Oh my shiny new fandom

Reading Merlin fic is like being transported back to the very early seasons of Buffy, when bad things happened but life was still fun. And reading stories full of British expressions, used casually and correctly, is a lovely change.

And Arthur and Merlin are so damned slashable.

I loved this show from the start. I loved the irreverence that mixed the high medieval with the modern (Gaius talking about infective agents and making a sandwich, for example) to create a world of pure fantasy that spoke to more than one aspect of my aesthetic appreciation (but then, I love the films, A Knight's Tale and Moulin Rouge, too). I know that this trick, which is very attractive to me, is the very thing that repels others. If that's the case for you, fine, but don't go trying to convert me to your view, because you'll fail and will simply annoy me. The way I suspend my disbelief is my business.

*Ahem* Sorry. Back to the point.

I started by finding aleathiel on tamingthemuse, here and from there, by randomly bouncing around, discovered that there are other, really strong writers, writing short, canon related pieces, in this fandom.

Then I went searching for longer stories and found that, maybe because it's such a new fandom with so little canon to date and fanfic writers are unsure of how canon will develop (given the games the writers have played with the legendary characters), the long stories seem to be modern AUs.

In the BtVS fandom I'm cautious of human AUs, but in this fandom I'm coming to love the modern AU format.
( some recs )

If you have read any other, good, long stories and can point me at them, please, please, will you do so? I'm hungry for more Merlin and Arthur. Did I mention my addiction to happy endings and snark?