#merlin wip

[mobycotton]

elaborating on this

1. arriving in the ‘new world’

- Arthur would be exhausted, both physically and mentally, and fighting not to get overwhelmed by the strange things all around him. He would isolate himself in a ‘safe place’ where, even though things are just as weird, it’s on a smaller scale and at least he can focus in on one thing that’s still familiar to him. He would take things in little by little, learn to accept that there are some things (and many of them) that he cant comprehend now, and maybe he never will, but freaking out won’t help his situation.

2. communication

- as a bilingual person, who entered the UK before I could speak a word of english, I relied on my one parent who was fluent in order to be understood, and with my large family, we fought for the attention to be translate, and translated to. Arthur would be relying on Merlin to do the same for him, but navigating the modern world takes energy and attention already, and so Merlin clarifies that he can’t explain everything as it appears, and Arthur will just have to pick what’s most pressing.

- Merlin was present as the language around him changed in real time. He understands it, is fluent in it, the new language feels more natural to think and speak in then the old one. This is a difficulty he needs to process as much as Arthur. It takes a few seconds to compose a response in his head to every one of Arthur’s questions, and then even longer to translate it in his head. Arthur still picks out inconsistencies in his speech and accent, he feels like the one thing he recognises is still changed, almost beyond recognition.

3. discomfort

- Arthur realises he is a burden. More so than he used to be. At least before, they understood each other. He could stand up for himself, didn’t need to be escorted around like a lost puppy. That’s how he feels. Even worse, Merlin’s responsibilities are doubled now, and paired with Merlin’s new life, the balance is almost impossible. On top of his job, his life outside of work and his home, he must make sacrifices in order to care for Arthur. Arthur feels guilty, wishes that he could be as competent as he once was, but what is there to do except learn?

- food. When I first moved, I was a child, barely comfortable with the small range of foods I grew up with, which were served at just about any house I visited. When I moved, a whole new range of foods was laid out before me, and I was overwhelmed. I didn’t like most of the things that young children go crazy for, but I was lucky not to have any allergies, and in a few years my diet changed to incorporate both foods from home and from my new home. Arthur won’t be as lucky. His medieval metabolism can only handle a few things, and even medicine might be dangerous. merlin sticks to a few safe foods from before - bread, cooked meat, vegetables, and milk. he makes these every day until Arthur is strong enough to experiment with new food, little by little, and build up any immunities he can, and identify any intolerances.

- sleep. Moving abruptly from a very rural place, where the whole street is dark and silent after sunset, all of a sudden to a place where cars are still running at midnight and streetlights cast light even through thick dark curtains, was a shock. I couldn’t sleep well for weeks, and it took a lot of time to adjust. So, going from one night sleeping in the silent castle in Camelot, all of a sudden to a busy city, would be almost impossible. It’s not only the light, and the noise, but overwhelmingly the feeling of everything moving, shaking with a constant vibration at all hours. It feels like an earthquake, deep below the earth, and every time a door closes it’s like the walls are shaking. Every footstep is like the floor is falling out from under him.

4. grief.

- I knew, when I moved countries, that there was no going back. even holidays wouldn’t be the same. I was supposed to become a different person, there was no stopping it. Missing out on my old friends growing up hurt, even when I was still young. It felt like grief in a way, knowing that I was robbed of so many experiences with the people I loved. But I had to learn to accept it, and let the new country foster my grief and my sense of loss. Arthur would be dealing with the same thing - feeling robbed of a happier life with the people he loved, and then losing them all at once. While they were still comfortably dead, though, he was thrust into a completely foreign life, almost alone. At least they died together. He had the worst fate of them all.

5. learning

- ending on a happier note. I moved when I was 8. I couldn’t read that well, even in my own language, after merely a year in school. My parents made me spend a summer reading, translating, and transcribing children’s books, the kind that english kids used to learn to read and speak at much younger stages. I felt silly doing them, writing out infantile rhymes for hours every day, but I came out of it able to read harder books, and in the end my reading age was higher than almost every other child in my class. The easiest thing to do was translating fairy tales and stories I recognised from my old language, it helped me identify words and phrases in both languages. Arthur figures out that this is a great help as well. Merlin finds him translations of original arthurian tales and legends, and keeps them side by side with the modern english versions. He switches between them for hours a day until he can at least read well in modern english. He feels silly celebrating such accomplishments, wielding simple, childish writing exercises, but progress has to be made.

