RatCreature's Journal

I suspect all of Merlin fandom but me has seen these already because they were posted over a month ago, but in case you have missed them just as I did, shiyasim drew some brilliant Merlin strips in the style of Calvin and Hobbes, with them as kids: three strips here and four more here.

First, the sticksandsnark challenge entries have been posted. So there's lots of good Rodney and Teyla stuff. This year's masterlist is here. In particular I want to point you towards Your Mouth As Some Surprise by Siriaeve (Rodney/Teyla, 9,400 words), which is an awesome story with Rodney and Teyla stranded in a Pegasus monastery for a while. It's my favorite of the entries I've read so far. Also check out Astrid's gorgeous drawing.

Second, because compiling lists is a great way to procrastinate while still giving yourself the illusion of accomplishing something, I posted yet another SGA thematic list, this time of all SGA wingfic I could find. I also listed some art, but it's not yet nearly as comprehensive for that, because I don't bookmark fanart as much. As usual if you know of stuff I missed, please link me. I've also updated several of my other SGA thematic lists recently.

Third, I did not actually forget about the results of my previous "what should I draw" poll from a while ago. The results when I last checked were a three-way draw between the SGA/Avatar fusion option, the gothic/steampunkish SGA mad scientist AU, and the Dresden Files illustration. Of these I have the clearest idea about the SGA/Avatar fusion, so I've decided to go with that first, and draw Ronon as Firebender. I'm just (unsurprisingly) kind of slow making actual progress on this (and procrastinating via thematic list compilation, as seen above). Anyway, this is my public commitment to that project, still following my theory that public statements about WIPs might help in overcoming my lazy inertia.

I just finished reading Lovesrain44's Big Bang story, Phantom Load (gen, Sam and Dean, set present day and pre-series, ca. 54,000 words), and though it kind of gutted me, it's a great story. While the story is gen there are explicit scenes of sexual abuse of a young Dean by an original character, and I think it's one of the most harrowing child abuse stories I've read in fandom. Not because it is particularly extreme or bleak, but because the way the memories are narrated, the details, and the past and the present, and Dean and Sam's POVs are woven together made it very real to me.

Also, even if you don't think you can stomach the story, you should take a look at Xterm's drawing, which is lovely and can stand on it's own as a picture of their childhood, even though looking at it again after reading there are added layers to the artwork.