"[Character] Has The Brain Cell."

Behold! Dragoon the Great pondering his orb!

I wonder, what secrets of the universe is he peering into?

Hello everyone! I'm back with another Merlin au! This one is a horror-themed au for spooky season! Enjoy!

This au is Inspired by the story of King Pedro I of Portugal and Ines de Castro (which is a heartbreaking story that deserves to have more people talking about it), and it's set in a world where Merlin and Arthur are already together in season 3. After a magic reveal gone wrong, Merlin's magic was revealed while Uther was still alive, leading to Uther ordering Merlin's execution while Arthur was away on a hunting trip. When Arthur returns, he's met with the news of Merin's death, but he refuses to believe such horrible news until he rushes into Gaius's chambers, screaming for Merlin, only to find Gaius and Gwen sobbing over Merlin's body.

Arthur is overcome by grief and, after a few hours sitting in Gaius's chambers staring at Merlin's unnaturally still form with tears streaming down his face, Arthur marches off to face his father, to make him pay for his crimes. Uther is, of course, furious over Arthur getting so worked up over a treacherous sorcerer, but Arthur fights him like a madman, fueled by grief and rage.

In the end, Arthur wins the duel, and while the shocked lords and knights watching the whole ordeal were expecting Arthur to run his father through with is blade, Arthur does something that no one expects. He uses his blade to carve open Uther's chest, cutting out his heart, saying that Uther had been so heartless as to take Arthur's love from him, this ought to be his fate.

While the lords and knights were all shocked and horrified at the display, there was little they could do besides acknowledge the prince as their new ruler. Within a couple days, Uther's funeral and Arthur's coronation were organized, but Arthur still felt numb, even as the crown was placed on his head. He could almost feel the empty consort's throne next to him, where Merlin was always supposed to be, mocking him viciously.

But then, an idea formed in Arthur's not-quite-sane-anymore mind. Merlin had always deserved to sit at his side, to be honored as any consort to a king should be. Arthur had to see this through, to ensure that Merlin received the honors that he was denied during life.

Arthur ordered the servants to, under Gaius's supervision, collect Merlin's body, dress him in royal robes, and have him carried to the throne room. There was no way to make any of this right again, no way to make Arthur feel whole once more, but there was a way to make sure that Merlin's memory and all that he meant to Arthur lived on.

When the doors to the throne room finally opened, shocked and horrified gasps rose up from the assembled court at the sight that awaited them. There, being carried in on a stone slab, lay Merlin's pale, prone body, dressed in royal finery from Arthur's own wardrobe. His colorless pallor against the rich red robes created a striking and distinctly disturbing contrast, which was only heightened by the colorful jewelry that accompanied the outfit.

Arthur imagined what a magnificent sight Merlin would have made if he were alive and yearned for such a vision with all of his heart. But the reality of the situation was as grim as the expressions of the knights carrying Merlin's body. Merlin was gone, taking Arthur heart and all of his joy with him, and all that was left for Arthur to feel was somber determination to make at least one thing right: Merlin would be honored and remembered as a king.

The crowd's shocked whispering didn't cease as the procession passed them and made its way towards the thrones, reverently placing the slab in front of the steps to the throne, but they were shocked into silence as Arthur picked up Merlin's body and cradled him gently before carrying him over to the consort's throne and placing him on it with the greatest care.

The court was silenced at the disturbing sight of a limp body sitting in the queen's throne, but horrified gasps shot up from the crowd as the king suddenly turned around to face them, his eyes bloodshot and glaring at them all.

"You, all of you, stood by and let my father do this! And now, you will show your respect to the man you had forsaken. Merlin was everything to me, and I never had any intention to rule without him by my side. Living or dead, if I am king, then so is he."

Arthur slowly made his way back to his own throne and sat down, a picture of royal power. His eyes darted over to Merlin for a second, before shifting back over the crowd. Still, was it just Arthur's desperate imagination, or was there now a slight flush in Merlin's skin that wasn't there earlier?

