still* can;t figure out why everyone latched on so fast.

i don't think we stopped squeeing in the reaction posts. Especially Uther. Dear writers, please keep doing that.

Awesome Uther is awesome may have been a bit too much on top of the Children in Need 'Do as your king commands. Give you money to Pudsey. Or I'll chop your head off.' Brain now dead from happy.

Am stuck in a 'bored' phase.

Fuck it. If you haven't watched Merlin yet, here's a vid with the two main characters being very silly and such boys. To quote Derry, it's like Smallville but instead of destined to be enemies, they're destined to be BFF. Also, No Lana. Which is an automatic plus in any show.

For those who have no idea about Merlin? It's all up on iplayer. Essentially they threw all the legends up in the air, picked the bits they liked, and decided to make it very pretty and add that BBC Saturday Evening Family Viewing Special Touch. 'Subtext. Who can be arsed with subtext?' Plus Tony Head being an utter bastard as Uther, and Richard Wilson being awesome. Bradley James who plays Arthur is ridiculously pretty but also possesses some of the goofiest expressions you've ever seen. We have CGI dinosaurs. Does your fandom have CGI dinosaurs?