31st March 2022

Merlin Post Season 5 Finale Fic Recs – The List

Fascination Frustration D&C Supporting Material, Destiny & Chicken 7 Comments

Click here to listen to the podcast episode

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As mentioned at the top of the episode, see friend of the Podcast Katherynefromphilly’s fics here:

And like the cycle of the year, we begin again

The Return of Magic (upon dragon’s wings)

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A Fool for Lesser Things – anonymous (? fic exchange)

PG-13, 2750 words, no warnings

Summary: History has this odd habit of repeating itself. It’s a trial and error sort of thing.

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A Promise – riventhorn

662

In which Arthur has woken up and Merlin is heart breaking trying to make tea.

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Accidental Memory in the Case of Death – derryere

Warnings angst, dubious lots of stuff characters not making good decisions. 75.5K

Tony O does not befriend losers. Tony O is not gay, not crazy, he is not particularly nice and he is most definitely not royalty. Destiny disagrees.

Basically, this fic is the kind of madness you get when you mix reincarnation with denial, doubt, ust, the stupidity of awkward boys and the past in general. And trains! A lot of trains

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After Albion – nonisland

No warnings, 1581

Its time for Arthur to wake up.

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All In the Timing – mad-poetics 

NC-17, 5600 words

((Master Post – 6 parts – 50’000 words total – https://mad-poetics.livejournal.com/4880.html))

Summary: Merlin and company have been reborn over and over, but things aren’t quite the same this time around.

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Awake by Cori Lannam (corilannam), phoenixacid

Warnings for sexy times, war discussion, global disaster discussion 50735

King Arthur sleeps in Avalon, waiting to return at the hour of Albion’s greatest need. But once a year he awakes and spends a single day with Merlin, who will never, ever leave him.

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Cough Medicine for the Eternally Young – nagi_blue

Gen, 950 words

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Dandelion – Tinylilremus

3722

The routine has been the same for centuries: Arthur begins a new life in wherever they are in time, he and Merlin meet, Merlin’s memory spell lifts, Arthur’s memories eventually flood back, the idiot has a chuckle at his expense, hugs him senseless and then cries for a bit when it hits him that Arthur’s really with him again. After that they pick up from where they left off until Arthur’s life in that time ends and it all starts again in his next life.

Except this time, when Merlin’s memory spell proves too strong to be lifted simply by their meeting, Arthur is forced to win Merlin over the hard way: with small-talk and dandelions.

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Destiny That Darkly Hides Us – nympha_alba

Warning war 40,500

Historical AU with magic. It’s 1913, the practice of homosexuality is unlawful, so is the practice of magic. When Arthur Pendragon and Merlin Emrys meet as Cambridge undergrads, they are both hungry for a real and true connection without secrets. For a short time they believe they may have found it. But war breaks out and separates them, and it seems unlikely that they will meet again. After all, what are the odds?

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Do Not Go Gentle – kianspo

No warnings, 5389

Post-finale future fic, reincarnation.

Sometime around the end of the eighteenth century, he starts using his name again.

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Firsts For Everything – bevinkathryn

Mature, 9300 words 

Sometimes, people seem to forget, in all this fighting for equal rights, that ‘gay couples’ are just ‘couples’. Merlin and Arthur, and a first-time hundreds of lives in the making.

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History Books Forgot About Us – TheAvalonian

Teen and Up, 5367 words

Summary: The world remembered the legend. Merlin was beginning to forget the man. Thousands of years later, Merlin is still waiting, but he is beginning to wonder if Arthur will ever actually come back to him.

Post-finale reincarnation fic. Angst, but with a happy ending.

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I Keep Going Over the World We Knew (Over and Over) – Mellacita

53153

When Merlin Emrys is sent on a ’round-the-world assignment, he begins remembering a life of magic, dragons, and kings. To make matters worse, a strange woman starts stalking him along the way. And that’s before he even meets Arthur Pendragon, whose answer to climate change is going to save the world. Because apparently just saving Britain won’t be enough this time around.

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Journey Into The Interior – Prox (Amber)

NC17, 10000 words, Warning for mild consent issues inherent in prostitution written in a way that could be triggering 

Merlin works in Camelot Massage Parlour, London. This is where Arthur finds him. | ‘Arthur’ chokes and flushes, as though they’re not standing in an erotic massage parlour, as though ‘Arthur’ doesn’t have a copy of Penthouse held loosely in one hand. “I’m hardly trying to pick you up, Merlin.” He chuckles a little bitterly. “Look, d’you really not know who I am?”

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Melvin – aleathiel

PG, 750 words, angsty

He waits

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Men for all Seasons – new_kate

War violence torture – 55637

Reincarnation story set in 1940. In Albion’s hour of need Arthur is brought back from his rest in Avalon. He learns that the world is at war, and that the enemies have dark magic at their disposal. With the help of the mysterious Vril society the invaders are about to gain air superiority and become unstoppable. Only Merlin could fight the new magical threat, but Merlin has been missing for a long time.

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Nineteen – kickflaw

Explicit, 2000 words

Arthur is too old for this.

