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Hisirdoux sat next to Merlin, drawing his knees up to his chest. He didn't say anything. Not yet. He just sat there in silence, listening to the wind blowing above the treetops and the birds whistling in their nests.
Merlin was quiet too, but it was a different kind of quiet. It was sad. Wistful. He gazed absently at the horizon, twisting a silver bracelet in his hands.
The bracelet was old, but well kept. Shining in the light of the setting sun.
Hisirdoux glanced at his master, waiting for him to say something. He'd just found Merlin like this and it was odd. It made Hisirdoux want to know what was wrong so he could fix it.
"Did you know," When Merlin spoke his voice was soft and sad. "That I have had many apprentices. So many that I've lost count."
Hisirdoux blinked. "Well... I suppose it would make sense. You're far older than you look, aren't you?"
Merlin smiled softly, still not looking away from the horizon. "Yes. I am."
Hisirdoux glanced at the bracelet, then at Merlin. "I can't imagine losing so many people... knowing you'd probably outlive them."
The old wizard sighed. "I had hoped... that for some... that for her it would be different."
"... her?" He asked carefully.
And Merlin's smile was so sad but so fond that it made Hisirdouxβs heart ache. "Antigone. My first apprentice." He lifted a hand and his magic conjured an image of a young girl. She looked to be around sixteen years of age, the green outlines of the magic obscuring any color, but her features were easy to see. "She was gifted, passionate." He looked at his apprentice, a softer, happier smile pulling at his lips. "You remind me of her."
Hisirdoux smiled back at him, scooting a little closer to his master. "Can I ask what happened to her?" He asked after a moment.
Merlin let the magic fade and his gaze fell away once more. He was silent for a long while before he said, "She was often too brave for her own good."
_______
Okay so just a lil thing cause my brain suddenly said, "Merlin's lived a long ass time so he's probably had lots of apprentices and they're probably all dead now or some shit and HEY LETS ANGST WIZARD DAD"
So so π
Antigone is like. literally his daughter and after she died he became super emotionally distant from his apprentices because he knew if he ever loved them the way he loved her it would literally break him for good
But then Douxie came along πππ
Deep down Merlin always loved his apprentices so fucking much. But he never showed it because he didn't want to get attached dammit
Anyway um
The Arcane Order killed her
imagine Merlinβs distress when his son was about to be killed the same way his daughter was thousands of years ago
Just some notes on a thought I had last night. opinions on going ahead with it as a full fic
So it starts off where he hasn't heard the name in years
centuries even
that is until the eternal night
"Mordred Pendragon" the whisper in the wind chills him sending a shiver down the gothic wizard's spine but he ignores it
It's not his name
He had been planning to join the main fight in the eternal knights but he doesn't
He's ashamed of how much something so small had affected him
He avoids the source of the voice along with one of the only people capable of reassuring him after something like that
He fights off some gumm gumms he comes across but stays away from the raging magic battle a couple of miles away
It's only when the battle is over and he's made his way home exhausted and covered in dirt that he relaxes, (of course, that is entirely due to the little black fur ball curling on his chest asking what had happened. And using his real name)
Its 2 months after the eternal night when his master summons him, he had gotten so used to the nickname Douxie over the years (mostly due to the mortal struggle with pronouncing his full name) but pushing aside the mild feeling like he was going to get scolded he welcomed being Hisirdoux
The green knight is unfamiliar to him but as the guardians of Arcadia fly away from the burning bookstore he hears it again, a dark growl into the darkness
"Mordred"
Douxie is tense until they reach Merlin's study, Camelot had been the place he called his home since the beginning of his teen years and so he had many good memories there
but so many bad memories to accompany them
Merlin's tower was the only place in the castle he could block ALL of the bad memories as the only place in his childhood where he was ever completely safe
They fall through time and the teens notice how strangely the knights all act around Douxie, especially Lancelot
None of them understands why until they're in the throne room
"What were you doing with a troll, Mordred?"
Douxie has to hide his scowl of disgust as he struggles to come up with a reason that won't get him hurt or the teens
he had to protect them
None of the kids really understand the gravity of how serious it is until Arthur strikes Douxie and Morgana screams at him grabbing him and Claire while Lancelot takes Steve to the barracks and Jim is taken to the dungeons
Merlin being a father, cradling his face to assess/heal some bruising, "Hisirdoux... what happened?"
Douxie doesn't answer and just avoids eye contact hating the feelings bubbling to the surface of fear and shame and self-loathing like he was a child again
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I jokingly thought about Merlin being anti-mask but then I remembered that like. His whole Thing was that the greater good has to be prioritized over one's personal wants and comforts..... so I feel like if he saw anyone being whiny and selfish about being told to wear a mask he'd smack them on the top of their heads with his staff
Because I think we need some comfort right about now, today I was thinking about how utterly delightful the Amulet forging scene from Wizards was, when you think about it from Douxie's perspective. He apparently had no idea that Merlin was also forging a staff for him at the same time, he was just happily going along with the process, stoked to be a part of the Amulet's creation. Master wants me to pick a magic stone? Oh, I wonder what that's for! I will choose the best gem there is! Huh, that's a weird-looking stick that Master is making. Oh, it must be a part of the mechanism for forging the Amulet, I see. What an incredible machine Master has built, I'm so happy he's trusting me to help with it, this is amazing, I'm finally doing something useful!
And then in the most blessed PSYCH! moment ever, Merlin turns around and goes "Oh by the way, this is yours now, Master Wizard." Just a moment of Pure Serotonin.
Ramble ahead about a witchy, longer series take on Wizards (1):
(AO is abbreviation for Arcane Order).
