Fic: "A Lever and a Place to Stand" (Arthur/Merlin, R). And further down: SPN inanities.

[whynot]

camelotsolstice reveals are up! yue_ix made me my mafia!Pendragons. I KNEW IT, BB, I KNEW IT. <33 XD

Here's what I wrote:


A Lever and a Place to Stand
Merlin. Arthur/Merlin + ensemble. Rated R. Warnings: canon deaths, drug use. Thank you to zempasuchil and mrinalinee for the beta.
Summary: When a peaceful march for the equal rights of magicians ends badly, Merlin is forced to hide out in the apartment of law student Arthur Pendragon. ~12000 words

All Arthur wants to do is zone out on the sofa and watch reruns of CSI: Mercia, because after an entire day of reading case studies about the various legalized injustices carried out against the magical population, he can really go for a dose of predictable crime-solving and pretend that’s what the world is really like.


Writing this fic was annoying, but in a good way. I was initially going to write the Arthur/Lancelot part of my recipient's prompt, but then I looked through her LJ and she was clearly jonesing for the Merlin/Arthur, which is a ship that I don't find as exciting anymore. But it's Solstice, so okay, whatever. I'll Merlin/Arthur for Solstice.

And it was because of Merlin/Arthur that the fic became so long. Because I was less inspired by the romance, I started throwing in other things to keep my interest that I could write about. Sure, let's set the fic in faux New York. Let's give Arthur grad student angst. Let's talk nonstop about how much Will is missed. (NAME-DROP JAVA. SCRABBLE GAMES. Wade-Giles and LexisNexis and Muggle jokes, etc.) This eventually led to a series of frantic emails to Z wherein I wondered, "DO YOU THINK THEY ARE IN LOVE ENOUGH??"

Suddenly, this fic that was supposed to be a few thousand words long became TWELVE THOUSAND WORD SLONG (!! haha I will not fix that typo), and I got an extension, and two betas, and then... my recipient drops out.

LOLZ I could have been writing Arthur/Lancelot THIS WHOLE TIME (this whole tiiiiime), but if I had been, this would have been a much different fic. And even with twelve thousand words, I didn't end up unpacking as much as I wanted to, especially wrt Arthur's idealism and privileged position in society. For the purposes of this fic, Arthur and Merlin's idealism were championed, but I think introducing a more cynical perspective to deconstruct their "HURRAH REVOLUTION!" attitude would also have been interesting. Maybe in the sequel.

Another thing I would've wanted to do if I had more time is include 'excerpts' from Arthur's textbooks or thesis a la Sea Change or Forms & Foundations. Gwen in her speech quotes Marx's 18th Brumaire, and Uther does too when he's talking about religion. Max Wechsler's Druidic Ethic is of course supposed to be Max Weber's Protestant Ethic, and the Wizard Manifesto is guess. Also, Merlin misquotes Arthur C. Clarke with the whole science/magic thing.

In the end, I am glad and grateful, ex-recipient, for the challenge. I would not have written it if not for you! A MERRY SOLSTICE TO ALL AND TO ALL A GOOD NIGHT.


And now: Supernatural! My SPN-watching has been jumping around as per the orders of my id.

Reactions thus far to 5x04:

THIS ISN'T FUNNY, DEAN. THE VOICE TELLS ME I'M ALMOST OUT OF MINUTES. <333333

...I'LL JUST WAIT HERE THEN.

~*IF YOU DON'T SAY YES TO MICHAEL, SARAH PALIN WILL BECOME PRESIDENT*~

DEAN KIND OF LIKED IT WITH THE PINK PANTIES

WHERE IS THE FALLEN!CASTIEL/DEAN FIC SET IN THIS ALTERNATE UNIVERSE, WHERE. I wanna know all about fallen!AUCastiel.

omg Sam's white suit of facepalm hahahaha

Dean cries more than I thought he would.