"Just as you all knelt before me and took an oath of fealty, you will do the same for him. You will give him all of the honor he deserved in life."

At first, the lords in attendance just looked at him in utter disbelief, but the fierce glare Arthur sent them confirmed that the king was being entirely serious. Slowly, each of the lords knelt before the consort's throne, not daring to look up at the disturbing sight before them, and recited their oaths of fealty, feeling the king's burning gaze on them all the while.

Finally, after all of the lords had taken their oaths, a pale Geoffrey presented Arthur with the consort's crown, a treasure that had not been seen by anyone since Ygraine's passing. Arthur gingerly lifted the crown and made his way over to Merlin.

As he stepped closer, Arthur wanted to weep. Perhaps it was some cruel trick his mind was playing on him, put it looked like Merlin's color had returned to him, making him appear like he was only sleeping, like he would wake up and everything would be fine again.

Taking a steadying breath to hold his tears at bay, Arthur finally stepped right in front of Merlin, holding the crown over his motionless head. It wasn't fair, Arthur decided. It wasn't fair that Arthur had finally become king, was finally in a place where he could openly profess his love for Merlin, but Merlin wasn't here by his side to see it!

Still, he could let everyone else see his love for Merlin. Slowly, he lowered the crown onto Merlin's head, letting rest on his limp head. Arthur took a shaking step back, trembling with rage and grief as he looked at Merlin, bedecked in royal robes and wearing the crown that Arthur had always longest to give him. Arthur's own mind still mocked him, making Merlin look almost alive again, like he was only sleeping, when Arthur when that Merlin was gone, and all that was left of him was this pale, empty shell and a terrible hollowness in Arthur's chest where his heart was supposed to be.

Arthur tenderly gasped Merlin's chin, tilting his head up to face him. This was goodbye, Arthur knew it. After this, Merlin would be laid to rest with all the honors of a king, and Arthur would be left ruling over his kingdom alone and heartbroken for the rest of his days. With tears flowing freely down his face, Arthur leaned down and pressed a kiss onto Merlin's lips. Once again, Arthur's mind took pity on him, as he could swear that Merlin's lips were warm with life under his own.

Arthur drew back, gazing at his love's face for what might be the last time, attempting to commit every minute detail to memory, such that Merlin's likeness would never fade from his mind even as the years went by. As Arthur eyes scanned over Merlin's face, however, there was one thing that struck him as odd before his mind caught up to what he was seeing and his heart, which had felt cold and frozen fir days, started beating at a frantic rhythm.

Because Merlin's eyes were open.

(Yes, Merlin was immortal the whole time, but his magic was just taking a while to heal him lol!)

And that's all for now! I hope you all enjoyed this au! Let me know if you'd like to see a continuation!

And, as always, thank you for reading through my ramblings! :D

An AU where Arthur knows about Merlin’s magic and is utterly amazed by his powers.

Regarding the archeologist!merlin AU I’d love to see it on AO3, and while I’m a big fan of angst I’d love to read either direction the story takes. I’m just wondering if maybe you could include the translation in brackets or something throughout the text? Scrolling back and forth kind of takes me out of it, but I totally get it if you prefer the stories as is! Thanks for sharing it to begin with!

Hi! I've gotten some feedback on putting the translations at the bottom, and I've decided that I will put the translations throughout the text when I put this au on ao3. This au was my first time working with dialogue in other languages, so I was a little lost on where to put the translations to begin with 😅. Thank you for your feedback and your patience! 😊

Oh, this is one of my favorite Merlin fic tropes. I'd read (or write, if I had enough time and caffeine) a thousand of fics involving this specific story element and I'd never get bored! I love fics exploring all of the possibilities of god-of-magic Merlin SO MUCH!!

(As my readers on ao3 can probably tell, based on the relative words counts of my Merlin fics. 😅 A certain fic of mine centered around this premise is much longer than the others lol!)

