I wanna gush about Storm and Merlin!!
Right off the bat, I bought this commission from GreenGradient on on ToyHouse! I love his work and working with him was so fun!!
It's my Mabinogi character Storm and one of their best friends Merlin together, watching some spell or other blowing up in the distance. That's what I had pictured when talking about this commission with the artist, anyway.
And fucking call me sentimental or whatever but these two just mean the absolute world to me istg and it really is such a crime that I haven't drawn the two of them interacting before, because I always struggle with character interactions for whatever reason and also been going through a lot of burn out recently </3
But thats besides the point!
I just really love Storm and Merlin's dynamic because there's so many things to love! Like I love both of their energies, with both of them being very out-going and pretty loud characters, I just know they're insufferable together (/affectionate). They're loud and very affectionate with each other and honestly I wouldn't be surprised if they got the fated question of "are you two dating?" that every pair best friends get I feel like lmao. But no they're literally just besties fr fr and neither of them need anything more than that <3
I also really love the canon interactions that you have with Merlin in-game, he always seems so excited to see you, and would literally stop at nothing if it meant helping you in your journey. I also love how he just shows up hehe, he sends you letters and stuff and I feel like a lot of people make him out to be dumber than he is, just because he doesn't take himself super seriously - he still really knows his shit and is incredibly smart and skilled at all sorts of magic! I think G27 was actually a pretty good insight to him as a character, with him trying to get into Murias, he says that he almost managed to break through the portal, if it weren't for Leannan stopping him - and while he is known to exaggerate here and there, I honestly believe him! He's shown to be very capable with portal magic in the past, with the portal thing he set up on the bridge at Tory Ravine, how he helped stabilize the rift to Glenn Bearna at Sliab Mis, and even helping us find the portal to Murias in the first place. So yeah I do believe that given enough time he could have probably broken through the barrier of the portal if it weren't for Leannan.
And speaking of, I think I really like the detail in G27 with his letter he sends you, first being protected by a spell so that only you can open it, and second, making it so that only you can read the letter and making the text invisible to anyone else. He knows you're likely in a tricky situation and so has the foresight to ensure that only you can read what the letter really says, in case you may need to lie about it's contents or something. I cannot remember past gens well enough if this is a consistent detail about the letters he sends to you, however I personally have the headcanon that this is true for every letter he sends to Storm in my story. I picture him to be actually pretty cautious. With said caution perhaps edging into paranoia territory as I like to think that even the every-day mundane letters he sends to Storm are protected with these charms, because you never know what could happen, right?
Anyways I think I got a little side-tracked, because I was gonna yap about Storm and Merlin in this image! So lets do that!
Like I said I pictured them having a spell blow up in the distance and they're watching, because I had it written that Merlin is actually the one to start teaching Storm some magic, at their request. And he's all too excited when Storm asks if he'd teach them "some cool fire spells". Worst mistake of his life, you shouldn't trust Storm with fire spells - but you also shouldn't trust Merlin with fire spells either imo, so you can imagine the shit they get up to together. I feel like Merlin would first try to be practical about his lessons, starting off with some of the basics of spell casting and getting that down, but I feel like the two of them would very quickly get ahead of themselves, as their excitement but bounces off of each other like a fucking ping-pong ball until they're just "seeing what happens". And big explosions is what happens! They at least had the foresight to go off to a large empty field to practice, but Storm of course starts with the basics like fire bolt, then from there its all down hill lmao. I also like the idea of magic in general (e.g, most of my headcanons for magic, regardless of universe) almost always has some kind of link to the casters emotions, whether it be calm and controlled, angry and explosive, or free and wild, the casters emotional state plays a lot part of how a spell is cast, in my headcanons anyway. So with Storm's excitement, as well as their beginner level of spell-casting knowledge, the spells they cast are wild and a bit unpredictable, as they're unintentionally rushing ahead, so casting fire bolt normally just sends a bolt of fire at a target, meanwhile with Storm it's path is like a wonky firework, littered with sparks, and due to elves being more naturally attuned with magic, even at novice levels, it kinda ends in a bigger explosion than originally planned. But that just eggs them on even more, grinning and shaking Merlin's shoulder like "OMFG THAT WAS SO COOL- DID YOU SEE THAT??" and Merlin being just as excited and hyped up being all "I SAW! DUDE THAT WAS SICK I KNEW YOU'D BE A NATURAL AT THIS!". And that energy just carries on the whole day lol. It's just a really fun image in my head and the two have a lot of fun together!
As time goes on Storm does get more practiced at magic and starts incorporating it into their fighting-style, mixing their chain blade and magic together, kinda like if the Elemental Knight Arcana could be used with chain blades instead of swords, lighting the length of their chain blade on fire and such.
Thanks for listening to me yap lol I fucking love Merlin so much guys he's my homie fr fr