#Caduceus my beloved and also ashton

[catfishofoldin99colours]

every year every SINGLE year I forgot it's Taliesin Jaffe's birthday and I always say I'll draw something next year well too bad I'm doing something THIS year for once!!!

[shorthaltsjester]

taliesin and laura remain truly so fantastic at making characters who… don’t necessarily have something extremely and inherently in common but do have experiences that were caused by similar sources and that lead them to have quite different opinions/ideas about things but in ways that are typically very reconcilable? which is a lot of qualifiers but it’s a through line of vex/percy with nobility, jester & cad with loneliness (and also god stuff but in a different post maybe someday i’ll talk about how actually their god stuff is intensely related to their different experiences of loneliness), and now imogen & ashton with being left behind.

like vex was this character who technically had a claim to nobility due to her blood but at the same time was burdened because of that same claim. and percy who was born into and raised by nobility but that nobility ended up making his family the targets of a massacre. and then vex who lets down her walls and Do I Look Like I Come From Money? and percy giving her the title grand mistress of the grey hunt because it has nothing to do with blood, or his love for her, or anything aside from the fact that it’s something she can prove herself worthy of simply by virtue of who she Is, not who someone makes her. and percy and vex’s conversation about forgiveness and it’s necessity for growth as probably two of the characters most inclined to hold grudges.

and caduceus clay who gets left behind with nothing but his Belief while his family goes off into the world. and jester lavorre who gets shut inside with no company except her Belief as her mother protects her from the world. and they both get the burden of loneliness and the understanding of love’s nonmalicious imperfection. and caduceus having a panic attack on a ship and jester telling him that the world is a lot bigger than his cemetery and that means he has to break out of his comfort zone to find his path. and caduceus telling jester that he doesn’t think she gets as much credit as she ought to and she deserves more pastries. and jester thanking caduceus for showing her how cool it is to actually heal people and caduceus asking if she wants to use his shield while he doesn’t need it.

and ashton who was left broken and dying on the ground and was given inescapable pain as their means of survival. and imogen who was left behind by the only person who could provide true understanding of the pain she’d one day come to feel. and ashton who’s a barbarian, who wields their rage casually and unapologetically and who sees the Shittiness of the world but is unrelenting in his version of optimism. and imogen who is weighed down by pessimism she doesn’t Want to have but hasn’t cracked how to undo and who doesn’t admit her anger until it comes up again and again and again and carries it like a burden or like guilt, who we only see really Grasp and feel Confidence about her anger being something good in front of others when she has those conversations with ashton. and like. ashton who looks at imogen and sees a superhero. imogen venturing through ashton’s mind and holding his bleeding and exhausted head and saying i’m sorry. i’m sorry. and imogen who looks at ashton and sees someone special. and fucking “we got him killed.” and “no, we didn’t. don’t you dare. […] we are not what fucking killed that man. […] we are his eventual victory. we are his fucking revenge.” and “i’ll be his revenge.” and “i have no fucking doubt.”

and in general rp wise they both tend to make some of my favourite characters (also typically the ones i find most frustrating) because they both tend to make flaws that are easy to hate and they make those flaws very central to their characters but i think that’s also what makes their character interactions so deeply compelling because so frequently it’s like. yes yes these two characters have like. a helix of things they have in common but also things they deeply disagree on but they’re going to spider-man point at the things that are the same and they’re going to honour their differences while doing so. and it’s just. i always enjoy it so much and i was psyched when i heard about an imogen and ashton side pit stop in last nights episode and i was not let down when i watched the episode today.

