Haze Of Fandom

“Shane, how does it feel to be back on Montreal ice?”

Hi Merlin Fandom! We're happy to announce that we will be back for a fourth year!

The Rare Pair Fest will run on the following dates this year:

Prompting: August 15th - 31st

Claiming Starts: September 7th, time tba

Works Due: October 26th

Posting: November 3rd - 30th

General Info:

This is a prompt-based fest: during the prompting period, people will be able to submit up to ten prompts through a form. Those will be compiled into a list, and once claiming comes around, writers and artists can claim one of the submitted prompts to create for. ㅤ

You do not need to prompt if you want to create, and prompting does not mean you have to create for the fest! ㅤ

Once you are done, submit your work to our 2026 AO3 Collection. It’ll stay unrevealed until the posting period comes around. ㅤ

The schedule has been adjusted so that the posting period will make it easy to cross-post fills with Merlin Bingo, and its Rare Pairs, Minor Characters and Gen Works Bonus Badge. ㅤ

All the Centaurs go with Ilya and get to hear all these stories now pieced together by the guys.

It's like all the guys are competing to see who can get a blush out of Rozanov.

Scott talks about how Ilya was the only non-Admiral to show up at Scott Hunter Night and show support (even if Scott was confused about the motivations then).

Eric talks about how Ilya called him and Kyle out on their feelings.

Ryan (who drove down with Fabian just for this - no, they did not fly), takes a moment from staring at Fabian who offered to be the performer for the night- and mentions how Ilya helped him out of a dark place.

Troy joins in and shares how Ilya helped him to come out.

writers describing characters as "stocky", "thick", or "soft" has ALWAYS been code for "fat" in writing. a lot of writers (and people in general) are scared of the word "fat" and will avoid it as a descriptor at all costs.

(to be very clear, "fat" is a morally neutral word unless the person saying it intends for it not to be. I am a fat person - this is the simplest and easiest descriptor to explain my body and i will continue to use this word to explain my body in a morally neutral way.) But, to return to the point, this is an existing issue in the literary world - just like there are many writers that use words like "tanned" or "olive toned" when they're scared to clarify the character isn't white. Both situations are problems in literary spaces that we've had for ages.

Soft language is used as a descriptor whenever a character isn't thin, fit, or white. So, no, we're not stupid for "imagining" Harris as chubby or fat that being said, i am looking forward to Justice Smith's portrayal of Harris Drover. and NO, him being black is NOT an issue and if that is YOUR issue - we are not the fucking same. "Erasing a character's white identity" is in no fucking way the same as removing the precious little fat representation in romance media we already get.

Especially because media is not created in a vacuum and it IS worth mentioning that we're currently in a heightened state of fatphobia and body harming via fashion drugs like Ozempic - removing the fatness from a main romance lead IS a statement that we all get to feel something about.

I'll even go a step further and say that it will be an incredible addition to Harris' character to be a black man who has lived his life as openly gay while being loved and supported by his family. That in itself is so rare in media and I can't wait to see the Drover family absolutely adore their gay son. (and his new boyfriend!)

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