I legit need this fandom to refer to Merlin as “god of magic” more often, I desperately need it.

Nice. I think that's the perfect spot for him! 😉😂

TV Fictional Characters

The Pines & Friends supremacy continues.

Bill Cipher | Gravity Falls

Alastor | Hazbin Hotel

Anthony J. Crowley | Good Omens

Aziraphale | Good Omens

Stanley Pines | Gravity Falls

Stanford Pines | Gravity Falls

Lucifer Morningstar | Hazbin Hotel

Evan Buckley | 9-1-1

Mabel Pines | Gravity Falls

Dipper Pines | Gravity Falls

Dean Winchester | Supernatural

Edmundo Diaz | 9-1-1

Charlie Morningstar | Hazbin Hotel

Fiddleford McGucket | Gravity Falls

Lestat de Lioncourt | Interview with the Vampire

Louis de Pointe du Lac | Interview with the Vampire

Castiel | Supernatural

Eddie Munson | Stranger Things

Armand | Interview with the Vampire

Steve Harrington | Stranger Things

Daniel Molloy | Interview with the Vampire

Will Graham | Hannibal

Colin Bridgerton | Bridgerton

Penelope Featherington | Bridgerton

Tommy Kinard | 9-1-1

Hannibal Lecter | Hannibal

Zuko | Avatar: The Last Airbender

Rhaenyra Targaryen | House of the Dragon

Edwin Payne | Dead Boy Detectives

Leonardo | Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

Alicent Hightower | House of the Dragon

Danny Fenton | Danny Phantom

Charles Rowland | Dead Boy Detectives

Donatello | Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

Aemond Targaryen | House of the Dragon

Vox | Hazbin Hotel

Husk | Hazbin Hotel

Sam Winchester | Supernatural

Spock | Star Trek

Twilight Sparkle | My Little Pony

Rafe Cameron | Outer Banks

Katara | Avatar: The Last Airbender

Jax | The Digital Amazing Circus

The Fifteenth Doctor | Doctor Who

Aegon II Targaryen | House of the Dragon

Spencer Reid | Criminal Minds

Sokka | Avatar: The Last Airbender

Aang | Avatar: The Last Airbender

Fluttershy | My Little Pony

Michelangelo | Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

The Tenth Doctor | Doctor Who

Adam | Hazbin Hotel

Dr. Gregory House | House MD

James Wilson | House MD

Donna Noble | Doctor Who

Pinkie Pie | My Little Pony

The Fourteenth Doctor | Doctor Who

Raphael | Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

Mike Wheeler | Stranger Things

Rainbow Dash | My Little Pony

Will Byers | Stranger Things

Stede Bonnet | Our Flag Means Death

Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir | Miraculous: Tales of Ladybug & Cat Noir

Edward Teach | Our Flag Means Death

Megatron | Transformers

Joel Miller | The Last of Us

Rarity | My Little Pony

Marienette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug | Miraculous: Tales of Ladybug & Cat Noir

Arthur Pendragon | Merlin

Agatha Harkness | the Marvel universe

Ellie Williams | The Last of Us

James T. Kirk | Star Trek

Optimus Prime | Transformers

Cooper Howard | Fallout

Sherlock Holmes | Sherlock

Ruby Sunday | Doctor Who

Daemon Targaryen | House of the Dragon

Luz Noceda | The Owl House

Helaena Targaryen | House of the Dragon

Bobby Nash | 9-1-1

Anthony Bridgerton | Bridgerton

Claudia | Interview with the Vampire

Rose Tyler | Doctor Who

Loki Laufeyson | the Marvel universe

Sun Wukong | Lego Monkie Kid

Niko Sasaki | Dead Boy Detectives

Sally Jackson | the Percy Jackson universe

Jacaerys Velaryon | House of the Dragon

Rio Vidal | the Marvel universe

Nightcrawler | the Marvel universe

Simon Petrikov | Adventure Time

Rosie | Hazbin Hotel

Izzy Hands | Our Flag Means Death

Howard "Chimney" Han | 9-1-1

Ahsoka Tano | the Star Wars universe

Omega | the Star Wars universe

Mobius M. Mobius | the Marvel universe

Wallace Wells | the Scott Pilgrim franchise

Hunter | the Star Wars universe

Gambit | the Marvel universe

This is a returning list! Yay!