[ludinusdaleth]

i'm not interested in finishing watching c2 (first 10 episodes bored me to death) and i only know c3, so what's the deal with essek? did he have a bad redemption arc? did he have a good one? do people just not like him for some reason? because i keep seeing his fans say the only reason c3 fans are saying his redemption arc sucked is to defend imogen and her mom and that seems too shallow to be the real reason.

first of all thank you for trusting in me to give a nuanced answer. ill do my best. essek is one of my favorite characters, but also so historically loved by fandom it has led to altercations and the drowning out of pretty much any other character in fandom spaces. ill try to explain. im sorry for how long this will be.

he was already deeply beloved as an npc for a long while before campaign 2 episode 97 dropped the fact that he was working with ludinus. he had taken luxon beacons (the object ludinus used to power the malleus key, what made opal & ted, what's in ashtons head) from his people in the dynasty - these objects were considered completely sacred to them, and the realization the empire had them, and the dynasty retaliating to get them, led to the war of ash and light which permeates much of c2's plot. so, functionally, essek's action led to war. essek was also at times in charge of or allowed to run interrogations on dynasty prisoners including nott/veth's husband yeza. to keep suspicion off of him, essek shifted blame onto a man in the dynasty who he had a petty grudge against, changed his memory, and set the dynasty onto him - this man was later given to the empire in a peace negotiation, so ludinus then had all control over knowledge on essek's involvement (bar the m9).

his remorse began with the m9, and how their lives had been effected by war and what the empire had done, and there is some implication that essek realized he was perhaps groomed by ludinus (and to a lesser degree made uncomfortable by his cohort trent) - though i should note essek was a (young) adult in government when he gave his people's artifacts away. essek hated the fact that his people were religious in regards to the luxon and did not wish to research it, and thought the cerberus assembly would be able to learn more about it.

essek's arc has been long praised as a very good one, and i think it mostly is. while i cant say we really see his kindness & newly brimming empathy fully extended, he does learn to see others as more than tools. he is still smug over his peoples religion vs his knowledge of the luxon, but learns to respect his culture enough that ludinus probably would not be able to sway him from it by insulting it now. he fights at the m9's side during the last arc, defends caleb from trent & the vollstreckers, helps fix caduceus's home. he is loyal to them forever and not just a traitor any longer. i definitely see some holes in it as he doesnt show much care to anyone but the m9, it is relatively quick how he descends into self hate about his actions that hes generally comforted for, and i worry at times he sinks too much into the soft hot boy flanderization due to everyone even the cast pushing it onto him (yes, softness & being too harsh exist in his characterization and are disliked at once, i know they are opposite traits). but i think it's good when a character is still an ass after redemption and matt clearly wants to avoid him being a soft boi in c3 whilst also maintaining that he has learned humanity & love.

you can see how that would be compelling, along with his general personality and good looks. this made him so compelling that his fans got, uh.... interesting. and that is probably the base problem that sets this discourse. (be aware my experience of his fans is primarily on twitter and in chats.)

folk would get mad and call the show unwatchable without his presence as if every other character was disgusting & boring to them (as if calebs character arc is not. literally. a parralel to esseks). they only cared about shadowgast (but only cared about essek within it, not caleb) and would be furious these two deeply aloof traumatized men didnt fuck on screen after 6 episodes knowing each other, called caleb abusive for not messaging him after a few episodes, called liam (who is iirc bi) homo/biphobic and abusive to matt for not kissing essek at one point or another. when caleb & essek did bond at the end of c2 and it was said they got together for a time that was not enough for fans, who claimed it homophobic (this magically mostly disappeared when folk saw other mlm stories did and do continue to play out in cr, which they only realized when orym existed and was a gold star gay - i, as a gay man, do not care on the scale they do lol). astrid was completely slammed into the mud by essek fans for being his mirror but a woman (they magically did not hate wulf, the last mirror in this scenario, a man, as much). people were furious essek did not have merch at the point where not even many pcs did yet and said it was homophobic (this magically stopped when he eventually got a portrait and chibi). a few learned he was ace/demi and called it a cop out, or otherwise ignored any nuance of it because they were horny about wizard yaoi (im aware ace/demi folks do have sex, but sometimes folk use that as a justification for ignoring the ace spectrum part of an identity). from personal experience, essek fans can be..... very disturbing, predatory individuals with no regard for who they are deeply sexual around, but that is just who i met and i do not want to go into that experience. in short, a lot of c2 era fandom has BEEF with them. i cannot say it is unjustified.

so with all that context, where does that leave the character and why do people compare him to liliana & imogen?

