[BBC Merlin] You Swiped Right
Rating: Explicit
Word Count: 22,026
Pairings: Merlin/Arthur
Tags: Modern AU - Non-Magical, AU - Movie Fusion, Mistaken Identity, Texting, Anonymity, Friends to Lovers, Enemies to Friends to Lovers, Epistolary
Author's Note: I wrote this for Reel Merlin 2017/18. My film prompt was You've Got Mail, and this fic has been on my to-do list for ages, so I'm glad I finally got to write it.
What it has basically turned into is a kind of modern epistolary novel with narration thrown in (so, yes, not quite an epistolary, but at least half of one). Instead of letters or emails,
they send texts, which have been formatted with the help of a work skin to look like scrolling screencaps. (More about that at the end of this note.)
Also, given that You've Got Mail is loosely inspired by/based on Pride and Prejudice, this fic, too, is - theoretically speaking - a Jane Austen adaptation! Unfortunately I failed to put in any kind of references to that.
More notes on AO3.
Summary: Pendragon Books is to London's bookselling industry what Sauron is to Middle-Earth: Bad fucking news.
Merlin could also compare them to Voldemort and the magical world in Britain, or maybe the White Witch and Narnia, but no matter what analogy he picks, the point remains the same: Wherever Pendragon Books pops up with a new shop, existing businesses die a painful death, robbing their city of more and more personality and character. Therefore it comes as a bit of a shock when they're settling in right across the street from Merlin's bookshop, and Merlin finds out that Arthur Pendragon himself is gorgeous and unreasonably easy to talk to, and - worst of all - a bit of a nerd.
However, not only is Merlin most definitely not fraternising with the enemy, he's also already sort of dating someone. So what if it started on Grindr, and is only through text messages?
Link to fic:
On AO3 | As PDF [right click, save as]
This entry was originally posted at https://momo.dreamwidth.org/757060.html. Please comment there using OpenID.
Word Count: 22,026
Pairings: Merlin/Arthur
Tags: Modern AU - Non-Magical, AU - Movie Fusion, Mistaken Identity, Texting, Anonymity, Friends to Lovers, Enemies to Friends to Lovers, Epistolary
Author's Note: I wrote this for Reel Merlin 2017/18. My film prompt was You've Got Mail, and this fic has been on my to-do list for ages, so I'm glad I finally got to write it.
What it has basically turned into is a kind of modern epistolary novel with narration thrown in (so, yes, not quite an epistolary, but at least half of one). Instead of letters or emails,
they send texts, which have been formatted with the help of a work skin to look like scrolling screencaps. (More about that at the end of this note.)
Also, given that You've Got Mail is loosely inspired by/based on Pride and Prejudice, this fic, too, is - theoretically speaking - a Jane Austen adaptation! Unfortunately I failed to put in any kind of references to that.
More notes on AO3.
Summary: Pendragon Books is to London's bookselling industry what Sauron is to Middle-Earth: Bad fucking news.
Merlin could also compare them to Voldemort and the magical world in Britain, or maybe the White Witch and Narnia, but no matter what analogy he picks, the point remains the same: Wherever Pendragon Books pops up with a new shop, existing businesses die a painful death, robbing their city of more and more personality and character. Therefore it comes as a bit of a shock when they're settling in right across the street from Merlin's bookshop, and Merlin finds out that Arthur Pendragon himself is gorgeous and unreasonably easy to talk to, and - worst of all - a bit of a nerd.
However, not only is Merlin most definitely not fraternising with the enemy, he's also already sort of dating someone. So what if it started on Grindr, and is only through text messages?
Link to fic:
On AO3 | As PDF [right click, save as]
This entry was originally posted at https://momo.dreamwidth.org/757060.html. Please comment there using OpenID.