There are some great Gravity Falls Communities over here, in case you're interested 👀

Ooh, I always love thinking about the implications of Arthur's soul being created by magic.

That's because we know that Merlin is magic itself! He's magic made human! Which essentially means that Merlin created Arthur's soul, even before he was born as a human.

Do you think that Merlin, on some level, recognized himself in Arthur the moment they met? That his soul and Arthur's were quite literally made from the same material? That Arthur is a part of himself in a literal sense, and he cannot be whole without him?

I just love all of the door that interpretation opens up for the story!

in the show’s lore if arthur is born “of magic” and therefore not “of uther” does that then make him only “of igraine” who bore him?

and then further, does that mean that, in truth, he is not related to morgana and she is the only “true” pendragon?

interesting i guess also that arthur was conceived in desperation for the pendragon line to continue and it was with his death that it ultimately ended heirless

i can hear the writers yelling being like you weren’t meant to think this hard about the show lmao

every aspect of arthur’s life being infected with tragedy hits as hard as the truck in the epilogue

anyway…as you were

Holy shit I am looking!! Am I looking respectfully? Hell no, I'm looking at him like this:

Okay, here's a hot and wet Merlin for your enjoyment. 😏

(Just forget about the context of the actual scene...😅)

I wasn't planning on posting this today, but this idea came to me today and I must share it! (I'm still working on my special au to celebrate two big tumblr milestones! Hopefully it'll be done by the end of the week!)

With all of the dehumanizing propaganda labelling magic users as "inhuman monsters" that Uther spread during the purge, people who are attracted to magic users are probably labelled as deviants. In Camelot, saying "yeah I'd bang a wizard" is considered completely taboo. But that doesn't stop people from fantasying about what they can't have.

This, of course, spawns a whole genre of steamy romance manuscripts featuring evil sorcerers kidnapping fair maidens and falling in love with them, powerful wizards seducing innocent princess with their dark magics, dark and broody warlocks tricking naive ladies into becoming their lovers through a devil's bargain, etc. These cheesy romance manuscripts are quite popular with the ladies of Camelot, as they have a forbidden aspect to them in both the owning of such stories and the material of the stories themselves. Plus, when you're a noblewoman trapped in a loveless political marriage, the fantasy of a dark and powerful magic user becoming enamored with them and stealing them away is quite the appealing fantasy.

To many people in Camelot, magic users become the ultimate forbidden romance fantasy, being (in their imaginations) secretive and powerful creatures who can use their magic to exert their will and their dark desires on their innocent victims.

The few people in Camelot who have actually slept with magic users don't help these rumors either, as they only add fuel to the fire. Gwaine certainly has plenty of stories to share about how much fun sorcerers and witches can be in bed with their magic, and the people in the tavern listen with rapt attention and furious blushing when he tells those stories.

But when tales of Emrys, the last dragonlord and the most powerful sorcerer to ever live, travel from the druids to Camelot? The wizard-fuckers in Camelot went wild.

Within a couple weeks, there were dozens of steamy (and VERY imaginative) romance novels and manuscripts written and passed around Camelot, all revolving around the mysterious and brooding warlock Emrys.

As people's dirty imaginations ran wild with what Emrys might be like, the general perception of Emrys became more and more ridiculous. According to some of these stories, Emrys was a seven foot tall brooding warlock whose magic made him irresistible, forcing people to succumb to his will.

Pretty much everyone in Camelot gets their hands on one of these manuscripts or hears about them. Gwaine has his own collection of them, which isn't too shocking to anyone, but, to everyone's surprise, Merlin starts collecting some of those stories too (to make sure that no one else gets their hands of such embarrassing material, but people just assume that he has some sort of kink). He even blushes whenever someone mentions them (out of mortification).