it is my genuine opinion from observation a lot of fandom on here & twitter that essek/shadowgast/caleb fans can be.... sexist. it does not go unnoticed to me that imogen has an extremely similar moral arc to caleb and yet is called evil when caleb is called traumatized & struggling with demons but a good man. caleb was part of the vollstrecker (assassins for the empire) as a youth but broke, and ran, after killing his parents, and had to learn he was more than dirt, and learn to love again. imogen began easily jealous & in turmoil about herself and her mother, but has grown to be one of the most empathetic people who is constantly struggling between sacrifice and her simple wish to live with laudna, that it seems the universe wants to fight. both are aware they could be or are seen as living shit for their youth or conception and accept it. both dont really know how to find a way out of that. i think both are incredible characters. i notice when fans only acknowledge the hero's journey of one.

as for liliana & essek..... look, essek has a very defined character arc that we have seen come to fruition and end in redemption. liliana (and by extension bor'dor and other ruby vanguard folk) have not yet. essek was framed as neutral at first and liliana was framed as ludinus's ally. i get it. but it is impossible to me to not see liliana in the steps of essek at the beginning of his own arc. if anything i think her intentions (if not actions) are infinitely less selfish than esseks, as she wished to do this to save her daughter. ludinus has caught so many in his web, and essek got out, and liliana just realized she's in the webbing. whats interesting is how we see clear as day every conversation they have that liliana has been brainwashed into cult mentality & justification, and yet only had one or two conversations vaguely indicating this about essek, and yet essek is always praised as a survivor where liliana is not. bor'dor is very clearly like essek in being an oppressed young man who sees a calling made by a powerful older man, but entire breakdowns of how men of color are recruited into the far right have been written about essek where bor'dor (actual man of color) is despised by the same people. the tldr on this is i do think some folk can be so drunk on Hating Essek juice they swing too far in their assumptions, but the pattern of his fans misinterpreting everyone else to elevate him is based on precendent thats happened for years, and i think it is deeply.... disappointing? to watch such a nuanced story play out in c3 and refuse to engage with it whilst claiming anyone who wishes to analyze the way a cult breaks your brain is misandrist.

im so sorry this is so long, but i really do not know how else to describe all this without its nuance. i hope i wrote something that made sense.

[ignat388]

I have decided Taliesin Jaffe is the ultimate dad, without having any children of his own. He has played not 1 or 2 dad characters but 3.5(sorry Percy you don't become dad like till late). Let's start with the least obvious, the step dad, I don't care what you do but this is how I change the world and make a place better than I found it Mollymauk Tealeaf(Long Live the King). Then Let's go to the trouble maker ultimate dad, my beloved Caduceus, always there to guide not force his companions along their paths and adventures. Then we come to oh shit I have to co-parent (with Keyleth and when Pike's not being a Grog-ite her too) a bunch of assholes (while trying to work on my trauma) Percy "I have too many names" De Rolo, he's the dad always out in the shop but the moment you ask him something he turns and answers, he may not be the best father but he is trying his best. Finally we come to who I want to be as a dad, Ashton Greymore, they come and all you think is punk rock, but as time has gone by I realized that He is not someone who cant care, he has to care. They have to embrace their families no matter the cost to themselves because it's the only thing keeping him together. On top of that his love isn't soft or hard their love is the literal and figurative rock. They push people to do their best and hope that when the chickens come home to roost that he has led them on a path that will lead them to fulfilment.

There's so much more to each character but each time Jaffe sits down he brings this air of I know more and it's my job to pass it down in the most character driven and beautiful way. Whether it's through an Amnesiac or an enby Punk Rock Earth Genasi.

Also I am using dad in the stereo typical use of the word for the dad Friend not necessarily the gendered term. The one who is there to offer solutions, grab the mom friend(or the combo parent friend) and help heal or ready to fight a bitch cause someone looked at their friends the wrong way.

[revvethasmythh]

12 and 25?

