Paperlegends (+ the Arthurian kind)---signal boosts and Merlin plotting!
I just signed up for:
Signups are open until Feb 28th. You know you want to :)
I might be a wee bit nervous about doing this.
So this is what I posted for what I might possibly write about:
1) Pre-season 4 to early 4th season Merlin/Arthur fic which may or may not deal with a soulbond(as it relates to a Dragonlord) as Merlin and Arthur figure out what destiny, sacrifice, and honor means to them and the future of Albion.
2) Modern!AU with Merlin/Arthur that deals with a murder mystery---Detective Inspector Arthur Pendragon gets caught in up a serial murder case where messages are left in Old Welsh. A friend points him to Professor Merlin Emrys for help and even after their mutual dislike, Arthur finds him strangely compelling and it doesn't help that Emrys feels eerily familiar (on the fence if this ends up being a reincarnation fic or just simply alluding to possible reincarnation).
3) A Post- Season 5 Gwen-centric fic where Arthur didn't die and because of "destiny" ends up with Merlin (so M/A as a side-pairing)---"People idolize destiny, of the fated meeting of their soul-mate...but what people don't understand is that sometimes for that destiny to happen, everything else gets shattered...destiny cares for no one except for the means to an end...leaving a wide trail of carnage in its path. Because destiny is never really about love but about sacrifice." I do love destiny tropes, but because I've been thinking about Greek tragedies and this desire to flesh out Gwen's character this plot kind of popped into my head.
*For the first idea I'm still debating on the "plot" or rather the events that make up the story. Though in all honesty a magical!AU with somewhat of a similar canon would be really interesting to do too. I kind of think the soul-bond might be a bit cliched now.
**I've been thinking about writing a mystery!Merlin fic for about 6 mos now so I do have a sort of an outline. I was thinking about inter-cutting it with Arthurian works and juxtaposes it with similar events in the story...which would be fun but involves tons of research and careful plotting/pacing.
***For the third---it's mostly because I see either Gwen happily accepting it, being part of the OT3, or having to accept it but not really consenting. But none really deal with the ramifications particularly of that last scenario and after season 5 we can see she can be cool and calculating as a queen. It would be interesting to see how the dynamic evolved. But I want to write a happy story for PL and I can't see this story being very happy---rewarding yes, but not really happy.
So in general preparedness I'm rereading the T.H. White's The Once and Future King. Plus other works. Anyone want to rec their favorite Arthurian retelling?
Also I'm reccing for Merlin on crack_van this month. I'm hoping to pick at least one story for every Merlin fest since merlin_olympics. And maybe I'll get a chance to rec something from merlinreversebb since they start posting mid February. But keep an eye out :)
Oh and I wanted to signal boost one last thing today:
Rare Women Fic Excange---Nominations have opened up on AO3 today til the 7th. You can find the Rules and FAQs via the link.