in lieu of creating indicator variables and interpreting log regressions

[whynot]

Homework sucks. Time for meme.


1. Angst:
In her dreams, Morgana sees them all unravel.

2. AU:
Being the cameraman for Arthur Pendragon, investigative journalist, is harrowing.

3. Crack!Fic:
Surprisingly, Gaius kills the most zombies.

4. Crossover:
Jadis smiles knowingly; she has met men like Uther before.

5. First Time:
The magic flares from Merlin's fingertips and ignites her own.

6. Fluff:
She likes the feel of Gwen's fingers in her hair.

7. Humor:
"Very funny, Merlin. Now change me back. ...Merlin? Hello?"

8. Hurt/Comfort:
"I'm fine," Arthur insists.
Merlin continues bandaging and says, "Sure."

9. Smut:
Morgana gasps raggedly and digs her nails into Merlin's back.

10. UST
"Gwen," Morgana begins, but doesn't know what else to say.

That said, I would give up my firstborn to read an investigative journalist AU and some Uther/Jadis.


In other news, AAAAAAAAAAAHHH I HAVE TRAIL OF DEAD TICKETS AAAAAAAAAAAHHH I HAVE TRAIL OF DEAD TICKETS AAAAAAAAAAAHHH I HAVE TRAIL OF DEAD TICKETS hfksahfkdshfd ZOMG. I've never seen them live before! It's gonna be awesome, and possibly harmful to my health considering how the Manu Chao 'mosh pit' nearly did me in. Maybe I will upload their music for you later.

I was slightly disappointed to find that Dining With Terrorists does not actually have Phil Rees going, "It is the peppers and coca leaves that give the FARC's gruel that special kick." It did make me think of all you guys on my flist writing fics about LA REVOLUCION. So basically zempasuchil ("THE JUNGLE IS THE IDEAL SETTING FOR REBELLION.") and bedlamsbard.

Also, WHY DID NO ONE TELL ME THE GUY FROM ASIAN DUB FOUNDATION IS HOSTING THE MUSIC OF RESISTANCE PROGRAM ON AL-JAZEERA. OMG. Possibly to stop my head exploding from awesome?? OMG THE FIRST EPISODE IS ACTUALLY ABOUT THEM (and the BNP and racism in London). omg. you guuuuuuuuyyyyysssss, i almost can't handle it. KEEP BANGING ON THE WALLS OF FORTRESS EUROPE.

I haven't done recs since I got a delicious, but I want to bring attention to

Not listing all my favorites, just the ones I think could use more loving.

When Daylight Fades, We'll Still Be Us - Merlin/Arthur. G. This was written quite early on, before the fandom got really massive, so I think this might have passed below most people's radars. But it's lovely, check it out.

Sentry - PG. As gen as the show. The fic does a great Uther and a great dragon. And that's cool, 'cos most fics seem to dismiss the dragon as silly or annoying. I might have to write some dragon gen in the future in protest or something.

A Life Worth Less. PG13. As gen as the show. Her characterization of Merlin and Arthur are ace, especially of Arthur, capturing the balance between his douchebaggery and his honor.

Crooked Heart. Morgana/Merlin, R. Dude, all the good Morgana/Merlin, let you show me it?

With Your Eyes Half-Open. PG. As gen as the show. (THE FRAUGHT GEN, I love iiiiit.) The push&pull of OT4, POV of awesome Gwen.

Innocent - G. Merlin and Will! I gave her the prompt "five times Merlin and Will almost got in trouble but didn't", and was so thrilled when she wrote it 'cos seriously: there is not enough Merlin&Will (or Merlin/Will) out there. This is their pastoral adventures and being mischievous and looking out for each other and I am just like <33333333 <3333333.

Give Me Love, Give Me Peace On Earth. Hippie!AU. Jesus/Mary M/John. PG13. AWESOME.

I will leave you with this.

Comments

[nixwilliams.livejournal.com]

that face of bradley is my FAVOURITE FACE OF BRADLEY. even more than this one.

[twoskeletons.livejournal.com]

MINE TOOOOOOO
followed by this (http://community.livejournal.com/face_of_bradley/7172.html)!

[saucery.livejournal.com]

INVESTIGATIVE JOURNALIST FTW! Baby, how do you do it? :D

The first one sort of broke my heart. "Sort of," as in, with that slow crumbling realization that the destined excrement has yet to hit the ponderously-rotating ceiling fan. I literally felt my heart shrink. Oh, Morgana. Someone should write a fic about the psychological (and perhaps even psychiatric?) effects of her long-term exposure to the future. Don't pre-cogs usually go mad? *shudder* A fractured mind, splintered along the edges of a thousand different futures and ever-growing possibilities, each one tempting or terrifying and palpably real... WHOA. Okay, I have to write this.