12 has been answered here! But also *pulls name out of hat* Mrs. Veth Brenatto, beloved of my heart, is messy and difficult and a powerful exploration of womanhood and conflict between family and friends, and if people would stop viewing her as a joke for like a minute they might actually realize she's a fantastically realized, complicated, fascinating woman who touches on a ton of difficult and fascinating themes throughout the campaign and she absolutely should be so much more popular than she is currently

25. common fandom complaint that you're sick of hearing

currently? That the party is forgetting Ashton because they haven't mentioned him much. It's reminiscent of when people were like "the m9 pay no attention to caduceus! he is languishing and traumatized and the party just doesn't care!" These are exaggerations. The party does care. Literally, everything is fine. take a breath and it'll all work out

Ask me to choose violence!

[c-is-for-circinate]

a penny for your Ashton thoughts?

ASHTON GREYMORE MY BELOVED

Fair warning, I am once again half an episode behind, plus I'm pretty scattered today, but let's have some bullet points and see what ensues.

Anybody remember when, a couple of months ago, some posts went around about how 'everyone says Ashton's So Loyal but that's bullshit and people letting their affection for Taliesin overrule their objectivity'? No? Well I do and I AM STILL SMUG ABOUT THEM BEING WRONG.

Seriously, this rock is the walking personification of "I don't care," I said, caringly, as I cared deeply. We all know this by now, I think. I love it with my whole heart.

Something fascinating to me about Ashton in comparison with Taliesin's other characters: they are, every one of them, Extremely Sure they know how the world (or their specific part of it, at least) works. Part of what's great about that is how often the things they're Sure Of disagree -- Percy, Molly, and Caduceus in a room together and asked to debate human nature would be a wild show to watch from the other side of a bulletproof one-way mirror, safe behind blast doors. And so far Ashton is in their own way perhaps the least obviously Absolutely Sure out of all of them, which is really interesting in its own way! It means when I think about Ashton, I always find myself pondering: what ARE they Sure of?

I think we saw our biggest hint about that with his rage during the Hytroga heist. There are rules. You keep your word. If you create an agreement, you keep it. Breaking an agreement like that is WRONG, fundamentally, core-of-how-the-world-works wrong, and people who do that should Pay For It.

The other half of Ashton's worldview seems to be something along the line of 'people are assholes' -- put together, "People are assholes, but there are rules." Certainly 'people are assholes' is probably the part he'd say out loud! Which makes it really interesting that, by the standards of a Taliesin Character, Ashton is practically halfhearted about this one. They certainly don't believe that people never act for reasons of loyalty and love. I think about Ashton in comparison to Percy or Molly, in particular -- Percy and Molly, who were quite sure that the universe contained Decent People and Terrible People, and that they could quite readily tell the difference. (Percy might have had ranks for 'tolerable people', a category that could theoretically be applied to either Decent or Terrible people, but it was all very much something appropriately categorized.) Ashton doesn't go around the world expecting to find Terrible People the way they did. He goes around expecting to find assholes, which is a statement of general dickishness but also not, like, a thing to get morally offended over or be surprised about. Even the kind of prissy rich people that Molly would have loathed (lord, Molly meeting Jiana Hexum?) fall comfortably onto Ashton's scale of 'yeah, they're an asshole, that's whatever -- no, OBVIOUSLY you can't trust them, but who trusts people?' There are very, very few individuals who seem to rate Ashton's 'no, this person is so awful they have forfeited their right to be treated with decency and rules' classification. Thinking about how he flipped out about Hytroga, it almost feels like it's a surprise to him. Like Ashton goes around pseudo-cheerfully expecting a certain baseline of shittiness in the general tone of 'why would I be SURPRISED by that?', and when someone fails to live up to even those (complicated, only-known-to-him) standards, it hits right in the gut.

There's an interesting tie-in here with how Ashton thinks people thinks of him, specifically. Ashton thinks of themself as 'that asshole, who people may at any given time be annoyed with/furious at/relatively meh about'. And like, that's...sort of true? They have a really low charisma score! Various NPCs have indeed come pre-annoyed with him! But Justi was reasonably pleased to see him, and Milo saved their damn life and then let them keep living in their punk squat house, and the Bells Hells love him. I think that might be part of why 'people are assholes' is such a complicated thing, for Ashton. Yeah, people are dicks -- but it's not like they're going to just ignore the fact that friendship and love and loyalty exist too. That sometimes people are inexplicably fond of them in ways they can use. (and meanwhile, Ashton has been so, so lonely, Ashton who was almost fond of Jiana Hexum for being a person he could rely on who considered him Of Use, Ashton who's all in on Bells Hells as a crew and FCG in particular, who lets Laudna goo-cry on their shoulder and plays with Fearne and is Kind Of A Dick (affectionate) with them all. Ashton who was so ready to be valued and has gone all in on it immediately.)

