I had a super busy weekend (anevivi was here! I got to meet mklutz, who is awesome!), and everyone is on vacation, so it's crazy busy at work as well. That's why I decided to come in 20 minutes late so I could finish Doctor Who this morning, and why I am making this post instead answering emails. Model employee, say what.

( Merlin 2x08 )

( Doctor Who: The Waters of Mars )

So it's still been forever since I've updated with anything substantial, but at least I come bearing gifts?

If anyone wants a Google Wave invite (sorry, not AO3 invites, I wish!), I've got seven five one left. Comments are screened, so please leave your full email (no username(at)whatever(dot)com business, if you please). First come, first served. Also, the invites take a few days to go through apparently, just so you know.

Sooooo, it's been a while since I posted. I guess I've just been feeling a little quieter about fandom lately. But I am trying to keep up with my flist. So hi!

In other news, someone should probably stop me from signing up for Yuletide. I've come up with some hastily gathered statistics for the Con side:

Fic Challenges merelyn Has Signed Up For: dunno, a few maybe during fits of delusion
Fic Challenges merelyn Has Completed By Deadline: 0

On the other hand, I've been thinking a bit lately about my writing habits (or lack thereof) and I do want to get better about writing more, because I think my problem is not so much that I can't write, it's that I don't write, or that I'm easily distracted/intimidated/lazy/whathaveyou.

Maybe I need to check out Write Or Die or something like that. At the very least I am attempting wrisomifu this month, because the FAIL is kind of a given, and that's how I roll.

Aaaand there was no point to this entry. How are y'all doing?

Busy weekend, j_apollo visited me (yay) but now I have a lot to do at work today since I've got a grand jury duty summons tomorrow (all together now: BOOOOOOO). Also I'm tired and everyone else has Columbus Day off and there's a run in my stockings and my soul is basically like THIS.

BUT. LOOK WHAT APPEARED ON MY FLIST TO MAKE MY MONDAY BETTER:

The Little Vulcan by ayalesca (Gen: Spock with Kirk and McCoy, G)

Yes. It's the Trek/Little Prince fusion fic that seems so necessary and obvious in retrospect. ayalesca perfectly blends the two stories, and oh my heart you will absolutely love Spock in this story. I also adored how she did Bones. And if that wasn't enough, the story is accompanied by three completely goregous watercolor illustrations by mangotrills. I am going to go back and hug this charming and lovely fic to my chest as further protection against Mondays.

With September coming to a close so is my month reccing Merlin fic over at the crack_van. Some of these have been recced in my lj before, some haven't, but I thought I'd put all the links up here in one post for my own reference. All twelve are worth a read (or a re-read) by the way!

Crack Van Recs

♥ Millions of Peaches by dsudis (Arthur/Merlin, PGish) recced here.

♥ On Swefnum, Incuthra Eorthan by srin (Gwen/Morgana, PGish) recced here.

♥ Amour Courtois by shetiger (Uther/Morgana, NC-17) recced here.

♥ Three Castles by rageprufrock (Arthur/Merlin, PG-13) recced here.

♥ Sometimes I Forget I'm Still Awake by paperclipbitch (Arthur/Gwen, PG) recced here.

♥ Be Resigned by franticsga (Arthur/Merlin, NC-17) recced here.

♥ Don't Be Sorry by sparky77 (OT4, PG) recced here.

♥ In Time of Trial by shinetheway (Arthur/Merlin, NC-17) recced here.

♥ Easy There by syllic (Arthur/Merlin, NC-17) recced here.

♥ in omne tempus by giddygeek (Gwen/Morgana, R) recced here.

♥ A Little Knowledge by bluflamingo (Morgana-centric, PG) recced here.

♥ Beltane by astolat (Gen, PG) recced here.

( I got to see FlashForward last night! Spoilery, but mostly vague general stuff. )

Overall, it was solid and enjoyable and the cast is awesome and I will probably watch more. Yay!


