Merlin Holidays

A million thanks to all of our amazing writers, artists, readers, and commenters who made this merlin_holidays one of the best yet! And one more special thanks to our pinch hitters digthewriter and lullabylily for helping save the day.

Just a reminder that if you haven't yet thanked your gifter, please do so ASAP! And remember that even though the holiday season has come to an end, all of this great fic and art will still be here waiting for you to enjoy it. So if you haven't had time to make it through all the fantastic works here, there's still plenty of time to read and leave love for the writers and artists!

And now for the reveals!

( The 2013 Merlin Holidays Master List )

The Guessing Poll Results:

Thank you to everyone who participated and guessed. :D Artists got the most guesses, and every artist was guessed correctly at least once!

Overall, alby_mangroves was guessed right the most at 13 times. Following that, amphigoury was guessed right 10 times.

For writers, giselleslash, destina, and emjayelle were guessed right 3 times each!

When it comes to our eminent guessers, there are some impressive stats:

claudine was our most successful guesser at 31 correct guesses out of 53! Following not far behind was emjayelle with 19 correct guesses. We don't know how they did it, but we're impressed by their magic powers!

Thanks again to everyone for a great year! Love from your mods, marguerite_26, fuzzytomato02, xfortytwo, and corilannam

Remember, all our submissions this year can be found on our tumblr for easier sharing.

ART

The Vision of Escavalon for fuckyeah [Arthur/Merlin:G - AU]

A Christmas Tale for viennajones [Arthur/Merlin:G - modern!AU]

Good Clean Fun for gwylliondream [Arthur/Merlin:NC-17 - canon]

FIC

Denoument for cassie_black12 [Arthur/Merlin:NC-17:16k - modern!AU]

Threads for emptysock [Arthur/Merlin:NC-17:5.7k - canon!AU]

Christmas May Come a Little Late This Year for ragnelleloathly [Arthur/Merlin, Gwen/Lance, Elena/Gwaine:G:8.5k - modern!AU]

What If I Told You? for alby_mangroves [Arthur/Merlin:NC-17:9.2k - modern!AU]

Overt Operations for silver_falcon24 [Arthur/Merlin:R:13k - modern!AU]

The Magic Touch for merlin_holidays [Arthur/Merlin:NC-17:12k - modern!AU]

It Didn’t Mean Anything for captainlogic [Arthur/Merlin:NC-17:9k - modern!AU]

Reaching Out for rocknvaughn [Arthur/Merlin:NC-17:4.4k - canon]

Title: Reaching Out
Recipient: rocknvaughn
Author: Anon
Rating: NC-17
Pairings: Arthur/Merlin
Word Count: 4400
Content Notes/Warnings: Dub-con
Summary: Arthur found out about Merlin's magic a long time ago. He kept it secret from Merlin, trying not to think about how this knowledge changes the dynamic between the two of them. After a series of events, starting off with Merlin getting himself kidnapped, feelings can no longer be ignored...
Author's Notes: Merry Christmas, rocknvaughn! I really loved writing this story, I hope you enjoyed it!
Thank you L. for proofreading!

AO3 link to fanwork: http://archiveofourown.org/works/1068974/

Title: A Christmas Tale
Recipient: viennajones
Artist: Anon
Rating: G
Pairings: Merlin/Arthur
Medium: Digital Art
Content Notes/Warnings: Arthur and Merlin go get a Christmas tree in the forest...
Artist's Notes: Happy Merlin Holidays, Viennajones ! I tried to pick as many things in your wish list as I could, and mix them to make a short story... If it's anywhere near what you had in mind, I'll declare myself happy :)
Link to fanart: it will be published on my tumblr... but I have no links right now
Also on AO3: http://archiveofourown.org/works/1057425

Title: The Vision of Escavalon
Recipient: fuckyeah
Artist: Anon
Rating: G
Pairings: Arthur/Merlin
Medium: traditional digital art
Content Notes/Warnings: crossover with The Vision of Escaflowne. No need to know the series to enjoy the pictures tho.
Artist's Notes: I'm sorry, fuckyeah. Right after I saw it was you I'm going to art for, I didn't even read the prompts since I knew this was something I could actually deliver you through our mutual love for Escaflowne.
Link to fanart: Click me!

Title: What If I Told You?
Recipient: alby_mangroves
Author: Anon
Rating: PG-13
Pairings: Merlin/Arthur, some Morgana/Leon and Gwaine/Elena
Word Count: ~9,200
Content Notes/Warnings: None
Summary: Merlin's dreams of university life don't turn out quite the way he wanted.
Author's Notes: Thank you to the new mods for keeping this fest alive, and to the old ones for allowing that to happen. Huge thanks to my beta, N, who steps outside of her fandom bubble to beta Merlin fic for me. And finally to alby_mangroves -- I only hope you enjoy this half as much as I enjoy your wonderful artwork. Happy Christmas, everyone!!

AO3 link to fanwork: http://archiveofourown.org/works/1066402

Title: Threads
Recipient: emptysock
Author: Anon
Rating: NC-17
Pairings: Arthur/Merlin
Word Count: 5,758
Content Notes/Warnings: canon AU, mild dubcon of the magic-made-them-do-it variety
Summary: Canon AU. When a visitor to Camelot tries to bind Arthur's heart for eternity, Merlin stops her--but ends up bound himself.
Author's Notes: Happy holidays, emptysock! Hope you enjoy.

AO3 link to fanwork: http://archiveofourown.org/works/1103951

Title: Denoument
Recipient: cassie_black12
Author: Anon
Rating: NC-17
Pairings: Arthur/Merlin
Word Count: 16,488
Content Notes/Warnings: Some very drunken cuddlings, some less drunken sexings.
Summary: Arthur has his whole life together, except for the girlfriend part, and actually he's about to start dating the perfect girl, so it's only a matter of time before everything falls into place. But then his sister starts hanging around some guy who gets arrested at anti-monarchy protests and Arthur has to go lecture her about propriety... again. Of course, the guy isn't quite as bad as Arthur expected, and in no time at all everything that Arthur thought he knew about himself, and everything he thought he wanted, starts shifting in new and exciting and completely alarming ways.
Author's Notes: Happy holidays, cassie_black12. Special thanks to my beta’s!

AO3 link to fanwork: Denoument

Title:The Merlin and Familiar
Recipient: merlin_holidays
Artist: Anon
Rating: G
Pairings: None
Medium: Drawing
Content Notes/Warnings: None
Artist's Notes: None
Fanwork on AO3: http://archiveofourown.org/works/1053978

Title: Through Kindness and Obstacles
Recipient: geekslave
Author: Anon
Rating: NC- 17
Pairings: Merlin/Arthur
Word Count: 10,836
Content Notes/Warnings: Modern AU, Coffeeshop AU, Aithusa and Kilgharrah as cats, Animal Shelter
Summary: Merlin liked cats but he also liked his cute barista (not actually his, yet). But Arthur was fucking strange and too noble for his own. Merlin's cats (sadly, also not his) weren't too happy with this part of him eiher.
Author's Notes: Happy holidays geekslave. I hope I've managed to do your prompt list justice with this fic. Thanks to the mods for being very forthcoming and thanks to my amazing beta S.

AO3 link to fanwork: http://archiveofourown.org/works/1061899