Two Merlin recs

[marguerite_26]

[ART]
Two Sides of the Same Coin by mushroomtale Merlin/Arthur [WS]

A beautiful telling of the story of canon Merlin and Arthur. The words are lovely, the pictures are stunning.

[FIC]
It Takes Two To Tandem by ingberry (xfortytwo)
Summary: The one where Merlin has a tandem bike but no willing friends (or many unwilling friends, for that matter) and Arthur loses a bet to Gwaine.
- or affectionately known as bike!fic.

I really thought (given the topic) this fic was going to be toothache-inducing sweetness, but it was completely not that at all. The beginning, with Merlin so awkward and lonely, hopelessly socially clueless it made my heart ache. He has this bike which he loves and yet it's a bright blinking sign of "NERD" in the middle of the cool high school crowd. His interaction with Will (who is desperate to be part of that cool crowd and is moving further away from Merlin and closer to the popularity he desires) was so perfectly highschool it made my stomach knot. And Arthur, he's rude and unintentionally hurtful but also he loves the bike as much a Merlin and that makes for a wonderful premise.

ALSO: Tomorrow is the last day to sign up for merlinbb_rpf!

Comments

[clawdine]

Agreed completely for the fic rec! There's HS fic, and then there's HS fic done right. :D Merlin won me over with that bike, and then Arthur did with his earnestness. (and the whole surprise bringing him to the park.)

[marguerite-26.livejournal.com]

Love your new default btw. soooo pretty!!!!

and yeah.. this one was almost uncomfortable with how much I was brought back to highschool in that fic. But so lovely! Ing has an amazing way with words.

[clawdine]

Thank you! I love dragons, so I'll be keeping that theme. :P

She does. I love all of her other fics and am greedy for moar.

And thanks for the art rec too! That was so beautiful. *actually nearly teared up*

[otta-ff.livejournal.com]

Thanks so much for the art rec! Wow. Talk about stunning. And I agree wholeheartedly about bike!fic. It wasn't at all what I was expecting and I adored it.

[marguerite-26.livejournal.com]

I'm so glad you liked that art. God. So pretty!!!

It wasn't at all what I was expecting
LOL. yeah. I was sort of expecting Merlin and Arthur crack signing 'On a bicycle built for two'

;)

[xfortytwo.livejournal.com]

:33 You slaaay me.

You have noo idea how relieved I am about the Will part. jfgnjfk. I spent so much time going 'omg Will is a dick, Will is being a dick' XD And one of my betas said 'Will is being kind of dickish. Is that your intent? If it isn't, you might need to look into it.' So I had to like sit back and think 'did I want Will to be dickish?' And I came to the conclusion that I guess I kind of did because, you know, I had friends like that in High School/jr High. It wasn't even that they were terrible friends per se, it's just that we were all being all...teenagery. <.< >.>

/rambleramble

[marguerite-26.livejournal.com]

<3

Will... I think it was a brave choice because fandom often has this 'no character bashing' rule. Which is good! and serves a good purpose of not randomly (and completely OOC-ly) turning a character into an asshole/evil bitch just because you happen to not like them (or they have the unfortunately predicament of being in a canon relationship with the one you love).

BUT in all the 'don't ever bash ever' rules we also need to remember to write characters that are faulted. And Will was faulted (both in canon and here). He drove me nuts because he was so perfectly THAT FRIEND. That friend who isn't evil but is a selfish teenager and sees his happiness places that are not at Merlin's side. He doesn't MEAN to hurt Merlin, but he manages to, time and again.

And it's not like you had him killed by a swarm of bees for being a bit of jerk, but he got a bit of a eye opener seeing Merlin through other people's eyes which was perfectly satisfying, and completely realistic.

/my own rambleramble

[xfortytwo.livejournal.com]

It's a difficult line sometimes with portraying flaws and not being overly unfair in the portrayal of said flaws XD I feel like Uther especially can get really difficult like that, sometimes!

LOL swarm of bees XD *insert Eddie Izzard reference*

[ellecc.livejournal.com]

I liked that Will was a dick. It was realistic. High school kids can be real assholes, even to their best friends--shit happens. I'm generally a pretty big Will fan and love when he's used well and prominently, and I didn't like him any less here because of his behavior :) It fit.

[xfortytwo.livejournal.com]

Oh man, it's so true, they really can. And not even on purpose, either, it's just what teenagers are half the time. I'm sure I was an asshole to someone too without even meaning to be XD

♥

[clawdine]

Just coming in here to say that I completely empathised with both Will and Merlin in this story! Even if Will were a dick, he did try to get someone to ride Merlin's bike with him, after all. :)

[ellecc.livejournal.com]

TY for the Tandem rec! Someday (2 weeks according to AO3, yeehoo), I'll actually have an AO3 account, and I'm assuming you can follow people or track them or whatnot and actually be alerted when they post things. But until then, I'm kind of in the dark on new stuff. So, extra thanks!

[marguerite-26.livejournal.com]

PM me your email address!!!! I have an invite code!

[giselleslash.livejournal.com]

I have so much love for xfortytwo's fics. I'm so thrilled she's writing in Merlin fandom now. This was so damn perfect, ugh, I loved it.

[red-cortina.livejournal.com]

Cheers for the fic rec! Sweet, but not too sweet, and as you say, very teenage.