Eventually, Arthur finds out about his kingdom's dirty fascination with this Emrys guy because people kept teasing Merlin for his crush on Emrys. Arthur demands to know who Merlin has fallen for (for security reasons, of course, not because he's jealous). It's at that point that Gwen and the knights have to tell Arthur that his entire kingdom (including Merlin apparently) has been thirsting over a hot mysterious sorcerer that no one actually knows anything about.

Arthur almost blows up when he hears this, furious that his entire kingdom has been having dirty fantasies about a dangerous man who's most likely their enemy! And don't even get him started on how Merlin, his Merlin, has the audacity to be more attracted to this Emrys than Arthur himself! This is outrageous!

However, no matter how much Arthur tries to point out to Merlin that being attracted to Emrys is a bad idea and nothing will ever come of it anyways, he still keeps on catching Merlin with those dirty manuscripts about Emrys! (Because Merlin is still trying to secretly get rid of them all).

Eventually, Arthur gets frustrated enough that he'll try anything to get Merlin's attention away from Emrys. He thinks over how he could do that for a while, until one day he overheard two ladies of the court talking about how much they enjoyed it when their partners in bed roleplayed as a powerful magic user like Emrys, and Arthur begrudging came to a solution.

The next day, when Arthur catches Merlin reading a story about Emrys and blushing wildly again, Arthur clears his throat, looks a mortified Merlin dead in the eyes, and asks, "if I took you to bed and pretended to be Emrys while doing so, would that finally get you over your ridiculous attraction to this criminal of a sorcerer?"

Arthur was perhaps a bit too blunt in his delivery, as Merlin promptly started choking on air after Arthur's question in lieu of an answer, much to Arthur's annoyance. You see, as much as it would irritate Arthur to have to pretend to be another man, let alone an enemy sorcerer, in bed, Arthur had a plan.

Arthur obviously needed to rein in Merlin's lust before his servant did anything stupid (like fall into bed with an actual dangerous sorcerer), and what better way to do that than slake Merlin's lust himself? Truly, Arthur was the most generous king there ever was (ignoring his own rampant attraction towards Merlin). And once they were in bed, Arthur would prove to Merlin how great and how proficient a lover he is, and any thoughts of Emrys (or any man who wasn't Arthur for that matter), would be forgotten immediately in the face of how superior Arthur is!

Arthur mentally pats himself on the back for coming up with this genius plan as Merlin's coughing fit finally ends.

"Arthur, why on earth would you even ask that?!"

"Because you're clearly enamored with this sorcerer, so perhaps this will finally get that stupidity out of your system!"

They go back and forth like this for a while, until finally Merlin, to his own shock, agrees to Arthur's proposal. Arthur feels alight with victory for a few minutes, until he realizes that he'll have to learn how to act convincingly like a powerful sorcerer for one night. At that point, Arthur goes out to buy some dark robes for himself to hopefully get more into character, and even "studies" some of those spicy manuscripts to get an idea of what Merlin would be expecting.

Arthur barely managed to finish one of them from how scandalized he was at their contents. Why were these so popular with his subjects?! Still, Arthur soldiered on, reading more and more of the embarrassing romance manuscripts until he finally felt confident in what Merlin was looking for.

Of course, when the time came, Arthur was terrible at roleplaying as a sorcerer, but Merlin didn't mind one bit (most because Merlin was torn between laughing hysterically or being embarrassed beyond belief at at Arthur's poor impersonation of a poor interpretation of Merlin himself, so he decided to instead just enjoy being with Arthur).

And that's all for now! I'm thinking about doing a continuation of this later on, where Camelot (who's been thirsting over Emrys) learns that Merlin had been Emrys all along. Please let me know if you'd like to see that one day!

And, as always, thank you for reading through my ramblings! :D

Love when the twink goes twunk