#mobyspeaks #merthur headcanon #merlin headcanon #arthur pendragon #arthur revived #merlin fic #merlin wip #wip #ao3 fanfic #merthur fanfic

[nhyhu]

idk when this progress shot is from lol

#i am trying to clear my wips this is from *checks date* JULY???? #merthur #bbc merlin #merlin #arthur pendragon #this is one of those where if i ever have to work on this a minute longer i will explode but there is still so much more i can do :( #bbc merlin fanart #merthur fanart #got no description because i am bad at words and cannot think of one 👍 #my art

[forecast0ctopus]

“just….just hold me, please.”

merry christmas merlin fans o7

#rip king gone too soon #u guys just get a wip i never finished. bc i didnt draw anything recently lmao #bbc merlin #merlin #merlin fanart #arthur pendragon #bbc merlin fanart #merlin art #bbc merlin art #merlin bbc #diamond of the day

[myoonmii]

Merlin is trending for no reason again!! so here’s a silly little doodle I had of merlin picking Arthur up because he canonically can in s5

#merlin #merthur #bbc merlin #merthur fanart #Merlin fanart #doodle #this was never supposed to see the light of day #because I’m still struggling to figure out how I draw them #but merlin trending calls for dumpster diving into my wips to find something #arthur pendragon #merlin emrys

[raynecreates]

Sketches of the next frames I’m working on ~ ✨ Once they’re finished they’ll be available in my shop

#merthur #bbc merlin #merlin #king arthur #arthur pendragon #my wips #frames

[thearthurianlegend]

i’m writing for merlin soon i’m excited

#ellechats: #merlin wip #bbc merlin #merlin bbc #Arthur pendragon #morgana #gwaine #lancelot #gwen #guinevere #merlin

[wistfulvulpine]

take me with you

#bbc merlin #merlin emrys #arthur pendragon #merthur #merlin fanart #kit draws #you know how grief sits with you like an old friend #i have cuter wips i swear

[artmistersealy]

for when Albion's need is greatest

Arthur will rise again

#just a sketch and hopefully i get to finish it some day #just manifesting for arthur to wake up already and fix this world #merlin bbc #merlin #arthur pendragon #my art #sketch #art wip #artists on tumblr #drawing #art #merthur #okay also merlin is running towards him as we speak

[that-nerd-who-writes-fanfiction]

Remember that one scene where Arthur is training with Merlin and Merlin is fighting for his life while Arthur repeatedly knocks him on his arse? I can’t remember what episode but it was early in season 1.

I like to imagine Merlin starts being sarcastic with every hit in hopes it’ll piss Arthur off enough to storm off and leave him alone. It backfires when Arthur starts replying and it turns into a venting session.

Like, Uther said some dumb shit about Arthur? Merlin starts a fight about it.

The knights can’t follow orders? Merlin is disobedient enough that Arthur starts yelling about how dangerous it is when his men don’t follow orders.

Arthur’s feeling bad about someone he couldn’t save? Merlin makes him see why he’s doing enough by arguing with him about it and reminding him that he’s only human.

And Arthur knows what he’s doing, he catches on eventually and will occasionally walk up to Merlin, push his shoulder only enough to be annoying until Merlin stops whatever he’s doing, then Arthur will just say “Fight me.” and Merlin will either say something he knows will get Arthur angry or he’ll throw a punch he knows Arthur will block and they’ll start sparring. (Merlin learns to fight eventually, neither of them realise it’s happening until he sucker punches a bandit and he’s out cold)

Anyway, it becomes something they do to help Arthur vent his frustrations.

The best part? It works.

So Arthur sees Merlin upset. It goes on for about a week when Arthur realises what’s going on. He sits down next to Merlin on the floor one night, nudges his shoulder like he would if he wanted to fight, and says, “why are you upset? It’s not like you’ve got anything to worry about.” In a purposefully taunting way.

Merlin scowls and keeps working, and Arthur tries again, “Really. All you do is follow orders. It’s not hard.”

