Can we get learning to trust and darkness please 🥺
Sorry for the delay in answering. Figuring out what I could and couldn't talk about in this two was harder than I expected, especially because they are relatively bigger than the others.
Leaning to Trust: White Collar season one, after Threads (s1e02).
Part of a still unnamed series that's teased about in “Deal(s)”.
Following a string of WIPs that started with “Human”, in this one Neal's position in the FBI is questioned when some discrepancies in the arrival schedule of a Degas on loan from the Louvre lead Neal to discover it's a forgery.
This case becomes top priority. Almost the entire White Collar division is working non-stop to find the missing sketch in a 24 hours deadline untill they have to communicate the disappearance to Paris. If this became public, that the MET lost another museum's piece before it even got exhibited, it would cause an international scandal (or something like that).
The pressure on Neal to prove to suspicious FBI agents he has nothing to do with the forgery, added to the threat of losing his deal, makes Neal push himself beyond his limits to find the real culprit. Unfortunately, his body can't handle it all and forces him to stop, quite abruptly and scaring the hell out of Peter in the process.
I really love this one, but I'm afraid of saying more here because I don't want to spoil anyone who may read Deal(s) and then this one, once is posted. Learning to Trust expands on what I mentioned in that fic, about a part of Neal's recent past and his reasons (in this AU) to find Kate as soon as possible.
It's almost completely done, but I took a break to write Christmas Together (and then took a break from that one to write Lots of Snow and Ice... 🤦🏻♀️).
Anyway, Learning to Trust is about Peter discovering Neal's a *Human Being* (which he seemed to occasionally forget in those first episodes - like I talked about in my s1e03 "Fear" ask) and that the FBI can't keep using his skills on and on, the other agents mistreating him, and think he'll be still smiling as if nothing was wrong at the end of the day.
I love this one! I really love this one it's insane!
It's one of those stories where everything happens really fast and the characters have to figure out a way of solving it before it's too late.
Darkness is approaching from everywhere around Camelot. One day, when the sun starts to set, as soon as it touches the horizon, a mist emerges from the woods. It is dense and heavy, as if it drained light itself. Soon everyone in Camelot notices and starts panicking.
When Arthur learns about it, he calls the town's people to come to the castle grounds and then orders the gates shut, to try to keep them safe. Everybody knows this is something magical, and they know the wooden gates won't be able to hold the dark mist out.
There's a heavy silence in the overflowing courtyard, as they all see the darkness rising above the castle's walls, coiling as if preparing to strike with all it's fury. The moment it is ready to descend upon them, though, someone at the palace's steps screams in absolute rage. The ground shakes when a wave of golden magic runs through the stones at their feet, emerging from that person, and hits the castle walls.
Immediately a dozen symbols in the stone walls, previously invisible to the eyes, start glowing, getting charged by the magic. They are initially greater than a carriage in size, but as the magic feeds them, they start to grow even more. The circular symbols begin weaving and expanding in intricate patterns, like conscious vines spreading through the stones and going beyond them.
The magical symbols start connecting to themselves and rising up through the air. More and more symbols made of pure golden light appear from the connection of the original ones, creating a web around the castle and courtyard. The darkness recoils from it, but the spell continues growing up, untill it finally is complete, forming a dome, a shield above them all.
When the darkness starts spreading around it, in it's final stage to suffocate them all, everyone waits with bathed breath the moment it'll break through. That never happens, it cannot pass the light. After a moment of suspense the people seem to accept that the shield is protecting them, keeping the darkness on the outside.
That's when they all turn to see who had cast the spell to protect them.
Everyone sees Merlin standing atop the castle's steps, arms raised, eyes glowing gold.
I really like this one, because it's another situation in which Arthur finds out about Merlin's magic and is forced, for reasons greater than his anger and feelings of betrayal, to have him nearby.
They have to work together to figure out a way to end the dark magic on the outside without leaving the safety of the shield, uncertain of what happens when you're caught by the dark spell.
(This one is supposed to not have a happy ending - multiple MCD style - but I don't know if I have the hearts to go through with it)
