guess who's back *music plays in the background* back again.

What up everyone! Who's ready for another round of THE LADY VIVIANE: How NOT to Write an Original Character! Let's get right to it, shall we?

Merlin's head throbbed when he woke up. He was lying in bed. A bed, not his bed. Kinky He sat up looking around at his surroundings. Gaius was sitting at the table in the room, grinding together some manner of plant. In the bed across the room, Viviane lay sleeping peacefully. Gaius looked up.

"Ah! You've finally awakened." Gaius smiled. "Arthur will be glad to hear it."

"Where are we?" Merlin asked head groggy and mouth parched. "What happened?" Honestly, I'd like to know too. Its been a few months since I read the last chapter and since I am too lazy to go back and read it again, I am totally clueless. Nice to be reading something that leaves such an impression, don't you think?

"We are in one of the bedrooms in Greenvale's manor." Gaius said looking around at the small room. "After your little group left, Greenvale agreed that if you were in trouble, it would be wise to follow in case his aid was needed. I came because I was almost certain you were going to get hurt." The aging man explained. "It appears I was right." He said, raising an eyebrow. Convenient. No, but seriously, why the heck is Gaius here? That's some lazy writing my friends. The laziest of lazy.

"But, what happened?" Merlin asked again, still confused.

"I'm not quite sure." Gaius admitted, just as puzzled as the boy was. "When we arrived, we found all of you unconscious in the garden. Morgana was nowhere to be found." Yeah, having EVERYONE faint is a bit much. Like... was it really necessary? No. Was there any sort of reason for it? Not really. If I wanted so desperately for Viviane to be injured by the end there are better ways to do that. 1) have her and Morgana actually duke it out? That pity party from last chapter was weird and boring. 2) Give her actual wounds instead of 'fainting daintily' she ain't a flower she's a human and human's can get hurt. 3) why does she need to be injured? Its stupid is what it is.

"But, we were at her mercy… why would she leave?" Merlin wondered. "Is everyone else okay? Did Morgana do anything to any of them?"

"Everyone is fine." Gaius assured him. "Actually, for awhile I thought she might have done something to you." Gaius's gaze fell on Viviane. Merlin followed his gaze. The gaze ran around the room in circles for a bit until Merlin got tired and sat back down.

"Is she alright?" Merlin asked, concerned.

"Yes, she's been drifting in and out for awhile now." Gaius sighed.

"What's wrong though? Is she injured?" Merlin asked moving the hair out of her face absentmindedly.

"No…" Gaius said hesitantly. "It appears to be severe dehydration." Merlin looked at Gaius in confusion. "She'll be all right. Just weak for awhile, a little under the weather." He said pouring his finely ground plant into a kettle. Heck was this supposed to be some vauge hint to whatever supernatural thing is going on with her? Severe dehydration?... I'm not sure they even knew the word dehydration back then. It sounds out of place in any case.

"Is that medicine for her?" Merlin asked, nodding towards the concoction.

"It's tea, Merlin." Gaius said, as if it were obvious.

"Medical tea?"

"Just plain, normal, tea." Gaius said shaking his head.

"You know how to make that?" Merlin asked in surprise. Gaius rolled his eyes. Comedy Folks. Its classic.

CHANGEEEEEEE.oOo.Scene

Viviane breathed in the cool forest air. It was refreshing after so long spent cooped up in that room with Tristan bothering her every chance he got. Just to hint that she is a viable option to other guys besides Merlin and Gaius. No but actually, this is an important element to have in developing a romance, but you have to do it right. If there's only one person for each of them in the relationship that they just automatically fall in love with, it doesn't make sense. At the very least have a reason why no one is interested, and if you're going to do that you have to make it a good one. Basically, when characters exist in a space other characters are going to view them based from their point of view. It feels super fake when none of the knights have any feelings for someone because the author is saving that character for a pairing later down the line. This also isn't to say that every character should be falling head over heels for the protagonist and or love interest. That also gets predictable and unrealistic. However adding the element of other options can be a key to adding layers of realism to your story. It just takes a lot of subtly and fine tuning, which is hard to do. Still trying to figure it out myself. A gust of wind blew through the trees. Viviane shivered and pulled her shawl closer around her thin shoulders.

"Is it alright for you to be out here like this?" Merlin's voice called to her. Viviane turned to see the boy walking up to her from the manor. She waited until he was standing next to her before speaking.

"I'd rather be here than in there any day." Viviane smiled. "I can't wait till we get back to Camelot. I hadn't realized it till now, but I've really grown fond of that place."