...oh motherfucker, if Chetney is Travis's version of Nott, then Ashton is Taliesin playing Beau.

That aside, it's been great to see them in Basuras for multiple reasons, including the fact that it really beautifully illustrates exactly how and why "People are assholes, but there are rules" might become a life philosophy. In a lot of ways, that's the core motto of this entire town! People are assholes, everywhere, always, and nobody ever really stops them -- but there are a few central fundamental tenets to how things work around here, and if you break them you are in for a WORLD of hurt.

Honestly, it has been such a joy to watch Ashton in Basuras. They're in their element and it's wonderful! They know the town, the players, the rules, the games, the local legends. How many years has it been since Ashton's been here? And Justi and the All-Minds-Burn collective still remembers them fondly? It may be a shithole, but this is home.

Lastly, I have had SO much joy watching Ashton take FCG's whole "oh, Ashton is our leader!" to heart. He's never made a big deal out of it, never given orders exactly, but in a leaderless collective of fuckwits all trying to Twitch Plays Pokemon their way through life, Ashton has been guiding discussions, proposing plans, and doing a really unexpectedly excellent job of nudging disordered chaos into action. Part of it's because this is home turf and Ashton knows what's what here, but -- every time they tell Chetney to keep an eye out for if the group's being followed and Chetney immediately goes with it, every time Ashton checks in with the group to see whether certain people are okay -- it's so good! I love it so much! It doesn't work during fights exactly, because barbarian rage tunnel vision (contrast Fjord, who did similar nudging and guiding things but was also very much a battlefield controller with a good big-picture view of the whole field most of the time, especially by the end), but on a general day-to-day basis...at least in Basuras, Ashton is actually acting as the group leader, and I love it so much.

At any rate, the tumblr grapevine suggests that the second half of this week's episode is going to involve Dusk getting revealed as Secret Inside Assassin PC, and I am stoked to see how Ashton reacts to that. Ugh. Do I need to just bite the Twitch Subscription bullet for weekend VODs, given that this state of bed-at-mid-break affairs is likely to continue for...literally evermore, with this new job? I think I do. I really think I do.

[duskoscrawl]

duskoscrawl - writing blog - beauteousmajesty

hiya! welcome to my writing sideblog. you can find my main @duskodair. my crit role spoiler tag is '#crit role spoilers' and i keep the tags on for the most recent week. my asks are open if you want to request anything :))

i know i have lots of works on ao3 so here's a brief introduction to my projects (by fandom)

original work

a town called danser - this is a collaborative project with some friends based on some dnd oneshots we've played. all you need to know is that all of the main characters are queer. from nothing to noel is my set of works about my rogue, noel (for more content, check the 'a town called danser' tag here on tumblr

cinderbrush (critical role)

rebuilding lives, brick by brick - this is a post canon cinderbrush series where the characters recover from the events of the oneshot and have wholesome teenager times

the soundtrack to cinderbrush is mcr - this is a post canon cinderbrush series where i put on the edgy music i listened to as a teenager and write teen-angst fic about the cinderbrush characters (warning: often very sad)

avatar the last airbender

time isn't real if the moon is drunk - a very silly series based in post-canon atla (non-korra compliant bc i haven't seen it). the premise is that zuko briefly time travels to be his own gay and trans awakening and to roast the shit out of azulon (there is no conflict in this bad boy). i also have two other atla works with trans zuko - there is no angst

critical role (campaign 2)

aeor era au - like a modern au, but set in the age of arcanum, the mighty nein live in the flying city of aeor. shadowgast are working the t-doc, caduceus is protesting unethical experiments, the brenattos have a lab... its very fun and very exciting and i love it... welcome to wizard city