Thank you, Lassiter. I now have yet another fic to write. *headdesk*

ZOMBIE-KILLING GAIUS IS WIN. <3

And so is The Music of Resistance! Which reminds me... um, since you sort of liked that Obama crackvid from way back. I was thinking of uploading some of the Obama-crack MP3s I have lying around on my hard-drive, but the reason I didn't is because I wasn't sure if anyone would be interested. Would you be interested? I mean, I don't know if anyone's actually as weird as I am and listens to Obama spoofs on their iPod. Er.

Your rec of Sentry made me imagine Uther/Dragon, for some reason. WHAT IF THE DRAGON COULD TURN INTO A HUMAN. A really hot human. And, and. He met up with a younger Uther and tried to seduce him and stuff, but he got caught or exposed somehow and then ended up trapped underground? (Seriously, I've always wondered how the heck the Dragon got there in the first place. It's like... How did they fit that ship into the bottle?)

OR, OR. Even now, like. The Dragon (who is really quite young as far as Dragons go, which is why he's so silly) decides that Merlin is messing things up WAY too much. So he, er. I don't know, uses the magic he's been storing up for the last several decades (kind of like a magical hibernation?) to turn himself into a human one last time. A human who is a hot young guy - are we seeing a pattern, here? - and who goes aboveground and tries to do his usual I'm-a-charming-and-really-sexy-friend-here-to-help-you-with-all-your-problems routine. Only he does it with Merlin this time, not Uther - all in an effort to control/sway Merlin's actions, or to quietly interfere with Merlin's less productive ideas. He, like, shows Merlin that he can do a little bit of magic and stuff, and they really hit it off together, because man-dragon just seems to know so much about Merlin and seems to understand him so well, and Merlin's like, "Wow, I've never had a friend who just got me! Not like this!" And then Arthur finds out and is all jealous and maybe Merlin's sleeping with the dragon and maybe he isn't, but ARTHUR IS JEALOUS and becomes more and more determined to prove that Something Is Very Wrong with Mr. Clever-Handsome-And-Debonair. :D :D :D :D

God, Lassiter, what do you to to me? It ain't fair.

[twoskeletons.livejournal.com]

I would read the shit out of an investigative journalist AU. I don't know enough to write one. I want like, okay, so as if covering Gaza wasn't harrowing enough, Arthur takes the assignment to go undercover in Myanmar to cover the pro-democracy uprising. Merlin's like DUDE YOU HAVE A DEATH WISH but Arthur is like WHATEVS. "I'm not going this time," says Merlin adamantly, and Arthur says, "Right, okay." So Arthur goes into Myanmar alone on a tourist visa with a handycam. He sends back clips of himself talking in his hotel room, in cafes, in the streets, in the middle of swarms of Burmese protesters, young and old, who talk to Arthur in broken English that Merlin can barely understand, but their anger is palpable and their fire is real. Arthur sends back clips of Buddhist monks throwing bricks at the junta, who retaliate with tear gas. He films that part from the top of the building and stupidly decides to descend to the street, getting on-the-ground shots. Merlin's heart seizes up when the camera suddenly jerks, a sign that Arthur has been apprehended by a soldier, and then there's yelling ("I'm a tourist! This camera has no batteries!" Arthur exclaims, and Merlin thinks Arthur is such an idiot sometimes) and some shoving around, and Arthur is running running running and the screen zigs and zags from the pavement to the sky, with a blur of humanity in-between.

He hears gunshots.

Arthur's red and sweaty face comes into focus and he is saying how he and a handful of protesters are right now taking refuge in an alleyway, and he continues babbling about something or other as he turns the camera on the protesters, who look like hunter and prey simultaneously. He starts asking them questions in English, and they all jump in with answers, though in the end it's just this one guy talking, dominating by dint of his barely checked emotion. He's about Merlin's age, and he's struggling with English. He falls to repeating certain words and just saying them louder, gesticulating wildly, until finally his frustration reaches critical mass and he explodes into rapid Burmese about god knows what. Maybe about how the junta killed his brother, maybe about democracy, maybe about the future and maybe about the past. It's such a familiar story. But not the same story -- don't fall into that trap. If you consider yourself a good journalist or, hell, maybe even just a good person who listens and cares, don't fall into that trap. It's never the same story. Merlin has never covered the same story twice and he's proud of this.

