#Ship: Shadowidomauk

[devourm0us]

Witch

My part for the 'witch' prompt for the Shadowidomauk Bang :) (also can be seen on Bluesky HERE)

[stardusted-bookworm]

I think the wizards should kiss as a treat. I also think they should explore the full extent of Aeor and perhaps commit a couple lite war crimes as another treat.

Like a honeymoon.

And then they should bring the purple tiefling and all three of them should kiss and hold hands. As a treat for me.

[chi-arts]

Some Shadowidomauk for the soul!

This is actually my favorite ship to ever in all of critical role and somehow I only drew them now :’)  I totally blame Molly’s design for that lmao

also shoutout to altogether infinite, possibilities for continueing to feed us <3 go read it on ao3 it’s so, so good!

[demisexualemmaswan]

an idea: Caleb quietly saying “oh, big stretch” in Zemnian when Frumpkin stretches

an additional idea: Caleb quietly saying “oh, big stretch” in Zemnian when Molly and/or Essek stretches

[moondrops-and-ink]

Hit post coming in

Just vote for CR's sexy blorbos

[nephriteknight]

someone should write a caster!tav x lae'zel fic about lae'zel training tav to hold concentration despite... distractions ;) and title it "War Caster" and if none of yall do it that someone might have to be me.

[billie-is-trying-to-be-happier]

There is something about Essek and Molly and Caleb all supporting each other and dealing with their respective trauma that really resonates with me.

I don't really believe in monogamy, but I do believe in love. Life is so overflowing with horrible shit we can't change, that to limit ourselves when it comes to the the only good thing that has ever happened to humanity (aka: human connection) just seems stupid to me.

Some people find their greatest joy in choosing their one and only person. My Gf and I find that joy in letting people into our hearts. In sharing the bitter sweet ups and downs of love and loss and mutual healing. To see that mirrored by my favorite fucking characters. God damned. It's so cathartic.

I'm gonna gonna go cry in bed about my ginger catboy and his two purple boyfriends now. This is a gentle reminder to allow yourself to connect and be vulnerable. Because life is nothing if we refuse to live.

[your-enby-antihero]

I’m on my shit again so bear with me.

Do you think that if Caleb had been given the power to go back in time and save Molly from the death that he had, would he? Would he hold his cheek and stroke the sweat stuck curls from his forehead like the first time Molly had broken Caleb out of his mind in that cave. Would he have told Molly that he would be okay and that they would take care of the rest as Molly fell into unconscious sleep. Would Caleb Widogast have shouted for Molly to take care of his health instead of using that Blood Curse? Would Caleb Widogast finally get to truly thank the person that sent him on a journey of healing and family?

Alternatively would Molly have held Essek’s hands as Caleb told him he was not truly evil deep down in the hull of that fateful ship. Would Essek have seen the bright colourful tiefling and seen the most in a second lease on life. Would Essek have gotten to walk alongside the saviour of his saviours.

Would Mollymauk Tealeaf have been loved so fiercely by people who owe so much of their growth to a silly carnival barker? What if given the time they had been allowed they went to love and be loved without fear of death stealing it away?

None of this makes sense but… I’m in my feelings about what could have been with shadowidomauk.

[foxqueen-katarian]

So because I still live in a Shadowgast bubble and I meant to remake this poll six months ago and just remembered, now with more options.

[critter-rarepair-reccs]

Welcome to Critter Rarepair Reccs!

Hey y'all! Welcome to Critter Rarepair Reccs, a recommendation list aimed at fics written for ships that are largely under-represented, appreciated, and loved in our fandom! Now, let's address the elephant in the room first; rarepair is a misnomer here, knowingly. Some of the ships eligible to be recc'ed on this list might not be ones you'd consider a rarepair! So, the more proper welcome would be-

Welcome to Critter Underloved Ship Reccs

For brevity's sake, the URL is staying, though.

Now, it goes without saying, but before we get into the details here, let's get one thing clear: this blog is dedicated to spreading love and appreciation to fanworks and their creators. Ship hate of any kind will not be tolerated and will result in a block.

With that said, let's talk about the criteria for an underloved ship and why we're defining it the way we are.

Definition & Explantion

There is one qualifier for a ship to be eligible for this list: less than 100 fics were written for it and posted to Ao3 during 2023.

We landed on this metric for a couple of reasons. Firstly, it casts a very wide net for pairings while still narrowing the field a fair bit. The gulf of works between flagship pairings, endgame pairings, and some of the larger side/non-canon pairings is significant. Secondly, we wanted to take a look at how the fandom is currently, which is why we pivoted away from using the Wildflower System ( @cr-summer-wildflowers ) of excluding any pairing with more than 500 fics total. There are a number of pairings that were extremely popular at one point in time, but these days get far less love and attention. Let's take Widofjord for example. They have almost a thousand fics total and were in the Top 10 relationship tags for Critical Role on Ao3 for a long time. But last year? Only 27 fics were written for them. They have, functionally, become a rarepair.

So, to be fair to ships that exist in that same, nebulous space, we're looking at totals from last year, not lifetime.

For illustration purposes, here are charts (compiled by the wonderful @spottedenchants ) showing how many fics were written for each PC/PC ship last year.

