Fannish gifts and recs

For the Informal Twitter Podfic Exchange, quintenttsy aka leish recorded one of my favorite fics published this year, Tangled by thingswithwings. This is a long Community fic (the podfic is more than three hours) with Annie and Troy and Abed learning how to have relationships while living together and learning how to knit. It is just the kind of story I love, about young people growing up and figuring out their own sexual identity and how to help each other and make each other happy. quintenttsy is also dear to me as a podfic reader and as a person, and it's been delightful for me to be walking around with her voice in my ears this holiday, including a half hour when I had to get away from my family on Tuesday. Thank you so much, Leisha, I love it. Here is the podfic of Tangled and here are the zillion other #itpe podfics!

I am also thrilled and amazed by the fic an anonymous author wrote for me as part of merlin_holidays. I requested several rare ships, of which perhaps the rarest was Freya/Gwen, and my author wrote more than 23,000 words of a historical AU set in Glastonbury in 1905, starring Freya as the head of an orphanage for magical children and Gwen as the genderqueer shoemaker she falls in love with. YOU GUYS. There is fascinating stuff about the secret magical community and there is porn with magic and homemade sex toys and there are interesting parts for Merlin and Morgana and Mary the barmaid and it is basically everything I love and what I wish fandom would be like all the time. It is called The Shoemaker and you should go read it!

Here are two other Merlin fics I've enjoyed recently:

-With Half-Shut Eyes by anonymous at merlin_holidays, Arthur/Merlin, 32K, explicit. This is a great Merlin-POV coffeeshop AU and I wish it were easier to make that sound exciting. :P The Arthur/Merlin is hot and interesting and I also really loved Merlin's group of friends, including Gwen, Elyan, Hunith, and Lancelot. <3 <3 Mind the content notes and be aware that the conflict involves MISUNDERSTANDING but anyway I recommend this fic like whoa.

-My Density Has Brought Me To You by ingberry, Arthur/Merlin, 18K, explicit. This was part of the uni_merlin fest, which I somehow wasn't aware of at all even though a bunch of my friends participated in it? I'm sorry you guys! Anyway Mordred as the roommate from hell who freaks Merlin out by screaming at his videogames in the middle of the night is so inspired I can't even deal. This is another Merlin-POV fic full of warmth and humor as well as Arthur/Merlin hotness. I might make a podfic!

I haven't had much alone time or reading time this holiday and I'd appreciate any recs you have to give me, especially for merlin_holidays. A lot of the fics are super long and it all feels rather overwhelming to me, but Merlin fic is really what I want to be reading right now, especially with all the feels this finale has given me.

Merlin fic: I Like a Boy in Uniform

Title: I Like a Boy in Uniform
Author: sophinisba
Fandom: Merlin
Starring: Elyan and bros (almost gen)
Rating: PG
Contains: n/a
Wordcount: 1042
Notes: Takes place during 4x13, no spoilers for season 5. Written for the "dressup" square on my kink_bingo card! Thanks to flammablehat for looking it over for me. Title from the Pipettes song, which I know from this adorable season 1 Merlin vid. Yay I finished another fic before the end of the year!
Summary: Elyan and the other knights get ready for Arthur and Gwen's wedding.
Links: Read it at the AO3

( I Like a Boy in Uniform )