( And THEN guess what happened at dinner after? SLASH FEN, IT IS ALL TRUE, LEUPAGUS AND I HAVE COME TO TELL YOU ALL, GCHAT CONVO STYLE )

Yes, I missed yesterday, who's surprised?

1. Post about something that made you happy today even if it's just a small thing.
2. Do this everyday for eight days without fail.
3. Tag eight (or as many as you want) of your friends to do the same.


1. Because I was jonesin' for some vegan lemon poppyseed cookies from the Alternative Baking Company last night, I walked to Whole Foods. They were just as awesome as expected. I'm not vegan anymore, but these are the bomb. The first bite tastes like lemon tea and then it just gets better and better. anevivi can totally back me up on this, we got these like three times the last time she was up here.

2. I also got fruit at Whole Foods, which means blueberries, strawberries and kiwi for breakfast today! I love fruit. All fruit. FRUIT. If it were possible to live on fruit, wine and coffee without dying of malnutrition, high blood pressure and alcohol poisoning, I'd be there in a heartbeat.

3. And speaking of coffee, the cup I made myself this morning + soy creamer was the best I've had in a while. Mmm.

4. Also, I'm going over to rageprufrock's to watch SPN tonight and she's making dinner. This will of course be awesome. Also, there will be TGIFriday's dip from a box, which I think we can all agree is awes as well.

5. Not food related, haha- I'm wearing this skirt today, which always makes me want to twirl down the hallway in my office like a pretty ballerina princess. (I might have done this once while no one was looking. Maybe.)

krazykipper tagged me for this ages ago, but I'm so crap at memes, and well, it was a not a good time for it, let's say. Still isn't, maybe, BUT. Here goes. No promises on if I can actually do this for a whole week- *looks* no, wait, fuck, eight days?? Really??? Man, this is hard. D: RIGHT ANYWAY HAPPINESS:


1. Post about something that made you happy today even if it's just a small thing.
2. Do this everyday for eight days without fail.
3. Tag eight (or as many as you want) of your friends to do the same.


1. Gossip Girl was back last night! IMO the best part of Gossip Girl is reading Richard Lawson's recaps on Tuesday mornings. Richard riffs on this crazy/bad show with such daffy, snarky, brilliant hate and glee that whereas I used to read his recaps because I watched Gossip Girl, I now watch Gossip Girl so I can read his recaps.

Anyway, he used to be on Gawker, but he doesn't work there anymore, so I had to go put on my best girl detective hat and find him over on tv.com. His recap for last night is HERE and you should go read it if you watch. It certainly gave me the best choking-in-my-cubicle-so-I-don't-disturb-the-neighbors laugh I've had all week.

2. Thanks to work perks, I get to go to a talk next week with some of the editors from Entertainment Weekly about Fall TV. Yesssss.

3. Also, in the 'you'd think this would be a work perk but no, I do this in my free time' column, thanks to my faithful stalking of EW magazine, I also get to go to an advance screening of Flashforward with leupagus next Tuesday. John Cho! Dominic Monaghan! Some sort of time travel premise maybe I don't know don't really care!


Um, tagging, uh, whoever. (I fail at memes, did I mention?)

reel_merlin is live, guys!!!!!

My wonderful, awesome co-mod, krazykipper, who's done so much work for this round you don't even know while I've been lame and all punched in the face repeatedly by RL, kicks it all of with her Castaway-inspired fic here!

If all goes well, we should have a story a day for over a month. Woohoo!

Some day I will make a post that has something to do with something that aren't Home Depot 'verse. Tonight is not that night.

circa_eve came away from the fics feeling really really bad for Chris. And let's be honest, the entire Home Depot 'verse is basically an exercise in making Chris suffer in increasingly horrible ways with seemingly little promise of even getting into ZQ's yoga pants at the end. So...

circa_eve: MAYBE someone needs to write a little something extra from ZQs perspective. Some people might be interested in reading it. That's all I'm saying.
merelyn: YOU write it. Join the circle of shame. And you have to post it yourself because you have no one to blame but you.
circa_eve: NO.