"I'm constantly changing shirts and hats so they won't recognize me," Arthur says into the camera. As if a white person in Myanmar doesn't look out of place. A couple of foreign journalists have already been killed, many more have been attacked.

"Arthur," Gaius says into the phone later. "Come home. We have more than the bare minimum of excellent footage, thanks to you."

"Fuck off," says Arthur. "This thing is nowhere near over. I'm not going anywhere."

Merlin grabs the phone and says into it, "True 'cos you can't go anywhere if you're dead, you imbecile. Get yourself the fuck home."

"Merlin, is that you? Hand the phone back to Gaius."

So when Arthur least expects it, when he is sitting on his hotel bed spattering peanut sauce on the sheets from his chicken and veggie thing that he bought off a street vendor for dinner (he prides himself on never getting 'Delhi belly'), scribbling notes as he plays back the day's footage, there is a knock on the door. Arthur's first instinct is to PANIC because OH SHIT THE JUNTA HAVE COME TO TAKE HIM AWAY. But no. He looks through the eyehole and it's fucking Merlin. It's fucking Merlin with a duffel bag over one shoulder and more bags under his eyes.

"Don't believe Gaius, your camera work is fucking shoddy," Merlin says by way of greeting and explanation.

"Gaius was always full of shit," Arthur agrees, stepping aside to let Merlin in.


ummmm okay i'm just gonna go ahead and press 'post' now and answer the rest in another comment.

[saucery.livejournal.com]

AAAAAHHHHHHH WHAAAAAAAAATTTT. OHHHH MY GAAWWWWDDDD.

How do you. Is that even. WHAT ARE YOU DOING TO ME.

OH MY GOD ARTHUR. HOW CAN YOU BE SO PENDRAGON IN MYANMAR? AND HOW CAN MERLIN STILL TOTALLY BE HIS WIFE. HIS MANSERVANT CAMERAMAN WIFE. GWUH. AND THE PROTESTERS BEING BOTH HUNTER AND PREY AND THE SHEER VISUAL POWER OF THE CAMERA ANGLES AND HOW YOU WRITE THEM AND BY GOD I CAN SEE THIS AND I WANT TO KNOW MORE ABOUT THAT YOUNG PROTESTER'S TRAGIC STORY AND THIS MEANS ARTHUR IS A GOOD JOURNALIST AND MAYBE EVEN A GREAT JOURNALIST AND.

YOU HAVE TO CONTINUE THIS, YOU HEAR? OR I WILL EXPLODE INTO RAPID BURMESE IN YOUR EAR, HO.

<33333333333333333333

[selfinduced.livejournal.com]

I AM SO GLAD WE SHARE A FANDOM AGAIN AND I CAN REALLY ENJOY THE CRACK BRILLIANCE YOU PRODUCE. *FLAIL*

[alice-pike.livejournal.com]

JESUS CHRIST, LASSITER.

You could write ANYTHING and I think I'd still read and enjoy it. Like, I want MOAR of this hardcore and I don't even do AU's. Just, *hands* IDEK how you do this, but I am envious. ♥

[katakokk.livejournal.com]

OH MY GOD, LASS. I THINK YOU HAVE KILLED ME.

This is so unbelievably EXCELLENT, and Arthur is SO ARTHUR I want to hug him and give him more shirts and hats (Hawaiian print! Every tourist needs Hawaiian print shirts!) so he can continue going under-cover and being such a Pendragon and doing horribly wonderful thing to my heart. Oh my heart.

AND MERLIN. Oh poor Merlin. JOURNALIST/CAMERAMAN = ♥.

[twoskeletons.livejournal.com]

What do YOU do to ME?? Maybe epic comment inspires like epic comment.

I have been wanting to sink myself into a good 'Camelot unravels' fic either in the writing or the reading. The prompt that I gave about the Pendragon family breaking apart and complicatedly loving each other is pretty much the first Merlin fic I ever wanted to write, but I dunno, things just never have quite lined up in my head. I get very easily distracted by crack. But augh, MOTHERFUCKING PENDRAGONS, so fascinating! Each so powerful and proud and trying to do the right thing and each misguided in their own way! They love each other and yet sometimes their love hurts each other!

I suppose I would check out Obama crack, sure. (CONFESSIONS: I have two Capitol Steps albums in my music library. My boyfriend constantly teases me about it, but it is one of my happy places.)

HUMAN!DRAGON OMG
\o/!

