blamethewizard

Well, now that I got my political irritation out, I will say "Hello" to the lovely new people from the Merlin Friending Meme.

My name is Alissa, and I currently live in Cambridge, MA. I am 26 and work part-time at a pizza place while I look for full time work (victim of the economic downturn, but that's okay) and ponder a return to school. I have my B.A. in Geology but I'd be going back for Environmental Science.

Anyway, I generally use this journal for fandom-related things, like my recent forays into writing fic. I still find the fact that I am actually writing anything rather funny asI had long labeled myself Not A Writer. Having been around various fandoms, on and off, for 10+ years mostly as a lurker, my level of participation in Merlin related stuff still surprises me (in a good way). The first fic I ever read was in 1999, just after Star Wars: The Phantom Menace came out, so that's where I started out.

Anyway, I also love to read, am a pretty avid sea kayaker (out of season right now, though) and really enjoy  just walking around the city. I'm not a photographer in the sense that I've had training, but I also like to take pictures while doing one of several outdoor sports (hiking, paddling, etc) or of interesting things I find around my hometown.

So I hope that is enough of an intro. It's hard to pin oneself down in a post, and I am out of practice! I did have an LJ that I kept for years, so maybe I just need to get back into the swing of things.

Oh, and I'm DarthRocky over at Twitter if you're into that kind of thing.

Wow, so, this fandom has completely messed with my world. I used to be a lurker who didn't write and labeled RPS as strangeness of the tinhat variety. Along comes Merlin and I am a participating, writing and (as a recent development) an RPS-reading person. Damn, if I had known this was going to happen, I would have chosen a better username.


Title:  Don't Be A Menace (To Camelot, While Drinking Your Ale in the Woods)
Author:  Ali
Rating:  R but only for language, it's pretty gen otherwise
Disclaimer:  This attempt at humor is not of any personal fiscal benefit, and I own nothing.
Spoilers/Warnings:  Up through S2 ep. 8. Also: unbeta'd
Summary:   For the kinkme_merlin prompt: Arthur/Merlin. Recognizing that Merlin is his father's man when it comes to the fight against magic, Arthur keeps the fact that his feelings about magic not being all bad to himself. Bonus for crack of Arthur and Merlin both going off to deal with magical things in secret from the king separately and basically tripping over each other try to accomplish the same task and pretending they're both there by happenstance.

( Fic under here )

So...I am in the middle of writing fic (again, I know, so strange) but am being dragged into the cold for a birthday dinner out (meaning, I don't have to prepare it). Okay, so this little celebratory thing is almost a week late, but I'll take it anyway.

Now, for the random: Every year my mom and I are assigned the task of preparing the squash (among other things) for Thanksgiving and Xmas dinners. Why? Because it is legendary. I have converted squash-haters with our magic, trufax. ANYWAY, we went a little overboard in the squash-purchasing this year, in part because we didn't realize our organic delivery service was bringing us a giant butternut along with our usual weekly haul. So I had to take a picture to document the madness.
( Cut, because not everyone wants to see my squash madness )

So, I don't exactly know how I found this (methinks I was searching for something Merlin-related and accidentally used Google Scholar) but the point is I did. A scholarly article, written by some group-psychologist dude, about Merlin. The title of the paper is "Merlin Emrys, First Group Consultant to the British Isle"

The article, published in Group Analysis, Vol. 33, No. 2, 271-287 (2000) is by M. Ettin, and the abstract goes like this:
Legend suggests that Merlin Emrys, man or myth, was Britain's first group consultant. In the 6th century, he provided guidance necessary for the generative matrix of the fragmented island, besieged from within and without, to transform into an integrated society. Critical aspects of psychotherapy groups and their leadership are explored by elaborating four myths characteristic of Merlin's life and amplifying the symbol of a tower central to each. The birth chamber; exploding fortress, windowed observatory, fellowship of the Round Table and the quest for the Holy Grail exemplify the group process.

I totally want to read this article, but like a lot of scholarly stuff you have to subscribe to see it. Oh well.

Linkage to article site

Okay, I need to stop being distracted by Merlin and actually study for my finals of doom.

Mmmkay, so I loved "Sins of The Father"...I think its the episode with the most emotional depth we've seen from Arthur in the whole series, and damn how. Hooray for character development.

Most people think that Merlin has sunk himself even deeper by pretending that Morgause was lying to Arthur the whole time in order to stop him from killing Uther. Here is what I think; regardless of what happened in this episode, when Arthur finds out Merlin is a sorcerer he would (and will) still have been (royally) pissed. Merlin has lied about magic many, many times before. This time, however, Merlin lied to save Arthur from doing something he would regret, to save the very person that condemns magic-users to death. If Merlin, by being a sorcerer, were de facto evil, he would have let Arthur run his father through. By lying, he saved the king's life (for the second time...not that Arthur knows that). Even if Arthur puts him in chains when he finds out, all Merlin has to say is "If I were evil, why did I stop you?" to get his friend back to the ideas he had already come up with on his own ("maybe all magic users are not bad").

Okay, I'm not sure that Morgause was telling the whole truth, but I am not sure she was right-out lying either. She might know Igraine from some kind of contact w/ the dead (which we have ascertained she has the power to summon, although she can't control how long they stay). Igraine may also have been unaware of the bargain that her husband struck with Nimueh.

Put it this way: Uther strikes a bargain with a sorceress for an heir. Neither of them know the consequence will be Igraine's life (although Nimueh probably should have). Uther does not tell his wife what he's done. Igraine dies after giving birth, and in death learns why, assuming her husband knowingly traded her life for her son's. In a way, this makes sense. The dead understand why they die (her life traded for her son's) but no longer have connection to the living (understanding her husband loved her and did not know her life was the price). So....the end result is that the ghost!Igraine thought her husband killed her on purpose, although that wasn't actually the case.

 Okay, so once upon a time I had an LJ. I was on the bandwagon early, too...it was somewhere around 2001/2. I had a very low "LJ-number", which is kind of like having a really low license plate tag in some states. Proves you've been around there for ever.

And then, one day, not so long ago...I deleted it. Its a long story. 

However, I find myself currently obsessed with "Merlin" in all its forms and have grown frustrated with the lack of people to go "squee!" with. I debated it in my head for a while, with the result being...here I am. Again. 

So now I will proceed to use this journal to do the fangirly thing, and write random things like "Someone just rode by on their bicycle singing a Weezer song". Trufax.