(No Less Than Six Hours Later)

circa_eve: There! Done. Happy!?

So without futher ado, I bring you:

Home Depot: ZQ to the Future by circa_eve (Zach/Kate Pine/Evil and what we've run of out of movie sequel titles to riff on by this point geez WHAT DO YOU WANT FROM ME.)


On another note, reel_merlin is coming up soon! Get excited!

Just FYI the Home Depot cycle of SHAME is now complete:


Home Depot III by lillianloop (Chris/Zach/Outdoor Fireplace, PG) over on Pru's DW.


Now maybe we can make circa_eve write something from ZQ's POV.

I think this is actually going to have its own tag now that there are three stories.


First rageprufrock wrote Home Depot and leupagus posted it.


Then leupagus wrote Home Depot: The Outtakes and I posted it.


Then (wait for it, you can probably see where this is going) I wrote Home Depot 2: Electric Boogaloo and lillianloop (twentysomething on DW) posted it.


So yes. This is the first thing I've written in years, and it's an RPS Pinto-y fic sequel about a Home Depot where Chris is totally a lesbian and Zach has a thing for water landscaping. My life took a tragic turn somewhere.

Go read and then go over to lillianloop/twentysomething's and bother her about the next part that is inevitably hers.

Lots of reccing this morning!

*I started my month driving the crack_van for Merlin. My first rec is here if you want to take a peek. I kicked things off with dsudis's Millions of Peaches, which is worth a look (or another look if you've already read and enjoyed) for sure. :)



*ALSO leupagus posted ANOTHER CHAPTER OF THE VULCAN DETECTIVE FIC, which is still rich and compelling and awesome, even though the ending of this chapter will justifiably make you hate her for leaving it there.



*Lastly, lillianloop has posted the most amazing piece of ridiculous brilliance I have read in an AGE. It's a Merlin/Harry Potter fusion fic. (YES YOU READ THAT RIGHT.) And Merlin is like some unholy cross between Neville Longbottom and Bridget Jones. But it's awesome. I'm cackling to myself even as I'm writing this. Ahaha. GO NOW.

Merlin Emyrs and the Totally Gay Triwizard Tournament by lillianloop (Merlin/Arthur, other background pairings, PG-13ish)

He takes a moment to wonder how his life came to this pass, and he can pretty much nail it down to when he turned eleven years old and came downstairs to find Gaius having tea with his mother.

"You're a wizard, Merlin," Gaius had said.

Merlin thinks he was pretty much buggered from that point on, because all he had thought in that instant between "Well, that explains a lot," and his mother hugging him, was "I am going to get made fun of so much at wizard school."

\o/

The only quote left unguessed from the film quote meme was #1:

"As if a woman ever loved a man for his virtue."

It's from The Painted Veil, which is a movie that has the distinction of pushing an alarming number of my buttons all at once:

1. Period drama
2. British
3. Naomi Watts and Edward Norton
4. Naomi Watts' pretty 1920s clothes
5. Cinematography PORN
6. Unrequited love
7. Loveless marriage that turns into SOMETHING MORE
8. Tragic ending just when you think it's all going so well
9. Weeping weeping weeping
10. More weeping
11. Fuck I need a tissue this shit is sad
12. Etc.

In other news, today is so boring I'm reading het baby fic. Yeah. You read that correctly. Het. Baby. Fic. Someone save me.

Also, I totally forgot I signed up months ago to rec Merlin on the crack_van. Must go figure out stuff for that, aha. (Fuuuuuck.)

No actual content, just a meme. Gacked from janne_d and everyone else on my flist basically! I don't normally do memes, but I couldn't resist this one. A film quotes meme:

1. Pick 10 of your favorite movies.
2. Go to IMDb, and find a quote from each movie.
3. Post them here for everyone to guess.
4. Strike it out when someone guesses correctly, and put who guessed it and the movie.
5. No googling/using IMDb search functions.