Mmm given that Wizards starts with hints about the Arcane Order through what Merlin says, the Green Knight and Morgana...
What if in a more slow series we could've gotten Douxie having dreams with the themes of each deity... Extremely metaphorical and hard to decipher. And even harder to pin a name on them since Merlinβs the only person who wrote about them, and in this case has ignored them and focused on Morgana.
Perhaps these are not just Arcane Order themselves reaching out to Douxie, but Douxie discovering his intuitive side, trying to warn the situation to come. We get to see Douxie on the personal, what other things he's been doing while Merlin was gone, we get to see his relationship with other wizards like Zoe.
Kind of revisiting the themes the Morgana plot in Trollhunters had but without the possession stuff, and more benevolence, or mixed feelings. Addressing Merlin's mistreatment of others. Nari and Douxie finding solidarity in their difficult position of seeing Merlin like family yet he was depriving them of their emotional needs, and messing up the future.
...
Bellroc and Sakrael need to be released/invoked like Morgana was, but this is so they take physical form again. Nari was able to keep hir physical form because Merlin "protected" hir from Arthur (yet took part in killing Bellroc and Sakrael).
The Arcane Order were old deities who just started experiencing humanity (as humanity is really young compared to Earth and other species), and when they started opening up, giving Merlin their names and backstories, he broke their trust. Fearful of 'dark magic', death and the afterlife, fearful of being closer to the deep and truth, he antagonized them and took Nari from them. Nari was young and impressionable, and when ze was suffering loss of hir family (as eventually the AO get hunted down like all other magickind), Merlin just reinforced to hir his damaging beliefs.
Nari is who teaches Merlin time travel and general time magic, as ze used it behind his back to see hir family again, and trying to figure out how to move the timeline to the AO being reunited.
The Arcane Order can be killed because they started incarnating more human-like when humans showed up on Earth. They wanted to know what being directly affected by the physical world is, before taking decisions. And to show humanity that they too can participate in magic, that it is inherent in them.
The Arcane Order wasn't evil, but much like humans, they made mistakes like how they handled Morgana, Seklos & Gaylen, Gunmar... Merlin uses these examples to discourage the protags from trusting them.
This story can go on about erasure and colonialism, such as how nobody knew the Arcane Order members' names (not even trolls) yet the AO having ties to helping the protags, being spiritual guides at times.
It is slowly revealed they've helped the protags survive close calls with death, being nudged to make small but important decisions that has literally saved the world before... etc etc.
Merlin: So as it turns out, if you want to have an adopted child this century you can't just take them in and have them live with you. You need to have official paperwork.
Douxie: Oh, so you're going to adopt a kid? How soon?
Merlin, handing adoption papers and a pen to Douxie: I already did so, but like I said, apparently I need paperwork. Sign these so it'll be official.
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Imagine being the Arcane Order and the only thing standing between you and world domination is Merlin's emo son and the band of children that have decided to adopt him as their older brother.
Imagine being a literal GOD fighting Merlin for centuries then finally succeeding in killing him only to have his emo son turn around and whoop your ass in converse and a hoodie. Thats gotta be a blow to the
Merlin: *to Steve and Toby* Honestly, I canβt even tell the two of you apart half the time because I donβt go by height or hair color, I go by amount of pain in my ass. Which makes you both identical.
Sometimes a family isn't a mom, dad, 2.5 children, and a white picket fence. Sometimes it's:
- A near 1000 year old punk wizard boy who needs a hug.
- A very sarcastic talking cat with poor eyesight.
- A plant goddess.
- An Akaridion warrior queen.
- Her little brother, who gives off pure aroace vibes and can build a mind reader in 2 hours.
- A short gremlin king with a very large conspiracy board.
- A dude who's a fan of hard rock, and has a warhammer.
- A very sassy blue child who needs 10 years of therapy.
- The troll history teacher that tried to kill the sassy blue child 10x over. He's also dating the sassy blue child's mother. Troll dad #2 of sassy blue child.
- The Mother Of The Sassy Blue child. Who for some reason didn't think that something was seriously up with her kid. (Plot Armour.)
- A guy who was there for comedy relief, but somehow got a bully redemption arc.
- Purple punk child who got posessed by former evil sorcerer lady once.
- Troll dad #1 of sassy blue child, he likes reading and burning books.
- A Troll covered in moss, he's the wingman and a former pacifist.
- Former evil sorcerer lady with a similar aesthetic to a Marvel Norse God, but actually had a point.
- Adoptive dad of punk wizard boy. Who says he doesn't care that much. But he cares A LOT.
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I work for the road crew in the summer. Crack sealing (the process you see above) is fairly quick and simple. (Though holding a hose that pumps literal tons of 350F tar into the road in the middle of the summer is NOT easy)
I think what a lot of people underestimate is just how much road there is in your city. And just how many directions the crew gets pulled.
For our city of around 50k people there are 8 of us.
Also, crack sealing is a wholly temporary measure, meant to slow the break-up of the roads, itβs not a permanent fix.
Roads tend to get closed for months on end because we have to tear the whole thing up, then, depending on the class of road, we either have to hammer-drill into concrete to lay rebar and the pour concrete, or we can get straight to paving. If itβs a road requiring concrete weβre required to wait at least 24 hours for it to set.
So after 2 days weβre finally able to pave. But the city allocates one (two if weβre lucky) 5 ton truck to transport material.
A relatively short paving job requires at a minimum of 60 tons. So thatβs 12 trips to the asphalt factory and back. Each ton is around $80.
TL;DR
Thereβs a lot of road, not many of us, and soup is expensive.
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