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

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.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

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.

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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.

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.

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.

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?

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

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