thinner than a razor - this is my beloved chapter fic. its gonna be a ride i promise. it is an au wherein lucien (profile 1) joins the mighty nein in trostenwald. no spoilers but when i read through my notes i have to lie on the floor bc it knocks me out im so excited

tiefling time - this is a complete series that runs through campaign 2 about the nein learning more about their tiefling friends and how to love each other

when we stop running - this is my post canon series. this is mostly fluff about the nein doing things and being friends in their soft epilogue (for bonus points, this series can be read as a follow on to tiefling time)

the voices beneath - this series is an exploration into the way the dwendalian empire works and how it maintains the loyalty of its people. very very caleb and blumentrio focused. featuring blumendrei clear out trent's tower and una ermendrud watches her son grow up

oops! all essek - here are my fics about essek! i am obsessed with xhorhassian cuisine and i have lots of thoughts and research about it. you want soup? jessek go to claires? beau's article about xhorhassian food? its here

lives of nein - a series wherein i am rewriting the stories of the nein. veth, molly, jester, and caleb are up so far (others in progress)

random mighty nein aus - i love aus, in this collection we have:

the venom in our veins - every member of the nein misses their call to adventure, but their paths still cross

basically a god - molly can see the future and the past (just like jester claims), this changes nothing, it just makes it sadder

focus - the raven queen considers the different endings of campaign two, exploring the different corruption arcs for each member of the nein (perhaps it was for the best we got aeor)

critical role (campaign 3)

krook house family shenanigans - adventures of the krook house family: milo, anni, fcg, and ashton, living their best disaster lives

campaign 3 fics - i am tagged each new campaign 3 fic i write, but i'm having a good time (i get very excited when i can start a new tag)

i have so many fics! i get really excited about comments and stuff on my less popular works <33

[captainsspnanon]

C3E12 - reaction/liveblog

I have no clue if that on the spot song was actually on the spot or scripted, but I don’t care it was awesome either way!!  (I hope it wasn’t actually scripted though, because I tend to believe them when they say it’s on the spot, and lying once would create doubt for everything.  And I couldn’t tell if Sam was saying on the spot in a clearly false way, or serious.)

I really have to give credit to Taliesin.  His physical RP when in the background is just as on point as Liam’s, but with Molly and Percy I really missed it, whereas I saw it much clearer with Caduceus.  I’m keeping an eye on him now, and even at this very start of the episode where the focus is fully on Imogen, his face SCREAMS Ashton.  I’m not sure if he’s gotten better at the embodying over the campaigns, or if I’m just noticing what everyone else has already seen, but I am impressed as fuck.

Speaking of, Liam’s whole deal about even when talking to the DM or describing actions and continuing to speak in character?  He’s totally still doing it, but it’s way harder for me to read because Orym’s voice is much closer to Liam’s natural voice than Vax and Caleb were.  But he’s still definitely speaking as Orym even when not RPing IC.

I’m going to give it a few more episodes, but I wonder if Sam has actually stopped the shirt bit?  I genuinely wouldn’t mind, especially because he’s still got the flask bits and such going on.

Just realized that Laura’s PCs – loving mom, dead, uncaring dad, alive.  Loving mom, alive, uncaring dad, unknown then found.  Loving but then distant dad, alive, possibly uncaring mom, unknown if dead or alive.  Does Laura have parent issues? :P :P

Matt MILKING that Zhudanna reveal.  As soon as he asked for the perception check I knew it was fine, but I love how some of them were freaking out and some of them were calm and knew.

Oh, interesting that Laura didn’t know that Imogen’s dream wasn’t every night.  That makes me suspect that it’s something that Matt added to her backstory, rather than something she created on her own?  UGH I HOPE TALKS STARTS AGAIN SOON.  Assuming the Q and A set is the new set, it’s lovely!  And while I miss our beloved cabbage man, if Mica is the new host I think she’ll do fine.  I just hope we get fan questions again, tbh.