Note: Written for this Kink Meme prompt: Arthur/Merlin, years into King Arthur’s reign. Merlin is immortal. As a result, he has stopped ageing physically ever since he came of age (or he simply ages at an incredibly slow rate)

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Our Habit of Dreaming – alicephantomwise

Teen and up, 2200 words, Warnings: Flangst; sort-of-but-not-really infidelity (Arthur/other); references to past character death; reincarnation; sex

In which Arthur is reborn and Merlin remembers how to live

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Permanent Press – Mizufae

Mature, 3200 words

How the primary branch office of Pendergast Conglomerated International came to be located in Earldin Village (pop. 600).

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Possibly Maybe I’m Falling For You –  lady_ragnell

Teen and Up, 14000 words

Merlin walks into his favourite coffee shop one morning to find the Prince of Wales behind the till. His life only gets more surreal from there.

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Postremus Regum Britanniae or The End of the World and What Came Next – definewisdom /

Warnings: Character death , violence, swearing, 59,500

As Newton’s Third Law of Motion states: ‘For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction’. For years the world of ‘reality’ has pushed away the ideas and creatures of magic, forcing them back. Now magic has returned bringing with it chaos and nightmares and the only person who can reunite the worlds of reality and the supernatural is the Once and Future King. However, Destiny has lost its way and a small group of complete strangers (or so they think), guided by a mad woman, are left to search for the only weapon that might save them. But without their memories to help them they’re off the beaten track. Here there be dragons.

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Room 20 – Astolat

Explicit, 980 words Warning: dubious consent regarding reincarnation memory loss

The parking lot behind Camelot looked safe and ordinary again in the midday sun, just cracked asphalt and a couple of beat-up old cars.

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Standing Alone, Waiting – Giselleslash

Major Character Death, but it is Arthur, 3702

Merlin grieves at his mother’s. Arthur awakes over and over until he and Merlin are rewarded.

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Steam – new_kate

40,588

Renaissance-era Steampunk reincarnation AU featuring brilliant engineer Prince Arthur, his savant mechanic Merlin, a robot bird, and an evil mecha.

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still the new world – normalhumanbein 

R, 5500 words

merlin loses arthur in time. it’s easier than asking to have him hidden. 

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The Apprentice’s Tale – treacle_tartlet

NC-17, 10500 words

Merlin, in the wake of his breakup with Will, allows himself to be dragged off to the Midsummer Festival, an annual week-long SCA camping event run by the Barony of Camelot. Here he meets Arthur Pendragon, Prince of Albion –handsome, popular, and a complete prat. Merlin hates Arthur, Arthur hates Merlin; it is all perfectly simple, until it isn’t anymore.

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The Heart You Call Home – alby_mangroves

16,368 Mature – Themes of depression, attempted suicide (historic)

Yet another autumn wanes and Merlin is tired. He wishes he could sleep through it, cover himself in leaves and hibernate until the world crumbles to dust, and he with it, the point of anything long since gone. And then, he finds a book whose author writes stories he doesn’t remember are his own.

This story features themes of depression and survivor guilt, experienced by Merlin at having lived through centuries as the last of his kind in every way. There is mention of an unsuccessful past suicide attempt. I have not warned for Major Character Death because Arthur’s canonical death is not directly written about or discussed, however, it is implied and assumed as known to have happened.

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The Student Prince – FayJay

Mature, 145000 words

A Modern day Merlin AU set at the University of St Andrews, featuring teetotal kickboxers, secret wizards, magnificent bodyguards of various genders, irate fairies, imprisoned dragons, crumbling gothic architecture, arrogant princes, adorable engineering students, stolen gold, magical doorways, attempted assassination, drunken students, shaving foam fights, embarrassing mornings after, The Hammer Dance, duty, responsibility, friendship and true love…

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The White Dragon of Camelot – flypaw 

PG-13, 9000 words

Contains spoilers for 4×04.. A dragon egg can remain unhatched for a thousand years, but it takes many more for a dragon to grow. This is the story of Aithusa from birth to the dawn of Albion as the white dragon to guide Camelot towards its golden age.

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This Living Hand – apocryphal

Teen & Up, 3750 words, Major Character Death

Arthur was supposed to lie in wait for England’s moment of need, but it never came. It never will come. So instead, Merlin’s bringing him back for his own moment of need.

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Unable are the Loved to die – anonymintea

Teen and Up, 15000 words

“Will he live?” Arthur asks, and curse the stupid tremble in his voice. Arthur’s lost men in battle before. Good men, honorable men, well before their time. But Merlin isn’t a knight, or a soldier. He’s… Merlin. Brainless, foolish, inept, devoted, kindhearted, courageous Merlin.

(Lovely inclusion of Beltane, that led me to further reading, including the Beltane Fire Society of Scotland, who cancelled its on-site event due to COVID and instead recorded a pre-taped performance.) 

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We’ve been down that road before – soniclipstick (veriscence)

some sexytimes 5324

Arthur and Merlin have a marriage and then Merlin remembers.

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What I’m Looking For – Lou Angel

2,567

Arthur isn’t supposed to remember that he’s lived before. But this time, he does.

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What We Tell Ourselves (the ‘painting will make them want you but not love you’ remix) – Emjayelle

NC-17, 4800 words,

Five lifetimes. Five centuries. But only two constants: art and Arthur.

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you have a one-track mind like me – Anonymous

R, 3200 words, Slight angst that comes with immortality

For small creatures such as we, the vastness is bearable only through love. Or, four discoveries that shattered Merlin’s world and one that didn’t, not really, when he thought about it.