Merc, 30+, she/her. Writer, Time Travel Enthusiast, Preacher of the Period Drama Gospel. OFC Fairy Godmother. PBS Nerd. Bespoke Historical AUs a Specialty, 18th - 20th centuries preferred. Anons are OFF until the current bot problem subsides.
Hi there! I’m Merc. I love period dramas, strong female leads and women’s history. Placements in 18th through 20th century preferred but not required. Historical Alternate Universes and Original Female Characters are a big part of my fandom practice.
Read more of my writing on Archive of Our Own or on Tumblr at mercurygraypresents
A full list of my original characters is available here.
Current Fandoms:
A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, House of Guinness, Andor, Masters of the Air, SAS: Rogue Heroes, Band of Brothers, The Pacific, House of the Dragon
Current projects:
Wing and Cloud (Maekar x OC)
I regularly ask for prompts on Thursdays and Saturdays for these characters and others. (see: thirsty thursday.)
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Same characters, different worlds! Send a letter to learn about an alternate universe.
A. alternate universe. What kind of AU is your OC best suited to? Are there any AUs they're in already? What are they?
B. band au. What is your OC like in a band AU? Are they a performer or a groupie? What instrument would they play? What's their relationship with their bandmates and/or the group(s) they follow?
C. coffee shop au. What would your OC be like in a classic coffee shop AU? Are they at all suited for the barista lifestyle? What's their go-to coffee order?
D. duplicate. How would your OC react to meeting their clone or doppelganger? What if they were a clone or doppelganger? How would they feel about that?
E. education. What would your OC be like in a high school and/or college AU? What would their major be? What would they teach if they were an educator?
F. fey. What kind of fey or fairy creature would your OC be? Would they be in a spooky, intense fairy world or a playful, lighthearted fairy world?
G. gods. What would your OC be the god of? If they were a demi-god, who would their divine parent be?
H. horror. Would your OC survive in a horror situation? What would their role be? How would they deal with being tossed in a horror scenario?
I. intellectual property. Are there any popular series or franchises that your OC is well-suited for? Which 'verse(s) and what makes them so well-suited?
J. (J)RPG. What kind of hero would your OC be in a JRPG (or any other RPG). Would they have any special skills, weapons, or finishing moves? What tier character would they be?
K. kids. Does your OC have kids? What are their kids like? If they don't have kids, would they? What would they be like as a parent?
L. lovers. Does your OC have different partners in different AUs? What might their love life be like in an AU? How would they do in a romance genre, like romantasy or a romcom?
M. multiverse. Are there any points in your OC's life where things could have gone differently? Where else might they have ended up? How would your OC react to crossing the multiverse and meeting another version of themself?
N. normal. What's your OC's normal world like? Are they in a fantasy setting, a sci-fi setting, the modern world? Share a little about your character's normal life.
O. omegaverse. What’s their subgender? What's their scent? How do they feel about it?
P. pacific rim au. What is your OC doing in a Pacific Rim AU? Are they drift compatible with anyone? What would their jaeger be called?
Q. quiet. What would a quiet and peaceful life look like for your OC? Would they enjoy living a simple life or would they get bored?
R. royalty au. How would your OC handle being royalty? If they're already royalty, how would they deal with being a commoner? What kind of royal would your character be?
S. star wars au. What would your OC be like in a Star Wars AU? What era would they be in: sequel, prequel, original trilogy, old republic? Would they be Force sensitive?
T. (star) trek au. What would your OC's role be in a Star Trek AU? Are they part of Starfleet? Another organization?
U. underworld. How would your OC deal with being part of a criminal underworld? Would they be a thief, a spy, a conman? Something else?
V. vigilante au. What would your OC's superpower be? Would they be a hero or a villain? Do they believe that with great power comes great responsibility?
W. werewolves (& vampires). Is your OC more of a vampire or a werewolf? How would they feel about being turned into a creature of the night? Would they be part of a clan, a pack, a coven?
X. (e)xtra. Is there an AU missing from this list? Share something about it! What would your OC be like in that new world, story or scenario?
Y. YA. How would your OC fare in a popular YA franchise, like Hunger Games or Divergent? Would they buy into the system? Fight against it? What would their district/faction/house/etc. be?
Z. zootopia. What animal would your OC be if they were an anthropomorphic animal? Would your OC be a furry? What would their fursona be?