AND ALSO, "CHANGING CHANNELS", I WAS LIKE WHAT. WHAT IS THIS, HOW IS THIS EVEN OMG WHAAAAA. DO YOU NEED MORE CRACK SHOW OH I GUESS YOU DON'T, WELL CAN I HAVE SOME OF YOURS THEN, YOU CLEARLY HAVE TOO MUCH <33

ALSO: THE FACT THAT SOMETIMES, DURING APOCALYPTIC ALTERNATE UNIVERSES, THERE ARE TWO DEANS. Twoooooooo. Count 'em, two! This show knows what's up. \o/

I STILL CAN'T BELIEVE "CHANGING CHANNELS" EXISTS HAHAAAAA

Where does Castiel go when he's not stalking the Winchesters? Off fomenting rebellion elsewhere? What does he do when he's looking for God? Is he collecting intelligence? Making shady deals in back alleys? Or just... standing still on roadsides waiting for Dean to wake up?

How EVIL was Show for showing us Castiel drinking those shots in 5x10 with Jo and Ellen, but then opting out of a drunk!Castiel scene. I FEEL CHEATED. WAY TO TOY WITH MY HEART. "I think I'm beginning to feel something" indeeeeeeed.

Castiel is SUCH A ROBOT. Switch 'angel' with 'robot' and it's the same shtick, what with being programmed to be obedient but beginning to feel feelings. Feeeeelings. C3PO emotes more than Cas does. By odd coincidence (or perhaps the law of averages), I found the AU fic where Dean finds robot!Castiel in the scrap heap. Then when I thought of Arthur!Dean and Merlin!Castiel, I found the art manip! Ah, the joys of well-established fandom! Everything is out there already, and SOMEWHERE OUT THERE is the Dean/Castiel fic that will break my heart to a million pieces, I WILL FIND IT.

BECAUSE SRSLY. The two-parter in S4 where Anna made out with Dean at the end? And Castiel made goggly-boggly eyes at them, a ~*significant look of vague longing*~ and I was like, "IS THIS HOW WE ARE PLAYING IT, SHOW???" KEEP UP THE GOOD WORK.

CAN WE TALK ABOUT ~*CROWLEY*~ AND HOW NOW I AM INCAPABLE OF SEEING THIS AS NOT A GOOD OMENS CROSSOVER??? Also, the whole thing with Lucifer and Michael makes me think this is a Lucifer crossover/fusion. Fair enough, all these stories deal with the same mythos, so intersections are bound to happen, buuuuut if Castiel occasionally hung out with Aziraphale, wouldn't that make your life so much better? (Yes.) They can go around being repressed and socially inept together, sauntering downwards.

I feel for Sam and his inner demon, I do, and I think he's got interesting stories to tell. The whole 'mere vessels' premise makes for some nice parallels, but TO BE HONEST I am so much less interested in that when CASTIEL WILL DO ANYTHING FOR DEEEAAAN and Dean, y'know, wants to make sure Cas is alright (<333). I think there's a compelling story about the end of the world going on somewhere in this show, but I can't tell through all the personal space invasions!

Speaking of which, 5x03: ONE OF BESTEST?!

And may I say how unexpectedly delighted I am at finding Britishisms in SPN fic! This must be how Brits feel when people Americanize in Merlin or Harry Potter fic. Suddenly Dean is like THE BLOODY THING IS BROKEN or Sam is like LET'S GET SOME TAKEAWAY and sometimes they have a ROW, and I'm just like, "...AWW, WOULD YOU LIKE SOME CRUMPETS AND TEA?!??!" <3333 BLESS YA'LL, how delightful. XD

So, just out of curiosity, if you could rec someone a Dean/Castiel fic that would brutally rip your heart to shreds via either of them wrestling with duty and realizing each other's role in their respective worlds... which fic would you rec? WHICH DEAN/CASTIEL FIC MAKES YOU ACHE, FANDOM, WHICH.

Comments

[be-themoon.livejournal.com]

it's seriously like the creators of SPN decided "hey look, it's probably our last season! BRING ON THE CRACK, GUYS. WE'VE BEEN HOLDING BACK ON OUR FANS. We don't have to pander to the network anymore!" and lo and behold, it is indeed glorious glorious crack. (and it's making the ratings go up, which is kind of awesome.)

