#one sec

And even after years of still coming back out of these dangerous situations alive, and having so many letters that have never fulfilled their purpose, he can't find it in himself to stop, cause there's always the chance that one of these days might be his last day.

The letters began as apologies to Merlin for how he treated him, how he was forever grateful that Merlin stayed by his side, and it would include a note with his signature and sigil that had a stipend of gold for Merlin to have; so it sort of turns into a will, specifically for Merlin, but was mostly still a letter. Arthur, although always conscious of the fact Merlin was just a servant, still felt guilty, distressed, and downright miserable of the idea of Merlin receiving nothing if Arthur were to be killed.

So the bequests (a gift of personal property that someone leaves to you in their will when they die, had to look up the name, cuz saying "gift" did not feel right) start to evolve, so to speak. First it was gold, then it was a permanent place in the household (removed after several times of Merlin saying he would never serve anyone else), after he became King, he added Merlin becoming an official part of the council, then it was his mother's sigil (also removed after he had actually given Merlin the sigil), his mother's estate and any other estates Arthur had, his own ring (removed when/if he married Gwen), and so on.

The first person he told about these letters was Leon, then Gaius, maybe Gwen and possibly other knights of the round table.

So, when the final battle happened, and Arthur had passed, at least 2-3 people knew about the stacks of letters the King had for his manservant. But once Merlin brought Arthur to the Lake of Avalon, he never went back to Camelot. And unfortunately, Merlin also had some letters he had left Arthur, only Gaius knowing of them.

so uh

scaled and icy/good day dema but generation loss: the social experiments by ranboo

Maybe...

I won't promise anything but I will try my best! ( • ̀ω•́ )✧

All Wyrm adopted from @tamale4prez

~~~

When Amelie was three or four, she got very sick. She doesn't remember much of it, she was very young. In her few memories, she shivers, and feels cold as ice, though the thermometer claims she's burning up. Poor Aba had to pry a blanket off her so she wouldn't overheat and burst into tears when she begged him to give it back. It's one of her few memories of her aba crying. (Her father is a different story. His copious wailing was a constant background noise. But she digresses.)

She's been told this was when she got hooked on books. Her Aba or the King were ever-present at her side, reading her picture books. Confined to bed, her ability to explore the world stolen from her, she had adventures in stories instead. She recovered, thank the Stars, but her love of reading stayed. Mama Lupe likes to tell the story of how, when they first met, Amelie spent hours merely staring at them, then approached with a picture book, sat assertively on their knee, and demanded to be read to. As Amelie grew up, Miramom and her Dad (not him, she's referring to Isabeau) steered her toward the best books, with Madame Odile supplementing it with essay collections and autobiographies.

All this meant Amelie had a good understanding of the elements of fiction far before she ever encountered the plot pyramid in school. She knew all about it, from how different points of view worked, to how a plot structure generally went, to, say, round and flat characters. Characters who mattered, and Changed, versus characters that only existed to advance the plot, or inspire action in the main characters, who are the characters who actually matter.

"Aba, was it because of me, that Daddy froze Vaugarde?" asked Amelie one night while being tucked in, a few years after the aforementioned incident.

Aba immediately said, "No. It wasn't your fault, Amelie. Never was, and never will be. Do you understand?"

"Yeah," muttered Amelie. That hadn't been what she meant, really, but the answer gave her the information she needed.

"Dad's obsessions got worse, after you got sick," Etoile says one day. Not accusing, just informative. She knows Amelie wants to know these things. "I would bring him flowers, and instead of putting them in a vase like I wanted him to he'd press them all in books. It was right after you got better that he started researching Time Craft."

Amelie has read stories. A lot of them. Villains with dead wives. Heroes with families wiped out. Children on missions to slay their parents' killers. Grief almost always shapes the actions, good or bad, of these characters. Most of the time the dead ones are one-note. Archetypical. Exactly what the plot needs them to be. Readers knew what their dead loved ones were like; they saw their loved ones' best qualities reflected in the characters, filled in the blanks.

To die is to become fiction.

Amelie is a Housemaiden, now. Archival work, classes, lots and lots of reading. Helping people choose who they want to be.

On her birth father's birthday, she makes a trip to Dormont, to the hulking statue of his frozen form. She does not bring flowers. He doesn't really affect her life much, anymore. He's not important.

She says, "It's been years. Years I would never have lived, if you had your way."

She says, "I didn't want you to do that. You shouldn't have done it in my name, just deciding for me that I wanted you to."

She says, "I miss the voices you used to do, reading to me."

Then she goes back to her House. Nothing more to say, really.

THIS IS???? SCARILY ACCURATE???? GET OUT OF MY HEAD??????

OH IM SO OBSESSED WITH THIS OUGHHHCHGSB. MY AMÉ💖🩷🩷🩷💖

It’s called “One Sec”. It just makes you take a second to reflect before opening an app.