"I know how you feel." Merlin sighed. "It took me awhile, but now, I can't think of anywhere but Camelot as my home." The two stared out at the scenery for awhile in silence. This is... the first time they've been cordial with each other this entire series... why? ... what brought about this change? This seems so bizarre...

"It's nice." Viviane mused.

"What is?" Merlin asked.

"Talking… like this." Viviane said calmly. "It just seems so peaceful. Like I could talk till the end of time. Just the two of us." Merlin looked at her.

"Hey," he began; she looked up at him expectantly. "Do you know why Morgana left?" He asked. "I mean, she had won… hadn't she."

"Hmm…" Viviane thought for a moment. "You know, I don't really feel like explaining that right now." She smiled. thE sMiLEing... oh god no its back

"Wait, does that mean you know?" Merlin asked startled.

"I'm hungry. Are you? I'm going to go ask Gaius for some food." She turned and walked gracefully back to the manor.

"Do you know?" Merlin repeated and Viviane got farther away. "Can you at least give me some sort of answer?" He asked desperately. She just waved at him, not looking back. Merlin sighed. She was one strange girl. And by strange girl, I mean she was secretly a water nymph the whole time with magical powers that made water heal her and metal burn her skin and zap away her energy. She was either the person in mythology that trapped Merlin in a tree, or the Lady of the Lake, I don't remember which one I had her be (maybe both). What a big reveal! OMg sO exCITinG aren't you glad you read all of that bad fiction just to find out such a trivial thing as who Viviane was? So exciting! WOwwwww!

The End

No seriously, that's all I wrote for this story. Two episodes. Two really lame episodes. And to part with, I'll leave you all with some final diagnosis of this stories problem:

Essentially, I was too caught up in Viviane's secrets. I was too proud with how neatly(it wasn't that neat) I had tied her into the mythology as a canonical character, and as such I missed out on the key ingredient of what makes a story good. Its gotta be entertaining. People get sick of a character hinting vaguely at things but never revealing anything and watching Merlin get upset over and over and over and over again. The story has no way to progress until Viviane decides that she wants it to. Which is boring.

You'd think I'd be able to present that mystery better since the show literally revolves around the main character have a secret that he can never let others know about. With such a prime example, its amazing how I messed this up so badly. So I compiled a list of questions past me should have asked while writing this story:

1) Why is she keeping her identity a secret? (There doesn't seem to be any clear reason and for the audience to be engaged they should at least have a hint of why she's keeping the secret even if they don't know what the secret is yet)

2) Why is she sticking around the castle in the first place? What does she want? (This story suffers from major lack of character desires. Its like watching tadpoles swim around a puddle waiting for death. Without any clear desires, especially from the main characters, there's nothing driving the plot or the story arcs. Its just a bland stand still of meaningless chores and forced plot hooks)

3) What is the dynamic between Her and Merlin to start with, where do I want it to end up, and how do I get there naturally? (As you can see, there are a few moments of drastic shifts in the relationship between the two protagonists. These come about unexpectedly and leave everyone confused and discombobulated, from the author to the readers to the freakin characters themselves. There should be direct causes for these relationship changes, that is what makes changing characters so interesting. If their emotions and actions aren't following a logical cause and effect pattern, then it becomes impossible for the reader to track what's going on or how the characters go to the place they are.)

4) Was I subconsciously shipping a teenager with an 80 yearold during my preteen years? (No seriously tho, Vivius is way more evident in this story than it has any right to be and its making me uncomfortable. I am now a lot more concerned with my current thing for white haired anime boys. I need to go rethink my life...)

And that's all I got friends! Thanks for reading, I really didn't think this was going to get any traffic whatsoever XD If you have any further questions about this story or any of my others, don't hesitate to ask. I can also give very unprofessional feedback on other concepts but after reading this I wouldn't recommend it lol

Separate Note: I was recently asked to resume working on my Hobbit fanfic: The 51 Dwarrowdams of Erebor which I started back in 2014 and haven't updated since *looks it up* Feb 11 2016! yikes... So I'm going to review what I've written and look through my old notes and see if there's anything there I can string together to keep writing, or at the very least write some sort of ending so I don't have to leave it sitting there as a sad unfinished mess.

If you wanna take a peek and give me some feedback about anything you'd like to see happen, I am more than open to suggestions! Its been a long time since I've written any of this stuff and my skills are rusty as I'll get at!

Thanks again for all the support I've received for my writing and the great community here on that made me feel comfortable enough to put out a work as cringey as this and feel able to invite critique like I have with this story! You guys are fantastic and I hope to hear from you soon! ^-^