The 2020 Will Appreciation Fest

friends don't lord it over one another!

[admiralsushishin]

There’s frantic knocking at the door. Hunith drops the dough she was kneading, dusts the flour off her hands, and opens the door to find two little faces beaming up at her.

“We got these for you!” A bouquet is thrust eagerly up at her. 

She thanks them both and accepts the flowers, then looks down sternly: this is not the first bouquet she has received recently. “Now, what did you boys get up to?”

Her son bursts out, “We didn’t mean it!”

“Yes, we did,” says William, who then stammers and adds, “But we won’t do it again, promise!”

@albionparty - Week two (blue team)

[theandrogynousdragon]

https://archiveofourown.org/works/33039511/chapters/82010203 

@panharmonium 

come get this bread lmao 

[willappreciationfest]

MORE Will-centric fic published this month...everybody go read and enjoy! <3333

summary:

Will had told Madoc not to mess with that crumbling magic book. Madoc had turned his DEFCON-one-grade pleading eyes on Will, though, and Will, predictably, had caved immediately.

Now, of course, they were apparently stuck in Ancient Wales. Fantastic. Will kind of liked that he could throw his phone out with impunity, but Madoc's grumbling wasn't very pleasant, especially considering it was Madoc's fault they were here in the first place, like.

Will could also definitely do without the Arthur-lookalike ranting about how magic was evil and corrupted the soul and all. This Arthur was definitely more annoying than the one Will knew, that much was certain.

[admiralsushishin]

The (Other) Last Dragonlord

Written for @albionparty - Week one: Protagonists

Relationships: Merlin & Will Rating: Gen Word Count: 3033 Summary: “Before he died,” Merlin says slowly, “My father mentioned that he learned to whittle from one of Essetir’s dragonlords. A dragonlord from Ealdor.”

“You can’t arrest me,” is the first thing out of Will’s mouth.

He grins in Merlin’s direction, then folds his arms and plants his feet, blocking the entrance to his home. “Last I checked, Ealdor is still outside Camelot’s borders.” He tilts his chin up defiantly and glares at Arthur.

“We’re here to ask for your help,” says Merlin quickly, before Arthur can do something inflammatory such as demand it. Then again, practically anything out of Arthur’s mouth would probably be inflammatory to Will.

Read on AO3

[gwen-cheers-me-up]

Fandom: Merlin (TV)

The One Who Stayed (2.3k)

Rating: Teen And Up Audiences; Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings

Relationships: Merlin & Will (Merlin), Merlin/Will (Merlin)

Characters: Will (Merlin), Merlin (Merlin)

Additional Tags: Canon Era, Pre-Canon, Canon Compliant, Missing Scene, Angst, Platonic Kissing, Queerplatonic Relationships, Aromantic, Aromantic Merlin, Friendship, POV Will, the untaggable qpr strikes again

Summary:

Will confronts Merlin the night he leaves Ealdor, unwilling to let his best friend sneak away without saying goodbye.

Deep down, Will knows nothing he says can make Merlin stay. But he can hope.

Written for @merlin-aro-fest Day 1: “Queerplatonic”

[admiralsushishin]

Ealdor buddies!

They’re definitely up to something. 

[once-and-future-gay]

for this ghost au i made :)

“You’re leaving,” Merlin said. It did not have the cadence of a question.

They were up on the battlements, watching the sun bleed into the horizon and set the sky ablaze in the blooming, fledgeling of morn. Will was little more than stirring air now. A whisper of a ghost, like when they used to mumble things in the dirt, twenty feet away from each other, and believed it would carry their words through the churning mud and pulsing veins of Earth. Hm. Children were foolish like that. Believing silly things like grass passing murmurs along, or friends never leaving them behind.

“I have to,” Will replied, after a moment’s hesitation.

Ha! Merlin thought, with bitterness souring on his tongue, Will hesitating. Fancy that.

“You don’t,” he said, and winced at the quickness of it. And then, quieter: “You… you don’t.”

Keep reading

[katieskeep]

| CAMELOVE2021 ❤︎ DAY6 | Always by your side

[admiralsushishin]

Don’t Say Nothing’s Wrong

Written for @camelove2021​ - Day 6: Always By Your Side

Relationships: Merlin & Will, Gilli & Will Rating: Gen Word count: 1970 Summary: Will lives, and goes to Camelot to yell at Merlin for protecting Uther. 

“So that’s what magic should be used for? To protect Uther Pendragon? Why? He’s the one person who’s the biggest threat to magic, and to you personally! You can’t tell me you’re okay, when you’re here, in danger, every damn day!”

Read on AO3

[little-ligi]

Aaaand here is Day 6: Always by Your Side for @camelove2021 and a VERY late entry for @willappreciationfest because I never got around to writing anything for it last year!

Ooh, You're My Best Friend

Link to Ao3

“That was brilliant!” Will crowed, dropping the basket he had snagged and clutching his ribs as he laughed.

“My mum would have my hide if she knew I was using my magic for silly jokes,” Merlin complained, but he was laughing just as hard as Will, not really concerned about his mum’s ire at the moment.

“Not silly jokes. Excellent jokes!” Will bumped his shoulder into Merlin’s. “Stupid old bugger deserved it for chasing us with that broom yesterday.”

“True. That was rather uncalled for. We didn’t even pinch anything.”