The entire outfit section is amazing, nothing more to be said.  However, the running joke of Travis hating shopping scenes really hasn’t been true since C1.  Like, he clearly was bored a lot during the scenes in C1, but in C2 he was interested in most of the scenes (not all [winter outfits come to mind], but most), and in C3 he’s been interested every time.  I think it’s because there’s not constant haggling over every item, which would make a scene at a minimum of several minutes longer each time, and also it seems like C2 and C3 there’s been less dithering?  Like, Matt will explain, and then people tend to make decisions quickly, or if they’re taking their time it’s good RP rather than OOC discussions.  It’s still a fun running joke, but I’m glad that Travis isn’t actually suffering through this any more.

Oooo, I didn’t expect any more ‘is FCG alive’ discussion any time soon, but I like Imogen bringing up that the spell can only turn something alive into something alive, and I like that FCG doesn’t brush it off either.

Does anyone else find that pausing and restarting the twitch stream when you’re watching the VOD automatically skips it forwards like 15 seconds and you need to go back each time?  Annoying AF.

RANDOM THOUGHT. Since I’m in my C2 rewatch, I clearly remember the group getting jokingly irritated with Liam when Caleb took money from the guards and didn’t share.  (Especially because Ashley had Yasha do the same in the same episode and no one gave her grief.)  Now we have here Travis having Chetney blatantly keep a lot of money on his own, and no one is giving him guff for it.  It’ll be interesting to see if this is something where the group just doesn’t poke at that anymore now that they’re more used to RPing different PCs with different takes towards money and sharing, or if there’s going to be a moment down the line where Liam finds money or items and if he doesn’t have Orym immediately share, that Liam’s going to get razzed again. It very much could be one of those inside jokes where it’s only directed towards the one person.  Same way everyone might tease Laura about funds and haggling, but no one else gets teased when they have their PC haggle.  Or as above, everyone teases Travis about sitting through shopping.

Calling it now, there’s going to be some consequences with Advik for the group going to the Trove of Marwa.  Ashton even sweet talked Advik to getting a discount by saying that they wouldn’t go to the Trove (or were less likely to, at least)

NO REGRETS I LOVE MARWA

I also find it really interesting that after Gilmore, Matt has been like NOPE, MAGICAL STUFF IS HARD TO FIND AND YOU HAVE TO GO TO A BUNCH OF SHOPS NOW.  I do like both approaches, not going to lie.  Especially because, as seen before, Matt is very cool with allowing players to get pretty much exactly what they want when it isn’t magical items (outfits exactly how they like, general stuff just how they like), but then makes it more difficult with the actual expensive stuff. The Gilmore style is good for convenience, but the more shops approach is good for keeping items rare and fleshing out a city.  And VM was fucking LOADED with magical items, even before the Vestiges. I am looking forwards to seeing eventually how C3 will stack up compared to the others.  C2 ended up having a good chunk of items, but not necessarily as obviously useful (oops stones, anyone? Or the wind fan?) when C1 had tons of items that are blatantly useful for combat situations.

With the fake name situation with Ashton, I am getting the feel that they were more the Brute Force of the criminal gang, so it’s not that they didn’t Crime, as I’ve seen speculation, but more that they weren’t the face man or necessarily the planner, which fits.  If so, it’s also an interesting growth then as they are pretty involved with the planning, while not deliberately taking the lead per se.

LOL I like all the component shopping now.  I feel like Liam was a bad influence with Caleb!  They can probably just get a component pouch easy and just worry about the cost items XD  I LOVE ALL OF IT THOUGH.  Not just because Caleb was my favorite, but because I really enjoyed the incorporation of components, and it seems like FCG is going full on components, Fearne is just picking a few things, Imogen may be going for a focus?  I love it all.

ASHTON GETTING LAUDNA THE DOLL CLOTHES!!!!!   Look I’m having Marisha Taliesin friendship feels!!  We didn’t get much Beau and Caduceus in C2, so I am SO HAPPY

Matt was SO surprised that Fearne gave back the egg!!!  Granted, I am too.  I wonder what prompted that?  Maybe because it was actually worth so much?  We’ve only actually ever seen Fearne steal ‘junk’ stuff… an earring, a dress, a straw, whereas this was 350 gold.