Ineligible Ships

Which ships, then, don't qualify under that definition? It's not a terribly long list. PC endgame relationships, primarily, a handful of non-canon pairings, and some prospective endgame ships. For simplicity's sake, we'll break them down by campaign.

Campaign 1: Perc'ahlia, Vaxleth, Pikelan, Perc'ildan

Campaign 2: Shadowgast, Beauyasha, Fjorester, Widomauk

Campaign 3: Imodna, Dorym, Ashrym

If one of these pairings is secondary or background to a fic, that's alright! But the fic shouldn't focus or center on them. It's also worth noting that polyamorous ships that include one of these pairs are also alright! Shadowidomauk, for example, only had 61 fics written for it last year, so they're in the clear! The same goes for Dashrym, as another example, as they've only ever had 36 fics written for them.

It is also worth noting all accepted submissions must be respectful of character’s canon sexualities; for example, we will not take fics that feature an M/F pairing of a lesbian character, even if said pairing fits the “rarepair” criteria.

The caveat to the above would be queerplatonic fic! There will be an option on the submission form to specify, to avoid confusion due to Ao3’s lack of a designated QPR relationship tag!

So when does the list open for submissions?

Very soon! February 7th, next Wednesday! The opening theme with be Fluff, and that list will be posted a week later, on Valentine’s Day, February 14th! I hope we’ll see you then! 🩷

[devourm0us]

A Moment of Reprieve

A commission for the lovely @languishedlaughing, and a redraw of this meme! This was a pleasure to work on, and I'm delighted to be able to contribute more to the SWM content that's out there :D

If you’re interested in getting similar art, shoot me a message or submit a commission request form HERE!

[quinn-of-aebradore]

People who say they ship Shadowidomauk but it’s really just Essek and Molly sharing Caleb are cowards. The purples should be kissing too.

For legal reasons, this is a joke. You do you, I don't care

[jaskwritesthings]

Oooooo shadowidomauk pirates, perhaps? 👀👀👀

Kingsley looked over the hold of ill-gotten gains with a pleased eye, "What precious treasures I get to plunder."

Caleb snorted on a charmed laugh he desperately tried to cover as Essek glared down the Plank King, "I don't appreciate the amount of platinum we waste on ever increasingly twitchy crews because you insist on taking our ships captive to play out these fantasies of yours, King, we have work to be getting on with, and we can visit you via teleport whenever we feel like it, this," he waved a sharp hand around the hold of their ship and the very confused and slightly terrified faces of their most recently purchased crew, "is unnecessary and annoying."

"You'd never take a break from your academic studies if I didn't mount a sea-faring intervention once in a while," King gleefully pointed out as he came close enough to plant a chaste greeting kiss on Essek's cheek, he noted that the drow lowered himself enough to receive it, so he wasn't too upset with the interruption. Caleb welcomed him with open arms and a warm kiss as Essek sighed and went to reassure yet another seasoned crew that, no, they weren't about to walk the plank it was, in fact, just the feared Plank King's favoured courting practice, so sorry for the inconvenience.

three sentence au

[utilitycaster]

I'm actually glad you said something about the tagging because I tag a/b/c, a/b, a/c, b/c but not for traction purposes but rather because from my perspective as someone who ships all 4 dynamics, it never occurred to me that it would be annoying. Cause when I see a/b/c in b/c tags I'm perfectly fine with it even when I don't want to read it at that moment because I like both ships but also cause I vew polyships as individual relationships that work together.

So to me it always made since that yeah Widomauk and Shadowgast should be tagged on the Shadowidomauk fic, particularly if Essek/Molly isn't part of the whole dynamic because those are the relationship dynamics within the larger relationship. So it was housekeeping on the poly end to let people know hey this is a poly relationship but these are who's dating within it.

I never really realized it might be annoying or misleading to tag that way if someone was scrolling through Beauyasha fics and there's a Beau/Yasha/Jester fic in the bunch but after seeing your post I realize it's the same thing that irritates me about larger ships that tag smaller ships who show up only for two seconds and clog up the smaller ship tag.

So, something new to keep in mind.

Thanks! Yeah I realize I went pretty hard and like, people who genuinely did not realize this are fine; it's the people who, as you say, either throw smaller ships into their favored larger ship to get people interested in the smaller ship to look, or people who tack on their fave onto a larger ship for the attention they'll get.

For what it's worth, I also think this is a limitation in Ao3. Like, in real life, I know one polycule that's a straight man and his bi wife, her lesbian partner, and his long-term girlfriend (idk if she's straight or bi). The first three people also all live together and have a child together, so it's like, a trio and three couples; not every possible grouping of these people is sexual, romantic, or even queerplatonic.

I think it would be great to cover a dynamic on Ao3 of like, "A/B/C with A/B and B/C but not A/C" more intuitively. Sub-ships for poly ships? idk someone bring this to the OTW. But in the meantime yeah I feel the best way to handle it if you're talking about a poly ship and then individual pairings or groupings within it is to tag the poly ship and then put pairings in the additional tags so people looking exclusively for A/B (or for that matter A/B/C but not A/B/C/D) don't see it but people looking for poly dynamics can pick it up at a glance.