AND OMG CROWLEEEEEY. I love every second of his onscreen appearance to tiny ragged bits. he is AMAZING.

and OMG CASTIEL/DEAN. "I'LL JUST... WAIT HERE THEN." the Voice says he's almost out of minutes! HE WOULD DO ANYTHING FOR DEAN. I don't know if you have seen the season 4 finale yet, but there are these few minutes in it that just make me jump up and down and squeal in delight. if you have watched it, you probably know what I mean. (DEAN TRUSTS CASTIEL WITH HIS LIIIFE.)

also, 5.04 YES YES fallen!Cas (who doesn't even have the dignity of his full name anymore), complete with amphetamines and vodka. oh, baby. how the mighty have fallen. everyone reacts to the apocalypse in their own way, I suppose. (Father issues are A Thing on this show, as I'm sure you've noticed.)

and ahaha! 5.03, YES. RAPHAEEEEEEL.

[twoskeletons.livejournal.com]

YES MORE CRACK MORE UST MORE MORE MORE

I LOVE THE FATHER ISSUES. And all the parallels, Sam/Lucifer and Dean/Michael and FATHERS and SAVING PEOPLE HUNTING THINGS. I think if I had gotten into this show properly, I would've loved the whole angels and monsters thing, PLUS APOCALYPSE AND FAMILY, and I might maybe have felt more desire to gen out, BUT. But since I got into this show late and haphazardly, it's straight to the id and I am spending most of my fannish energy drawing hearts around Castiel/Dean. BREAK MY HEART WITH CASTIEL/DEAN FIC, FANDOM, I DARE YOU.

And I'm trying to convince myself that I don't have plot bunnies, just thoughts of Sam coming back to their motel room and Dean sleeping naked under the covers, and also the room smells kinda funky. Sam rolls his eyes and asks casually, "So who was the lucky lady?" And Dean is like, "What?" and then he sits up suddenly and looks around, but he's alone in bed. There's no one else in the room but Sam, who's looking at him weirdly now, and Dean replies, as if he has difficulty believing it, "No one."

[twoskeletons.livejournal.com]

OH AND FALLEN!CAS. I have many Feelings about fallen!Cas. MANY QUESTIONS that I think should be explained in fic form. Feelings include, "I feel like Castiel did it with Dean lots of times after he was newly mortalized." FOR SOLACE, YOU KNOW. And so Castiel and Dean work out their abandonment issues through sex, the world crumbles around them and eventually they do too. It goes from "You're the only thing I recognize in this world," to the state of affairs in 5x03 :(

Was it amphetamines that Cas was stoned on? I thought it wasn't specified.

Haha, I've watched all the episodes with Castiel in them, but I'm gonna watch them again, because the first time around I'm usually too busy waiting for Castiel to GRIP DEAN TIGHT, RAISE HIM FROM PERDITION, SCREW HIM SENSELESS. (Oh god I have become That Shipper.)

Also, is the name Crowley a reference to... something?

[twoskeletons.livejournal.com]

I would, but apparently "Generally Wingless" beat me to it! Don't worry, I'm sure I will find some other contrivance to facilitate Dean/Castiel sexings. Other things I'm contemplating include awkward times with Dean and Jimmy Novak, and displaced possessiveness with Sam and Castiel. Hmm.

IT'S SUDDEN ONSET CASTIEL/DEAN.

[twoskeletons.livejournal.com]

ALMOST DARKNESS MCANGSTERSTON INSTINCT. It has a ring to it.

I THINK YOU SHOULD DARE IT. And Jimmy can have issues about whether he's into Dean too, or if it's just Cas's feelings overflowing. Jimmy has lived for such a long time with Castiel in him that he is beginning to forget himself. He has dreams of casting out demons and wakes up thinking it's 2009 all over again, wakes up surprised that he can move his hands and feet on his own.

Then I would put in Jimmy/Castiel vibes, just for giggles.

[twoskeletons.livejournal.com]

Ha! And now he is getting blown up indeed. Poor Jimmy. They didn't teach him this in Sunday school, and especially not about the gay sex.

So is Jimmy just gone the entire time? He doesn't remember a thing? 'Cos I would love to see the conversations he has with Castiel in his head while Castiel is doing things.