Fic authors self rec! When you get this, reply with your favorite five fics that you've written, then pass on to at least five other writers. Let's spread the self-love 💗
Thanks for the ask, Enchi!
The Cross, The Crescent, and The Star (A Discovery of Witches + Kingdom of Heaven, 2019)
Everyone comes to Jerusalem asking for something - forgiveness, glory, fame. Most questions go to God, but some come to the King, who wields a different kind of power. Baldwin the Fourth has a new chess partner, asking for land for a new monastery, and not all the members of his court are happy about it.
This was one of the first longer-format things I wrote after some time away from fandom; I like it because I set out to tell the whole story in six chapters and did. I also got to use one of my favorite original characters in a different context, which was fun to revisit and explore.
A Goddess’s Lament (Percy Jackson and the Olympians, 2014)
After many years of silence, Amphitrite, the wife of Poseidon, recounts her life and how she came to be the figure she is in song and story, and how she met Percy before events in The Last Olympian. Bookverse.
There is a kind of sick, sad joy in coming into a fandom for a younger demographic than you and blowing the present state of fic out of the water, and I’m still so glad I did it. This is one of the most-reviewed things I’ve ever written, but I would love it endlessly anyway.
A Rose Among the Briars (Lord of the Rings, 2009-2015)
Pressured by his father into a marriage of convenience, Boromir of Gondor is forced to reconsider his views on married life and women in general while his intended tries to come to terms with her own dilemmas.
This isn’t the best thing I’ve ever written, but it’s the story that taught me a lot on how to be a better writer. I wrote the first version in my middle school fandom salad days, and came back to it three years later during late high school. It took me six years to finish, including a year and a half when I wrote practically nothing. I love this story like it is my firstborn child and I will never stop talking about it.
The Darkening Sky (2020 - present)
“Some will say that it is a sad state of affairs when a country asks its women to go to war. But there is nothing sad about patriotism, and from coast to coast, America’s women have answered the call in record-breaking numbers, happy and willing to serve in all branches of the service.”
It’s summer of 1942. America’s at war, and all kinds of opportunities are opening up for women - including, if the recruiting posters are to be believed, as co-ed additions to an entirely new unit of parachute infantry. Will they have what it takes?
If Rose is my firstborn, this fic is my secondborn triplets and I also love them desperately.
The Dark of the Lake (Dunkirk, 2018)
I will always be sad that more people didn’t read my Dunkirk fic, and I always kick these up when I’m asked to recommend stuff that I enjoy because I LOVED these pieces and I wish the fandom at the time had been more welcoming of OCs as a concept. There was a show on Netflix called Churchill’s Spies about the formation of the SOE and I used that, and my love for Collins, to come up with a new character that I always wish I’d done more with. Air.
Tagging @broadwaybaggins, @shoshiwrites, @ewanmitchellcrumbs, @emilykaldwen, @nightswatchyaoi, @nejires-hado, and anyone else who wants to toot thier own horn a little.
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getting scambot messages from random accounts that clearly used to be normal active blogs is sad enough. you know that there used to be a real person on that blog until they were tricked into handing their password to the digital fae.
but it's an entirely new level of tragic when somebody you've actually spoken to gets turned into a bot account. it's like peeking at a zombie apocalypse through the window and realizing one of the shambling corpses was your friend.
and then the zombie catches sight of you, lurches up to your window, and shouts through the glass that they accidentally reported your account to tumblr and you'll be deactivated unless you click this link.
RIP to the blog that used to DM me to tell me they liked my new chapters. Their last known words spoken before being turned, 17 hours ago: "Ggs!" They were praising someone's deadlift.
the message they tried to get me with is probably the same message that got them, so for anybody who hasn't already been warned about the signs of a zombie account:
if you get something like this ↑ they're gonna follow up by instructing you to contact tumblr support on discord and give you contact info; or they're gonna link a website that looks sort of like tumblr support and say you have to email them; or any variety of "you must now contact tumblr, here is how you contact tumblr."
whatever they send you, it Does Not lead to tumblr. it leads to the master zombie that bit them and inducted them into the ranks of the undead, and will bite you the second they have your email and password. i might be confusing zombies and vampires. anyway,
it's easier to fall for these messages because the blog doesn't LOOK like a bot blog, because it ISN'T a bot blog. it's a normal person's blog that got accessed by a bot, meaning the blog's content CLEARLY looks like a real active user when you click on it. and yes—it might even be a blog you already know. sometimes bots like this go down a blog's DMs or reblogs and message people they've previously interacted with.
they got one of my treasured followers, and they can get you too. don't fall for their tricks. know the signs.
