Avalon12 Au - Blog Posts

Some other characters from my Avalon12 au

Siblings

I've been trying to design Kilgharrah and no matter what I sketch he comes out looking like either Price or Benoit Blanc I can't I might just embrace it at this point

And some random here and there facts

This is a Merthur au but the build up is slow. Merlin and Arthur spend majority of the plot forming a friendship and only then falling for each other. In fact, in the beginning of the plot Merlin is kinda of fresh out of a unsuccessful fling with Edwin (which definitely doesn't have any major consequences) and at some point him and Lance have something forming between them. So, if I'm going to continue, I might sketch both

Morgana was trained almost on the same combat level as Arthur and keeps it up. Gwen has a degree in mechanical engineering specifically but still does blacksmithing for a hobby

Freya has her goddamn teahouse somewhere around where Gaius lives and she's Merlin's close friend I'm tired of her being an unhappy character kbkkhhknt

Leon has a long-term partner he refused to disclose any personal information about, including gender, for a long time and eventually it turned out they're just non-binary and a published writer

Avalon12 au

And here are the plot thoughts so far

Like I said, Kilgharrah is magical, well-informed and well-connected. The concern towards magic grows, the incidents get bigger, so a major counteroperation begins under top secrecy. Along with it, the army signs their so far longest contract with Avalon12 — they get constant assignments to seemingly random missions that have an underlying motive; to eliminate and destroy the magical threat without disclosing information. The squad gets new efficient training and the most important weapon — Merlin

Their dynamic is similar to the show. Kilgharrah reveals himself to Merlin and explains his transfer. Now, Merlin has to, somehow, lead 12 killing machines of soldiers to clean up sites of magical experiments gone wrong (this is where the horror creatures come in) and eliminate sorcerers that are preparing a magical war and armageddon, all that without exactly letting them know what's happening before shit absolutely hits the fan and no other way is left. (Which doesn't really work out for long)

I'm also thinking about keeping Morgana as a sort of antagonist/antihero, who discovers her own magic, in her desire to ruin Uther's business, makes a deal with the magicals. That comes back, biting her in the ass and she ends up having to choose between ensuring Gwen's or Arthur's safety. She chooses Gwen

Avalon12 au

Okay I thought a lot of thoughts about the lore so here's a bit of a summary. Small disclaimer none of this is realistic I'm pulling this out of my ass and thin air

Avalon is the name of one of the biggest military suppliers founded by Uther and several other ex-soldiers (Olaf and others). Tech, ammunition, research, they do it all. Currently the majority of the company is legally owned and run by Morgana

Avalon12 isn't only 12 people. It's a network of independent, international contractors funded, trained and sustained by Uther and co themselves. That's the part of Avalon's business Morgana has no say or hand in. The hirable squad usually contains 12 troops, 6 of them rotating after each mission to ensure safety and anonymity, and 6 being permanent members (bravo team). They are mostly hired for high-risk political missions that could spark international conflicts if executed by any of the national armed forces

Bravo team is the knights under Arthur's command. They're ghosts, people who don't exist in the eye of government — officially, Uther Pendragon lost his son to an accident years ago. Arthur was raised as a war weapon and is the only one on the team who still goes by his birth name to keep up the arthurian morale and bravado. Lancelot, Gwaine, Percival, Elyan and Leon initially lived their lives under different names but those personas got consensually wiped out once they replaced the original bravo team (Leon is the only one who didn't start under Arthur's command)

Morgana fucking hates Uther. She bonds with Gwen after her dad dies and Elyan, driven by grief, accepts the offer to join Arthur's team and almost gets permanently separated from his sister due circumstances. Morgana makes Gwen her assistant, goes against Uther for the first time and gives Gwen and Elyan means of regular, stable contact. She wants to take over Avalon12 and end it for both Gwen and Arthur. At the start of plot, her and Gwen are engaged

Magic is a completely unknown force. It only starts being explored at the time this au starts unfolding, leading to a slow uprising of magicals as well as unofficial/undocumented experiments the governments are aware of but, so far, too uninformed and powerless to make the matter public

Merlin and his family have magic in their lineage. Merlin serves in Intelligence corps, being an interpreter, researcher and field scientist. Kilgharrah is a major general and a sorcerer himself, although Merlin, who works almost directly under him, doesn't know it. Kilgharrah knows about Merlin's power and keeps him close for that reason

