Their is always this moment in "Arthur returns" fics where the subject of how government has changed comes up and Merlin invariably goes "Oh yeah we have this thing called democracy now and it's really good haha" and each time I can't help but be taken back.
Cause look. I love Merlin but that boy is a hardcore, dyed in the wool Royalist if there ever was one. He believes in his King so much that he waited for more then a thousand years for the crisis bad enough that it would call Arthur back from Avalon to reclaim his throne, never doubting that he would return and he would fix everything when he did.
Merlin 100% believes in the institution of absolute monarchy as a result of Arthur. He would still be bitter about the Magna Carta in the year 2023 and have a dart board somewhere with a picture of Cromwell taped to it. He would be disgusted by the office of sovereign being reduced to figurehead celebrity and is convinced their hasn't been a proper sovereign since Anne Stuart. He calls the Hanovers "those posers from the continent". He likes the Windsors a little bit better but not much: George VI and Liz II won some points in his book for their services in World War 2, but he detests the advent of the modern "celebrity royal" for degrading the dignity of the crown to new lows.
Everything wrong with England and Britain, in his mind, is the fault of Parliament who he still sees as a bunch of unruly Barons and angry Roundheads squandering the nation's future to stay in power.
(If anything Arthur "I want what's best for my people always" Pendragon is the one much more into the idea of democracy and parliament, and would crush Merlin's hopes of simply dissolving to body by instead reforming it to make it more fair.)
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MYSTERY MAN
starring itoshi rin!
synopsis: you decide to go watch rin's football practice for the first time, much to his delight. his teammates struggle to figure out who you are and what you've done to their usually very grumpy rin.
requested by @checkoutmyflow! i hope i did your rq justice ^^
notes: first time completing a request! sorry for the wait >.< ALSO this is gn!reader :)
admittedly, you weren't much of a football fan, even though your boyfriend was a professional college player. you didn't really understand the sport, as you hadn't played it since second grade gym class, but for some reason, you had decided that today, on this sunny tuesday afternoon, you were going to drop by rin's practice alongside a football-for-dummies book to watch and hopefully learn a little about the sport he was so enamored with.
it would appear that they were in the middle of a practice match, as his teammates and him were wearing different colored pennies, and there was someone keeping score on a whiteboard.
you sat down on the bleachers quietly, not wanting to distract anyone from the game. your eyes scanned the field quickly, almost instantly finding rin's unique dark green hair. you tried your best to keep up with what was happening, quickly flipping through your book whenever someone did something cool to try and find it, but it proved to be quite difficult, and you found yourself very confused at the sport's intricacies.
despite your lack of understanding, the one thing you could observe and comprehend was how alive rin looked whilst playing. he was sweating, shit-talking, and scrambling around the field non-stop, clearly very tired, but his eyes had a certain glimmer to them that you didn't get to see often, and he moved around the field with immaculate grace and precision. you watched as he skillfully maneuvered around the field and how he seemed to be able to calculate exactly where his opponent would go. you didn't have to understand the sport to know that this field was a place where itoshi rin shined like no other.
rin took hold of the ball and began dashing across the field with it, his shiny hair blowing behind him. his eyes began darting around the field, his brain taking in and calculating every factor necessary to victory.
his brain certainly didn't expect to see you, his lovely s/o who knows nothing about football, sitting on the bleachers.
your eyes made contact for a brief moment before rin tripped over his own feet and flew forward, making literally everybody on the field stop what they were doing.
a brief moment of silence washed over the field before laughter soon took its place, his teammates jogging over to him asking if he was ok, and what the hell just happened as they howled in mirth.
he grumbled some excuse with red cheeks as he looked away, clearly very mortified. his coach decided to call a break, seeing as everyone had already stopped playing, and he grabbed his water before practically sprinting over to you.
"y/n," he breathed as he came to a stop in front of you, puffing a little from fatigue. "you're here."
you giggled. "hi, rin. i thought i should come watch one of your practices. i want to get to know all the aspects of your life, after all."
he leaned in closer to you to brush his hand against yours as you two chatted a bit. anyone could see the way his eyes softened as you spoke and how his shoulders relaxed at your every move. anyone even being his pretty-damn-stupid team.
in the distance, bachira, isagi, chigiri, nagi, and reo murmured amongst themselves, wondering about who you were - the mystery person mr. im-better-than-you-and-grumpy-all-the-time rin looked so happy to see.
"his sibling, maybe?"
"nah, i'm pretty sure sae is his only sibling."
"oh! what about his parent, then?"
"dude, do you have eyes? way too hot to be a parent."
"his lover, maybe?"
there were a solid 5 seconds of silence before they burst out into laughter once more.
"get out. itoshi rin, an s/o? no way in hell, dude."
"i doubt he could even keep anyone for more than a month. they'd get tired of his attitude real quick and leave just as fast."
"rin-chan probably isn't capable of loving anyone, after all."
despite their adamant denial of your relationship with rin, they could all notice rin's demeanor. he looked happier, more at ease, gentler, kinder, and overall, he looked like a normal person. who were you, and what had you done to their rin?
coach blew his whistle, and they watched as you gestured for him to get back with his team. they then watched with their jaws on the floor as he, itoshi rin, POUTED and SWEETLY PLANTED A KISS on your forehead before jogging off.
they all exchanged looks of pure shock as rin jogged back to them.
they all gave him a shocked look as he raised a brow.
"...what?"
𝐄𝐓𝐎𝐈𝐈𝐋𝐄 ©𝟐𝟎𝟐𝟑 please do not copy or repost my work on any other site. interactions appreciated! 🤍
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okay but he finds us right… *laughs nervously* RIGHT?!?!
the first 48 hours in a missing person's case are the most crucial.
searches have to be started and evidence has to be secured and information has to be gathered. after that, people start—forgetting things. important things. little details that could mean your life or death. the station has already opened back up by now, and whatever daily foot traffic they see has already stamped what's left of you into the pavement. you could be out of the country for all katsuki knows. by the third day without water, organs start to deteriorate.
chances of finding a survivor begin to greatly decrease; you stop looking for a person, and you start looking for a body.
deku and kirishima—everyone, really—have been kind enough not to change mission status from rescue to recovery, and katsuki can't tell if that's for better or for worse.
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