Here and Nowhere Else
Title: Here and Nowhere Else
Author: freezerjerky/gaymerlinhell/pendragoff
Artist: Eviko
Pairings/Characters: Merlin/Arthur, Morgana, Nimueh, very minor Gwaine/Percy, Gwen, Leon, Hunith, Uther, Morgause, Mordred
Rating: E for sexual content
Word Count: 41,845
Warnings: Allusions to acts of terrorism and one scene were a character is in distress
Disclaimer: This is a cisswap/genderswap fic. Yes, Merlin and Arthur are girls. Yes, everyone else is approximately the gender they are in series (except for Gwaine, who is non-binary)
Author's notes: Since last year, I’ve had the idea rattling around in my head to do a cisswap ACBB. I knew that to execute this idea, I needed just the right artist...enter the lovely Evi. With the sweetest art and Evi’s love of soft and feminine (and typically female!) characters, I was really honored to match with such a person.
My starting point for this whole thing was to keep it simple: Modern Royalty AU. It stayed mostly simple, of course, but I really wanted to tie this fic into the real world and what it’s actually like for young people. Thanks for all the support on this labor of love- this has been the longest thing I’ve written to date, in fact, and one of my very favorite.
Artist's notes: From the start I was very excited about this project, It seemed made for me.(political story, angst and Fem merthur! oh my!) There are so many scenes i wanted to draw for it and it was a struggle selecting only a few. Lindsey has been a pleasure to work with even when i was not my best due to a family crisis and trying to finish my thesis. She had abundant patience and understanding when I was chronically distracted by RL. I hope that my artwork was able to capture some of her vision for this lovely fic. And I hope you enjoy the style I chose for it, which is not quite my normal style, I decided to go for a sharper style for the illustrations, keeping them monochrome and with crosshatchings, rather than softening them with colours or shading, kind of like a comic book or older style illustrations, I hope you enjoy them as you read this adorable and fun femthur fic."
Summary: "We've grown into what our fathers had planned for us to be and that makes it even more impossible." Forced into friendship for publicity at a young age, Merlin finds herself drawn to Arthur despite the fear of dishonoring her own father's memory. Arthur, the daughter of an unkind ruler, has her own issues to work through; seeing as the object of her affections has magic, the one thing her father hates above all else.
Story link: Here on Ao3
Art link: Here on Evi's Blog