[twoskeletons.livejournal.com]

Funny that, 'cos I was talking about writing noncon with someone else, and she has the same approach you do, with the dream-like prettytext. Is it rape or is it metaphor?! Only complit majors know.

I like layers. I also like horribly wrong things and unsympathetic characters.
YES. And bring back the unreliable narrator! I feel like a lot of meta about characters is like, "This is how you write an awesome character!" But what if one wants to write awesomely about a non-awesome character? Like, I don't want the villains fixed or justified really; just explained.

[twoskeletons.livejournal.com]

I went, "Who?" and had to google. It has been a while since I read that book. Hmm. I don't even know where to begin with Mersault because his whole thing is a lack of empathy/sympathy. What I think would be compelling about writing awesomely about non-awesome characters though is that you give caricatures and human imperfection their humanity back, giving them something we can empathize with, if not agree with.

What are YOUR thoughts on Mersault?

[twoskeletons.livejournal.com]

Yeah I've read Good Omens before and liked it. I was wondering if Kripke was gleefully blatantly referencing Good Omens (which... I am not putting above him), or if the name has significance elsewhere.

<3333 yay thank you thank you! I am also looking at the authors you recced me in your post. I wonder how long I'll go before writing SPN fic. I wonder how long before I

Sometimes Dean thinks he can see Castiel's wings. They whisper in and out of this world like shadows or other tricks of the light. In fact they probably are just tricks of the light, but if they're not, it wouldn't be the first time Dean sees deeper through Castiel than Castiel lets him. Castiel may have an intimate knowledge of the cosmos, but the devil is in the details, and in his vessel's involuntary human twitches and hitches in breath. It's the little things that stick out. For a split second, Dean thinks he sees the outline of wings against the wall, but all he has to do is close his eyes and Castiel is compressed into details once more: warm skin, wet breath, and the low rasp of his voice calling Dean's name.


...?!?!???

[be-themoon.livejournal.com]

SAVING PEOPLE HUNTING THINGS. whoooooo! haha, don't worry about it! I spend a great deal of my energy drawing hearts around Castiel/Dean too, and around the idea of Sam as rolling his eyes and making them just kiss already, guys. father issues!

(you totally have plot bunnies. mwahahaha!)

Castiel and Dean totally did it many times after Cas's being mortalized. oh yeah. FOR SOLACE. of course! and then they crumble, omg. and Dean is willing to sacrifice Castiel! and 99 to 1 Cas KNOWS it's a trap - he knows Dean's plan. because Cas may not be an angel but that doesn't mean he's not really freakin' brilliant. (it was totally amphetamines. I think? he said something about them in the car ride.)

hahahahaha! and yeah, Crowley is TOTALLY a reference to Good Omens. like... 99% sure. (also. War had a red mustang.)

[twoskeletons.livejournal.com]

Haha, soooo many fics where everyone thinks Cas and Dean need to be hit with a clue-by-four (lol new vocab from fic! educationaaaaal). Everyone being like, "JUST MAKE OUT ALREADY."

I have so many plot bunnies already! Can I exorcise them unto you?!
-- five times Sam didn't walk in on Dean and Castiel having sex
-- Castiel gen about him loving humanity and creation throughout the ages
-- Anna/Castiel! Dude, she was all like *TOUCH TOUCH* in 4x16 and the look on Cas's face was gold. So we get sexuallyclueless!Cas, but Anna at least grew up human so she knows how to work this thing, and as she unbuttons Castiel's shirt, she says, "Just relax."
-- Sam/Castiel, jealousy and emotional displacement, though I'm not sure on whose part. Maybe Dean gets kidnapped or something and Sam and Cas have to rescue him.
-- fallen!Cas/Dean 5x04 obligatory episode tag
-- post-Castiel Dean/Jimmy awkwardness
-- Chuck's unpublished Supernatural snippets, plus creator angst
-- Becky and the continuing destruction of the fourth wall
-- hunters and demons in Camelot!

I think that's it? GOOD GOD. SUDDEN ONSET SPN FANDOM. Save meeeeee.

Apparently Kripke is a Gaiman fan, so that makes sense. XD This show is stuffed with shout-outs.