“Only because you knocked over the bloody chair. I would’ve had that bottle of ale if you hadn’t brought him running with all the noise.”

“Well it really hurt my shin.” Merlin rubbed his bruised shin now to prove the point.

“Yeah, that’s why you didn’t run away fast enough.”

“I couldn’t run; I was in agony!” Merlin protested, staggering about it mock pain. It would have been a much more convincing if he hadn’t also been pouting and giggling.

Some sweet and funny Merlin/Will antics.

For Camelove 2021 and Will Appreciation Fest.

[twosidesofthesameidiot]

[merlinsprat]

top 15 favorite bbc merlin dynamics as voted by the fandom ↪ #14: Merlin and Will

[willappreciationfest]

Well, folks, we’ve finally entered the new year, which means that we’re also marking the end of the official Will Appreciation Fest!  Thank you so much to everyone who participated - this little event ended up garnering way more interaction than I ever would have expected, and I can’t tell you how much fun it has been to see everything you guys have made.  I am so grateful to both those who contributed a project and those who supported our creators!

Going forward, I’ll be continuing to maintain this blog as a general character appreciation space, so if you’d still like to contribute something Will-centric, you’re welcome to do so!  :)  And, in the interest of making it easier for me to locate Will-centric pieces - probably one of the most effective things this blog can potentially accomplish at the end of this festival is to establish a shared tag for Will across the fandom (it’s a little tough to search for him when his name is also an extremely common verb XD).  Moving forward, I’m going to emulate @gremlinbehaviour​ (who established the #bbc merlin gen tag for gen content) and suggest that if you’d like to tag Will in something, or have me share it here, consider using the tag #bbc merlin will, which is what I’ll have this blog tracking from now on.

Thank you so much again to everyone who participated in this event.  You all made the last few months of 2020 so much brighter!  

Happy New Year! 💕

[sneakyboymerlin]

A Miracle, If You Will (WIP)

By sneakyboymerlin on Ao3

Summary: The arrow doesn’t pierce any of Will’s vital organs, but they still need to get him to Camelot. However, nobody expects him to actually stay there.

In other words: Will doesn’t just survive. He thrives.

Relationships: Merlin & Will (Merlin), Gaius & Merlin (Merlin), Other Relationship Tags to Be Added

Characters: Merlin (Merlin), Will (Merlin), Gaius (Merlin), Arthur Pendragon (Merlin)

Word Count: 3,514

Written for @willappreciationfest 🎉

[willappreciationfest]

Wow, we’ve received a second fic submission this week - how lucky are we???  This one is a work in progress, so be sure to bookmark or subscribe in order to stay updated - and, as always, feel free to leave our wonderful author some love in the comments! 

Thank you so much for contributing, @sneakyboymerlin​! 💕

[merlinsblueeyes]

An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works

Summary: Will and Merlin had always looked forward to the harvest ever since they were little. They got to run around, cheer and holler, sing as loud as they wanted and no one would bat an eye. It was the day when their raucous troublemaking was viewed by the village not as an annoyance, but as part of all the fun. Today was different, though.

**********

Will and Merlin sat on the roof of a house in Ealdor, legs kicking off the side and knees touching ever so slightly. Their faces were illuminated by the golden yellow light of the full moon that greatly contrasted the dark night sky.

The air smelled of a cool night breeze, crisp autumn leaves, and food cooking in the village below. Music played softly from somewhere not too far away. It was the day of harvest in Ealdor when the farmers bring in the crops they’ve been growing all summer and come together to make a feast, with everything ranging from roasted pheasant to sweet desserts. A bonfire is lit and everyone dances and drinks, having one more day of laughter before the weather turns cold and dismal and the crops die out.

Will and Merlin had always looked forward to the harvest ever since they were little. They got to run around, cheer and holler, sing as loud as they wanted and no one would bat an eye. It was the day when their raucous troublemaking was viewed by the village not as an annoyance, but as part of all the fun.

Today was different, though.

Keep reading

[willappreciationfest]

Wow, everybody; we’ve had two contributions in two days!  This one is in the form of fic - head on over to Ao3 to check this piece out, and as always, feel free to leave our wonderful author some love after reading! 💕

[gedref]

there’s a @willappreciationfest going on! i’m late as usual, but all i do is think about merlin and will’s backstory every hour of every day

[blueclaw7]

For The 2020 Will Appreciation Fest

—-

This was sitting on my computer as a WIP for months. There are some mistakes but I finally decided to slap some scenes and finish it for better or worse.

Note to future-self: Don’t try to edit with a song that has fast beats when the character has 20min of total screen time and %70 of it is talking. 

I also shamelessly shortened the song because there were no scenes left. It is still 3 minutes long, so that’s something.

Hope you like it!

[willappreciationfest]

Hello there, fellow Will Appreciators!  

This is just an early-December reminder that we’ve now entered the last official month of the Will Appreciation Fest, so if you’ve been considering contributing something and would still like to send it in, you have until the end of the year to do so!  Basic guidelines and instructions for how to contribute can be found in our intro post, but the short version is that you should a) tag your work with #willappreciation2020, and b) message @willappreciationfest​ (or my main blog, @panharmonium​) to let me know about it, just in case the tag doesn’t catch it!

As always, a huge thank you to everyone who’s contributed already - you’ve all made amazing things, and I’ve had so much fun sharing all of your work here!  Looking forward to our last few weeks! ❤️