[alice-pike.livejournal.com]

Ooh, I like all of those for that meme. I actually started doing it with Narnia and Narnia RPF, but I epic fail that badly that I didn't actually finish it. :( But I LOVE the idea of Jadis/Uther. Seriously, someone needs to write that shit.

And goddammit, I still need Merlin icons.

[twoskeletons.livejournal.com]

FOR SERIOUS. Jadis/Uther has so much sexycreepy potential, with delicious power games and ruminations on the nature of magic!

Have you checked out merlin_icons? :)

[alice-pike.livejournal.com]

So, um, it's not quite what I (or you, I think) had in mind, but IT JUST CAME TO ME and here it is. Seriously, the logistics of actually getting them to speak to each other are just too much for my brain right now. (I also digressed a bit where Edmund is concerned, but I do not think you will blame me).


Jadis smiles knowingly; she has met men like Uther before.

Once in Charn, but he was weak and his mind crumpled and shattered under the weight of his loyalty to her, and she had used him up before he could be of any real service.

Twice in Narnia, and although both were torn from her, one still returns. (His past is too much a part of him, and there is too much to escape from, nowhere to run to, no one to protect him. He comes to her unwillingly, fighting the pull in his very blood, but magic does not sleep and does not let one rest and she is a comfort to him when no one else can reach him, when no one else can calm the fury that lives beneath his skin. He hates himself for every inch that he gives her, for it is another inch lost that he cannot hope to regain).

(She knows this).

This world is no different than the others she had come to rule. There are still kings, still servants, still weaknesses and hopes and fears in the hearts of its men. There are stones to be overturned, secrets to be exploited—and magic is still ready and willing at her fingertips.

Uther welcomes the newcomer to his court, impressed by the air of her authority, taken in by the sweetness of her lies. It will not be long before he is as the others were, needing what only she can give, blinded by their mundane and selfish desires.

Uther, however, is different. She sees this now. The traces of magic linger in Camelot, moribund, hidden. His fear of magic's power is palpable, yet he has more knowledge of its sharp and jagged edges than any other she has known before: Uther's own son is tied to him even more strongly by magic than by love.

Upon making this discovery, Jadis smiles again, different from the assured predator of before, as someone who has seen a challenge and lusts to overcome it.

The roots of magic are deep beneath Uther's kingdom--built so heavily atop them as if to smother them--yet nourished with the blood of those he has used, thanked, condemned, and killed.

He will not sway easily.

[marycontraire.livejournal.com]

- Uther/Jadis is clearly the best idea ever. (Especially if it managed to have some Edmund/Jadis on the side. Maybe? Yes?)

- Bookmarking the gen fics to read later.

- On a completely unrelated note, Phil Rees pisses me off. I'm Colombian, and the FARC have pretty much destroyed my country. They're not freedom fighters, they're a corrupt, violent organization that takes money from drug lords and kills and kidnaps innocent people. That is all.

[twoskeletons.livejournal.com]

Yes, someone should write Uther/Jadis IMMEDIATELY. I would write it but it seems like my default setting when it comes to Merlin fic is crack. And yes with Edmund! 'Cos as much as the Witch may be drawn to Uther, she still has that thing for young boys, weirdly. Oh Edmund and Rilian: the ones who got away! Uther does not bend to her as easily, and this is why he frustrates and delights her.

Has Phil Rees done much reporting in Colombia? This program is the first I've heard of him.

[marycontraire.livejournal.com]

I don't blame Jadis. Edmund is irresistible. (As is Tony Head-- you would not believe the crush I had on Giles back in the Buffy days. I had DREAMS about Giles. I found him so much sexier than all of the more age-appropriate vampire actors. Hahaha.)

Not that I know of, but I did watch that program and the spin pissed me off majorly.

[allothi.livejournal.com]

I am not here and dying and also apparently the afterlife involves stalking your journal, BUT, in re 1. they all unravel -- It starts like this:

Uther's bloodstained kingship comes to an end not at the hands of any sorcerer, but those of the Sea Wolves, who raid the eastern shores, and the Picts, who pour down from the North. They steal the harvests, slaughter the village folk and ambush knights at the hunt for their spoils. No matter how strong Uther's son may be, as his army shrinks and the supplies he has to feed them shrink faster, Camelot's star begins to fall -- and all Albion knows it.

Uther rounds up every man, woman and child who has ever had even the slightest suspicion of sorcery attached to them. Raiding parties are sent into the surrounding lands, abducting druids, witch women, magicians. Both Gwen and Merlin are imprisoned: they disappear in the night, the circumstances mysterious. Uther demands of his captives that they use their powers to save his kingdom. One by one, they all refuse. Many have no magic. Those that do, probably not enough to help him. He begins their executions, one by one: perhaps the rest will be scared into power great enough to help him.