I’m getting like, sliiightly annoyed at the group name thing?  The Mighty Nein wasn’t this big whole planned thing that meant something!  It was literally that you guys kept rolling 9s, Caleb had a German accent, and you guys were all like “yeah, we’re strong, we’re tough, we’re mighty!” and it ended up meaning more than it started, but it started from a joke!  Vox Machina???  LITERALLY HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH THE IN GAME CAMPAIGN STUFF!  It’s a play on your guys professional non-DnD jobs!   So just come up with something!  It won’t START with meaning, but by the end it will mean a whole lot.

Okay, I like Duskmaven about a billion times more than I like Matron of Ravens, or even the Raven Queen.  I would not complain if they used Duskmaven consistently going forwards.

I had to pause ‘cause I couldn’t figure out why Travis was laughing.  Robbie was stacking dice, and Travis deliberately nudged his arm to make him knock them over XD

“Sam, you take two points”  EVERY ALARM IS GOING OFF WHAT THE FUCK and it’s not specified points of damage either ALARM ALARM ALARM WHAT THE FUCK I WANT TO KNOW I WANT TO KNOW

Full on confirmation of cuddle pile for the ExU crew, and I love it.  I’m not into Dorym (and I still can’t understand why I’m not, I feel like I should be), but I would totally be on board with an ot3.  I’m also super on board with just platonic.  ...I’m also on board with Orym/Fearne.  (seriously I can’t figure out why I’m not into Dorym.  There’s just something about it that doesn’t click for me.)

No sheet for the vial?  I’m actually kinda disappointed.  I hope that’s just a one off, Matt handing out sheets to the excitement of everyone is amazing and I will super miss it if it’s gone.

AN ACTUAL SHIP OMG WHAT THE FUCK Travis must have commissioned that!!!!

Craft day has been delightful, every single aspect of it.

Also, I kinda wish the episode had ended here?  There’s almost a whole hour left! It’s probably just my attention span rather than the episode itself.  Well, I guess it’ll depend how the next hour is.  Is it the ball and finishes?  Is it the ball and we have a cliffhanger?  If it’s just GETTING to the ball, then Imma be grouchy.  ...I say as I haven’t seen the last hour yet, and it’s probably delightful.

…..I sooooo want to insight check Eshteross.  That ring switcharoo, I don’t know, his attitude just felt way suspicious.  I know Chetney did the scent check, but oof.  If it turns out that Lord E is actually a bad dude, this is where I would have felt it.

One- Robbie/Dorian just broke my fucking heart, oh my god.  That HURT, the entire RP he went through from start to finish.  Two- I like that Matt as Lord E gave a tiny bit of a nudge, almost checking in that Robbie/Dorian could still have fun.  I’m sure it wasn’t meant as a check in, as Robbie has shown himself to be easily able to move in and out of RP, but I’m taking it as one, because I just enjoy how much the cast is always checking in with each other subtly.  LOOK I’M HAVING FEELS, OKAY

I’m slightly bothered that it seems that only Matt, Travis, Sam, and Taliesin are actually using ‘they’ for FCG and Ashton.  Like, I know they’re both he/they, so it’s still acceptable pronoun usage, but I feel like the group should be using ‘they’ more than ‘he’?  Then again, I’m cis so really have no grounds to speak on the preference of someone who uses multiple pronouns.  In writing, I’ve been using ‘they’ most the the time, I think I’ve only used ‘he’ once or twice when my sentences got really convoluted and ‘they’ would have completely confused who I was referring to.  Maybe *I’m* using ‘they’ too much?   ...this is much more easy to understand when it’s someone you’re actually talking to, who can express a preference, versus an internet character who, aside from the initial out of character introduction, has not outright expressed anything one way or the other.

Dorian telling Fearne “you’re the best person to be with us”, ALRIGHT APPARENTLY THIS EPISODE WAS ALL I NEEDED TO TIP INTO FULL FLEDGED EXU OT3.

Alright, the last hour was needed. Complaint withdrawn.  I WILL SAY – Matt shouldn’t have had the end wrap up be arriving at the ball itself, because you KNOW at the start of next episode they’re going to retroactively do some stuff.  It really should have ended the night before.  PERSONAL PREFERENCE.

@suicidallyreckless