Merlin and Gaius research magic here too

Night patrols

Empathy (2/2)

He does feel the scrapes and soreness of his palms under the gloves the night after that, picking apart and putting back together a receiver in the dim light of a portable lamp beside his base bunk. Lance watches him over his book, Merlin can feel it, but he can't help the hurt tremor no matter how hard he grips the plastic. His thumb slides off the handle of the screwdriver awkwardly and something inside the box cracks on the impact, loudly, making Arthur throw his head up from the paperwork and glare at him. Then, the gaze softens on the edges. Then, Arthur meets his eyes with a lost look and furrowed brows like he's witnessing something he isn't sure how to register and process. Merlin hears a shaky, choked inhale hit his throat even before he himself can register or process it.

He bites down on the screwdriver, looking away and cracking the device back open with his fingers.

The tears keep falling and he keeps feeling them crawl across his face and bury their way into his skin.

Empathy (1/2)

//tw gore

The man is already dead when Lance lightly pushes Gwaine against the empty window opening with deliberation of a disappointed mother hen. To sit down, it is, but Gwaine's arse slides right in and he catches himself first with a startled shriek and then a wounded cry. Lance curses, curses some more while pulling him into an upright position and pressing harder on the bleeding wound.

And there it is.

"Jesus Christ."

The man lays right below what once was a windowsill and looks, medically speaking, fresh. Not rigid, but not yet bloated, which is surprising in the dry heat of the late afternoon.

Merlin prefers to silently recite rather than think about, well, the thing.

"Jesus Christ," Elyan echoes with a choked jump in his voice that might be a suppressed gag.

Rigor mortis, livor mortis, algor mortis. Algor mortis, rigor— Jesus, the teeth. Mortis. Jesus fucking Christ. No, rigor—

Merlin knows a curse when he sees one. Doesn't know what kind, but parts of a wholly developed foreign skeleton growing all over the man's body like some Last of Us type of fungus is more than likely not any of the something-something mortis stages. If the cold shock on Lance's face is anything to go by. If the goddamn mutilated, grotesquely absurd corpse is anything to go by.

Leon moves first, dropping off his load a few feet away from the ruin and helping Gwaine to plop himself onto the backpack instead. The recent unspoken rule of action first, questions second sets in motion and the team nervously moves aside, back into the slowly reddening sunlight, in a matter of seconds. Merlin follows, stripping Gwaine off his gear and parrying some poorly executed sex jokes that he forces out through gritted teeth."

Keep running your mouth and I'll send you to walk this," Merlin can't see what exactly Lance's freshly gloved hands do behind Gwaine's back but Gwaine squeaks and punches his own thigh in frustration, "off. All the way to the base."

There isn't actually any malice behind his words, only tired concern. He moves gently while sticking Gwaine with needles from his kit and slowly washing out the torn wound, sun settling lower and lower behind them. At some point Gwaine sits up straighter, pulling away from Merlin's supportive hold, and carries on a light conversation between the five of them. Four, to be more exact, because Merlin quietly drops off his rifle by Elyan's side and nods towards the ruin. The man gives him a heavy look, but no more, really.

White walls burn in the bloody red light of the sunset. The roof is partially caved in and the ruin doesn't really look inhabited by a squatter, so Merlin wonders if the dead man came here to die. The maggot infestation on his mutations is too large and visible to be postmortem, the body looks malnourished to the point of starvation — Merlin notes with a dull ache in his head as he inspects the broken jaw and the necrosis around it. For a brief second, a dangerous thought of trying to trace the magical seal on the curse, to find out where the man came from, but a loud boom of laughter outside makes him jump up anxiously and back up a few steps, bumping into a pile of collapsed bricks. He picks a piece up, staring between the stone and the body in front of him for a few seconds, considering how much time they have before Arthur's voice comes through the comms again. He stares, and nearly misses the movement in dead man's eyes and some bump rolls down his to the side of his nose. Merlin's breath hitches and a panicked spell almost escapes his mouth when another small bump falls out and he comes to a sickening realization that the unnatural white of the dead eyes isn't of the eyes at all.

The corpse cries and if Merlin cries real tears with it as he mechanically piles up rocks on top of it with his bare hands, he doesn't feel it.