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There are lots of reasons why fandom is "quieter" now than it used to be. Some theories are more compelling to me than others, and they all have a different scale of impact. We'll never know for sure, of course, but I like to think about it. Thus, this poll.
Of the list below, which reason do you find most compelling or do you think had the biggest impact?
New entrants to fandom don't know the old ways
fandom olds didn't teach the newcomers how to fandom
covid/surge in fandom due to quarantine and lockdowns
"antis" and other harassment campaigns against creators
creators posting complaints about comments (people worry about commenting wrong)
rise of discord popularity - fandom is walled off from each other
tumblr porn ban and other reasons people left the site
capitalism turning fandom into a passive "view and move on" commodity
rules from social media impacting fan culture (eg. don't comment on old posts)
general state of the world / burnout
social anxieties in an increasingly complex online culture
"surveillance state" worries and not wanting to be perceived
Remaining time: 5 days 2 hours
This is an incomplete list, so if your most compelling reason isn't listed, feel free to add it in the notes.
"And it was my mace that deal the fatal blow, I have no doubt. The only other foes he faced in the melee were three Kingsguard, whose vows forbade them to do any more harm than defend themselves. So it was me. Strange to say, I do not recall the blow that broke his skull. Is that a mercy or a curse? Some of both, I think."
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Just watched Adam Conover (of Adam Ruins Everything) make such a solid point that I think we should spread far and wide. Yes, having AI write your emails is lazy, sure, but people love being lazy. We need to really emphasize that sending AI emails (or using AI responses on social media, or publishing AI flyers, or or or) is rude.
It's rude. You're making someone take their time to read something you couldn't bother to write. You're telling them they were so unimportant you couldn't be bothered to actually take the time to say something yourself. And frankly, you're lying about it while you're at it.
The above is doubly true if the content of the email is something that will be important to the person receiving - especially something that affects them negatively. They see that this thing that affected them so much didn't matter enough to you to write it yourself. I was a bystander to such a thing not long ago and it was just awful.
Gave myself a few hours off today in between homework assignments to do something fun.
Meri has finally come to King's Landing, an unknown quantity who is easily overlooked - until a chance meeting at one of the King's feasts draws her deep into the spotlight.
She was still getting used to the city.
It had been a long time since this had been required of her, the long tables and long nights and endless talking. Ashford was a quiet place, and if Kevan was summoned to Highgarden that was once or twice a year for an oathtaking and the paying of the rents and she was scarcely needed for that. Marriages and name-day tourneys had been the extent of her parties, and she'd made the most of them, but still - it was not King's Landing nor the king's household. Not even close.
And she had been known in those places - Lord Ashford's goodsister, the aunt of Androw and Robert and Gwin. Here she was an unknown, something for the gossips to puzzle over as Queen Myriah called her to her rooms, her exact connections unclear and her value as a friend unknown. Would it do to make her acquaintance? Was there anything to be gained by it?
It didn't matter, at least not yet - she had taken the time to become reacquainted with the faces at court, recalling old names and old loyalties, listening in to conversations as she passed, taking note of what the servants said about the lords they served. (Servants knew everything, in a house like this. Everyone seemed to forget that. And servants would soon start taking note of her, too.)
It was a rare evening when someone greeted her in the feasting hall - still rarer when someone did it by name.
"Do you not know me, Meri?"
She turned around, and there he was - still tall, with hair that was now just going to gray around the temples, his beard trying to hide a bit of chin and his Tyrell green tunic a bit of thickening middle. Well, but he had always enjoyed a feast. Nothing about him particularly striking - and nothing about his appearance provoked anything but a faint recognition. "Lord Edwyn. How nice to see you."
"You're…looking very well," he said, as if he were experimenting with the word, testing the air between them, smiling just a little. "That color suits you. It always did."
She remembered that crooked smile, and the way a young woman's heart had thrilled to hear a compliment. But she was older now, and more sure of her own worth without the pretty words of boys who didn't mean them. "Thank you."
He gave a nervous little laugh, still smiling in expectation. "Are we to be formal, then, you and I? Even after all this time? My sister made note you were in town, but I scarcely thought I would… I was so pleased when I saw you here."