One evening, after the ninth of these deaths, Uther's ward comes to him in the throne room.

"There is one person you have missed, a sorcerer in your kingdom. I am a Seer. I see what shall be. I can use my gift to help you."

And Uther hates magic, but he loves his kingdom, and he loves, too, his ward, Morgana, as a father loves the daughter he has watched grow up, has loved her as a she-bear loves her kid when it takes its first step, and loves her now, though they are often at variance, as the land must love the rain that falls upon it, though that rain is sometimes harsh, and batters down hard upon it.

Morgana tells him: "You have only one escape from the ruin that threatens. Release all your prisoners, and I shall tell it to you."

He takes a day to deliberate, but it is mostly show. The next evening, the prisoners are released, and Morgana comes to him again.

"You must contact the Saxon warchiefs, Hengest and Horsa. Do this, send them gold and promise them land in your kingdom, and they shall come to your aid, and fight off the Picts and rebel Sea Wolves. Do otherwise, and this kingdom is doomed, and neither you nor your son will live to see the year's end."

He does as she tells him. But Hengest and Horsa, when they come into Camelot, like what they see of its fertile land. They and their men clear the kingdom of its enemies -- all its enemies except themselves -- and after the victory feast, they turn their men on what remains of Uther's own.

Seeing that he will never defeat the Saxons in open battle, Uther draws back his men to his castle and bars himself in, too thickly fortified for any Sea Wolf to batter down. But Hengest and Horsa gather wood and chop down mighty trees from the surrounding forest, which they pile all around. They start a great and roaring fire around the great castle of Camelot, and the stones glow red, and the smell of burning carries over the rich fields that tempted the Saxons to break their vows of friendship.

A small band escapes the castle, fleeing through a secret entryway as the timber is heaped about As they watch their home burn, Arthur, who would now be a king if his father had still had any kingdom, Arthur turns to Morgana and says,

"You knew this would come."

"Yes," she says, "but it was unavoidable. There was no future where Uther survived. You may not believe me, but this was the least worst way."

Arthur holds his sword tight in his hand and thinks, there must have been some other way.

[twoskeletons.livejournal.com]

omg! yesssssssss. YESSSSSSSSSSS. merlin and morgana's mysterious disappearance and Morgana being all OUR LADY OF SEXY BADASSERY (AUGH MORGANA, I SHIP ME/HER), and arthur who would be king if there were still a kingdom, and the seeds of the rift between him and his foster-sister!

I DECLARE THIS LOVELY

[allothi.livejournal.com]

YOU CANNOT HAVE MORGANA, SHE IS MINE

[lettersandliars.livejournal.com]

ZOMBIE AU, I APPROVE. especially if gaius is a bad-ass. arthur is totally losing his shit and trying to run outside to satisfy his hopelessly stereotypical male urge to kill things and merlin and gwen are seriously considering breaking every bone in his body to keep him in the damn castle, and by the time they get to the gates gaius is already dripping BRAINS and gore and shit and being all, "ignorant children." because there is no way in hell that camelot hasn't seen at least one zombie invasion with all the bad juju they've got floating around.

[twoskeletons.livejournal.com]

I would read the shit out of a zombie apocalypse AU. Come on, Merlin fandom, are you or are you not the crackiest fandom on LJ?!

[puckling.livejournal.com]

Surprisingly, Gaius kills the most zombies.

ILU <3.

I kept parsing your excitement as trail of "dead tickets" and wondering what the hell those were, and why you were excited. Then I realized that I was an idiot. So, um, ENJOY.

[twoskeletons.livejournal.com]

oh man, ...and you will know us by the trail of dead is like <33333333. okay so i like their SONGS THAT BUILD more than their thrashy screamy stuff, but argh, the song "will you smile again" will never not make my heart explode into a million pieces!

[twoskeletons.livejournal.com]

Gaius has to remind himself that this isn't Uther anymore, this isn't his master and friend whom he has advised and supported over the years. No, that Uther is dead. Or rather: undead, and it is up to Gaius to stop him.

Still, he cannot stop himself saying, "Forgive me, my lord," in a tight and quiet voice before lopping the zombie's head off with his sword.

He steps over the body and rushes out the door. He will not linger. When zombies attack you cannot be idle, and Gaius has learned this lesson the hard way.

[twoskeletons.livejournal.com]

omg there is now 1000 words of this wtf