And so Merlin looks up, clearly angry until he sees what Arthur is trying to do, so he puts down what he’s doing and starts fighting back, “no, just exhausting when those orders are given by a prat.” Or “Maybe if I had a day off once in a while.” I don’t know, I suck at dialogue.

It goes on for a while, until they get too close to the issue, Merlin snaps, tells Arthur he’s a dick and sobs, yelling about magic, and the great dragon being manipulative, loosing his father, loosing Freya, Gaius lying to him about his father and thinking Uther is a good king and a good man, and literally everything else that’s gone wrong.

Arthur pulls him in and hugs him, then tells Merlin they’re fighting together from here on out. It takes a while, but they work it out.

There’s plenty of “fights” about Arthur feeling betrayed by Merlin keeping secrets and Merlin being mad at his situation in Camelot and then being frustrated that he can’t get himself to feel angry at Arthur (I’ve got a half baked character analysis for Merlin and Arthur’s codependency somewhere in my drafts. I’ll come back to it eventually.) but they’re okay and they figure it out and end up stronger for it.

I’m holding back on sharing the major character death/dark!Arthur angsty alternate ending for this, but let me know if you want to see it :)

Edit: Part 2 - (the angsty alternate ending)

#bbc merlin #merlin #merlin emrys #arthur pendragon #merthur #merlin bbc #headcanon #fic ideas #merlin fanfic #merlin fic #i’m bad at tagging #i'm procrastinating #another idea for a rainy day #said while it’s raining like that’s a rare thing here #another fic idea for when I don’t have other wips to finish first #fic writer #merlin x arthur #merlin and arthur

[ekingston]

DONT post morgana w/o warning!!! i will go FERAL

apologies anon but i’m not usually in charge of these things. case in point my current WIP:

clearly my brain is not done with her yet

#unfortunately she’s being unreasonably challenging #but that’s on me for insisting on color #merlin fan art #morgana pendragon #wip wednesday #ask me things! #anonymous #art by ekingston

[silverdrws]

most of my old merlin wip cause my hyperfixation left them for castiel and i’ll probably never gonna finish any of these

this is was so proud of the background but while i was drawing this i started watching spn

for my dark cryptid! merlin au

a scientist! merlin & creature! arthur

and a “arthur tries weird modern food” series

#merlin #merthur #fanart #silverdrws #art wip #merlin fanart

[notozthewizard]

Just two guys on a trip in the middle of nowhere. Enjoying fresh air and definitely not (affectionately) insulting each other

#Had to fight the perfectionist urge and declare it finished before I left it rotting in my wip folder forever #pretty happy with the outcome either way #bbc merlin #bbc arthur #merthur #merlin x arthur #arthur pendragon #merlin emrys #merlin fanart

[gyrhs]

Quick, Merlin is trending! I'm using it as an excuse to ask you to share a merlin doodle or old sketch or WIP :) anything as silly as you want to celebrate this random day :)

I'm working on a little merthur fancomic, so random panel of it :D

#ask me anything #merlin bbc #bbc merlin #merlin #arthur pendragon #fan comic #wip #gyrhs #merthur #king arthur

[magicinavalon]

Magic, knife wielding Elyan

Based on this lovely snippet of @queerofthedagger 's wip 'Till the Sun Comes Up (Daybreak) <33 it's so good I just had to draw him!! 😍

#based on a mona wip #elyan #sir elyan #my art #mia's art #merlin #bbc merlin #merlin bbc #merlin fanart #fanart #digital art

[pappelsiin]

“i’ll march for years on end,  and time befriend. i do intend, to find land’s end.” No.3, Cosmo Sheldrake

#merlin !! #merlin bbc #merthur #arthur #Arthur Pendragon #merlin emrys #the adventures of merlin #fanart #artists on tumblr #art #it took me ages but here it is!!!! #if this doesn't get as many notes as the wips i wILL cry okay #i was gonna add the timelapse too but tumblr doesn't let me do that for some reason #anyway #i'm rly proud of this one !!!!!

[merthurogies]

fine i gave merthur a baby

#i love drawing them so this won’t be the only art you see of their little family from me #i already have a couple more wips for this au that i’m excited about #bbc merlin #merlin #merlin emrys #arthur pendragon #merthur #merthur fanart #merthurbaby au #my art