"I think formal would be best," Meri said curtly. "After all, I am nothing to you." Except a source of embarrassment for your sister, I'm sure.
He grimaced at that, his own words thrown back in his face. "I suppose it's… a bad time to say that I never stopped wondering about us. What might have happened if I'd…been braver then. Stronger. If we'd have been happy. I was young, and…could not stand up to my father in those days."
Oh, that's a pretty way to say it. "And in all the years after, too? Could you not stand up them? Not a single idle moment to write a letter - when you were thinking about how happy we might have been?"
His smile stumbled for a moment, and the embarrassment she remembered so well from Highgarden was coming back in spades, the downcast eyes and shifting feet. "Well, I -- they were reading all my letters, Meri, and then I was sent away to Goldengrove, and I have been - been busy, you know, my father's estates and my…my family."
"Ah, yes, very busy indeed, with your five children," Meri replied, fifteen years of unsaid feelings coming to the fore. It had been a long time since she'd thought of him, longer still that she'd clung to any idea that he might come for her. She'd given up long since. Think of her! What had life dealt him that he would have need of daydreams? "And I'm sure there was no pleasure in the getting of any of them," she went on. "I saw Lady Briony here tonight - and fresh with another fruit for your orchard, I think. Is that what this is? Taking a chance for another bedwarmer while your wife turns you out?"
"Now, Meri, it's not - "
But Edwyn never finished his thought - there was a shadow at her shoulder, and judging by the look in the Tyrell heir's eyes, it was particularly dangerous one at that.
Maekar looked every inch the prince in black and crimson, his usual scowl out in full force. He could pick his moments too - and this would certainly be one for the ages, when he'd been a widower for however long and scarcely interested in saying a kind word to anyone, never mind coming to the aid of a lady in conversation. "Lady Merilinde. My lady mother wishes a word with you." He looked over like he was just noticing Edwyn and gave a curt nod. "Lord Edwyn."
The Tyrell heir swallowed nervously. "Prince Maekar."
"Have you something else to say to the lady, Tyrell? Or may we depart? My mother may be patient but I am not."
"So it's …true then," Edwyn said quietly, looking from former paramour to prince. "My sister suggested - but I wasn't sure if I could believe it."
Maekar's smile was blunt and unamused, his posture at Meri's shoulder leaving little to interpretation - a dragon jealously guarding his treasure. "I'm afraid it is. What is it that boys say? Who goes off the chase loses his place."
It was one thing to confront a rival - still another when that rival was a prince. But Edwyn never could pick his battles. "And you - you wish for this, Meri? To be the prize of a -"
"A dragon?" Meri asked, before the word kinslayer could cross his lips. "Yes - and to be a prize. I have never been that to any man." Not to you, or any other, save for him. Call me a fool for wishing to be loved.
Edwyn gave a sour smile, trying to master his thoughts. "You do know she's spoilt goods, your grace?" he said, trying to find something, anything, with which to claw back a little of his dignity. "Hardly fit for a prince of the blood."
"You may want to watch your words, Tyrell," Maekar said venomously, as Edwyn's mouth opened and then closed again. The prince stepped in closer and pitched his voice lower. "For if I did kill the brother that I loved dearly, what in seven hells will stop me with a man that I despise?"
Edwyn's face whitened, and he turned and fled, back to the safety of his retinue and his bannermen, some half-murmured excuses on his lips. Maekar looked satisfied and offered his arm to Meri. "Lady."
"You enjoyed that," Meri accused, preening just a little inside as they turned back towards the dais. "A little too much."
"Can a man not have some pleasure?" he asked quietly, and she could hear in his voice the hidden delight. "I suppose I had better actually deliver you to my mother," he reflected, steering them towards the royal party at the head of the room. "We are scandal enough as it is." The room was, indeed, staring - the dragon prince and his nameless Crane. And then, quieter still - "May I come to you later? After dinner?"
"Does the dragon wish to gloat over his horde?"
"He does," Maekar said, with as much of a smile as he allowed himself in public. "Very much." They were close to the throne now and Myriah's ladies, and the Queen was beckoning to her son, Aelinor at one hand and Aemma at the other. "My lady," he said, giving her a nod. "Mother."
Myriah made some word of welcome, and bid the women around her make room, and Meri glanced back to see the eyes of the room upon her, everyone staring and wondering and whispering, not the least of them Edwyn and the rest of the Tyrells, and knew, then, that the quiet was over, and the battle would soon begin.