1. As if a woman ever loved a man for his virtue.

2. I don't give a good fuck what you know, or don't know, but I'm gonna torture you anyway, regardless. is Reservoir Dogs, guessed by neptuneskisses (and also janne_d).

3. It'll belong to you because you've lived there. That was about to happen to me, but I didn't know it yet. is L'Auberge Espagnole or The Spanish Apartment, guessed by syllic.

4. I am a cure for lesbianism. is Imagine Me & You, guessed by marjorrogue.

5. When they find out who *you* are, they'll pad the cell. is Bringing Up Baby, guessed by sophieisgod.

6. That's depressing and it's expensive, two words I hate. You know the words I like? I like the word "peppy" and the word "cheap". Peppy and cheap. is from Soapdish, guessed by circa_eve, who has an unfair advantage.

7. I would sell my grandmother for a drink - and you know how I love my grandmother. is The Philadelphia Story, guessed by b_hallaward.

8. Right. That's why you were standing in the Chancellor's back yard twirling that little cap gun of yours tonight. You're fine, all right, you're fit as a fucking fiddle. is Wonder Boys, guessed by syllic (and also janne_d).

9. You know I'm going to be twenty-five in June? ... That's a quarter of a century, makes a girl think. is Some Like It Hot, guessed by ink_n_imp.

10. And thus the whirligig of time brings in his revenges. is Twelfth Night, guessed by circa_eve.


It's possible I erred on the side of vague in terms of the quotes themselves, but I can't tell. I like to assume that everyone has of course seen these as many times as I have.

Title: Homoe Depot: The Outtakes

Author: leupagus

Pairing: Chris Pine/paint cans, OFC-that's-suspiciously-like-rageprufrock/WHORETEARS

Summary: It's an outtake from THIS PIECE OF BUSINESS. Like the stuff that was too shameful for the first story. Think about that.

Warnings: This was written by leupagus, I take no actual responsibility.

Notes: All you need to know is that Chris Pine a lesbian and is building Zach a gazebo.

Other notes: Following the grand tradition of denial and pointing fingers, leupagus wants me to post this rather than her, because it's a rule now. Plus I kind of asked for this.



( If you're allergic to self-indulgence, take your shots before clicking. )

I've been all over the place this week, but in case you didn't already hear, puckling's got Week 2 of the Gwen/Morgana Thingathon going on! I wrote two snippet things for it last week, slightly inspired by Imagine Me & You, shocker. If my weekend's not too crazy I'm going to try to write some more for this week.

Gwen/Morgana Thingathon Week 2

Come play!

And while you're at it, merihn wrote some awesome porn and sophieisgod wrote something even more inspired by Imagine Me & You off of my modly prompt for this week!! Eeee! You should all GO READ IT and squee about it with us because IM&Y and Gwen/Morgana are two great tastes that taste great together. \o/ And then go read and write and comment on other stuff. Whee! Happy Friday!


(HOLY SHIT I'M SO LATE FOR WORK. AH. HOW DID THAT HAPPEN?)

I am so behind on LJ (and work! Like the thing I get paid for!) but I've spent way too much time this morning finding a new mood theme. (Farewell, Animated John and Rodney. You've served me well.)

IT'S AN IMAGINE ME & YOU MOOD THEME. BY nut_meggers. IT'S SO PRETTY. (AND PLEASE ADMIRE MY RESTRAINT IN NOT HAVING A KATIE MCGRATH/MORGANA ONE.)

YAYY. \o/

1. I woke up to 3 drunk posts on my flist this morning. I feel vaguely as though I have failed LJ by not doing the same, and I was even out drinking with fangirls last night. SORRY.

2. Things learned from Wilby Wonderful: face touching = Canadian first base.

3. Fun-running (it's like running but BETTER) across the street right before the light changes while rageprufrock and leupagus are shrieking behind you = still funny.

4. volsi is awesome and is going to help me paint my room this morning. I am making her strawberry banana french toast as a thank-you.

5. After which I will go see Julie & Julia with miripanda, and then we're going to come back here and watch Merlin.

In conclusion, good weekend all around. How are you guys?