#c2e139

[thelavendersquid]

I have never related to anything more than someone having to roll a 25 insight check to figure out that I was making a joke.

Words cannot describe how much I love Essek 😂

[moodsbytraviswillingham]

Campaign 2, Episode 139

[ravendruid]

Lucien thirst trapping everyone.

[lessattitudemorealtitude]

I love Taliesin’s internal Molly processing the things his friends are saying to Lucien... and Lucien’s reactions are all so precious and heartbreaking, Molly fighting Lucien from within...

[bisexuel]

under 4 hours. terrifying

[sparring-spirals]

heyo remember when the nein were in a flesh tunnel in an abomination of a living city, and their worst enemy lost friend was like. regenerating or swallowing the somnovum one flesh room away, and they were VERY POSSIBLY GOING TO DIE, and the world with them. and jester was like. okay you assholes. sit down, we're eating a feast.

and they sat down. in that flesh tunnel. and Jester created some soup and chicken satay and pineapple fried rice and grilled cheese sandwiches and pancakes, and they ate bread and soup and talked about last wishes and last words and regrets. And had conversations swinging from "if you die, what do you want us to tell your family?" to "well yasha, i think you made a big mistake going with beau when i was available-" to "if we die, i don't have any regrets" to "what do you MEAN you don't like soup-"

(essek. is making a joke.)

anyway. thats all. clustered in a grotesque flesh tunnel, floating in the astral sea, metres and minutes away from your potential doom, eating food and soup with people you love, people you trust, people you would die for, people you would live for. you know. thats all.

[jinxknight]

Essek was making a joke.

[fagdyk]

Diversity win: this BBEG's biggest weakness is being deadnamed

[imbored-13]

all of the Nein during the fight w Lucien:

[saturdaysky]

just a shadowhand, floating in the astral sea, about to turn his friends into dunamancy noodles. those pesky charm effects are killer :)

[sivsii]

mods r asleep time for shitposts with sivsi :)

[theregoesmylurkerstatus]

Essek: I have lied to you all, I was the traitor :(

Jester:

Essek, some weeks later: Actually I was lying, soup isn’t my favourite food lol

Jester: ESSEK HOW COULD YOU

[seanotturom]

lucien went into his creepy somnovum chrysalis to remake himself like: I heard that the nonagon had a nine-pack. that the nonagon was shredded

[ariadne-mouse]

Lucien: stop saying that NAME!!!

Taliesin:

[fortunes-favor]

Okay I have to say, when I first heard Essek say that he doesn’t really like soup I immediately thought that Matt somehow forgot that he said Essek’s favourite food was soup. And then Veth did the insight check and Matt said Essek was making a joke, I was like,,,, that didn’t even sound sarcastic. Him joking didn’t even register as a possibility to me before Matt said it because it just very much DID NOT sound like a joke.

Here’s the thing though. This is probably one of the first times he’s attempting to make a joke, in decades, if not EVER. The Nein are his first group of friends. I think it’s safe to assume that in his adult life, Essek has never been in a position where he made jokes or had people make jokes around him until he met the Nein.

The only other person that he maybe would have joked around when he was younger would be Verin. And we really don’t know anything about their relationship aside from Essek saying that he trusts Verin. That’s it. We don’t even know if they’re still in touch or on speaking terms. The fact that you trust someone doesn’t mean that you have a good relationship with them after all. So if Essek ever did joke it’s very likely that it was not in the last couple of decades.

Anyway, TLDR: The man just legit does not know how to make a joke or maybe even just what qualifies as a joke. But he sees how the Nein interact with each other and constantly make jokes even under the most dire circumstances and he’s making such an effort to be part of that dynamic because for once in his life he has friends. And he’s learning what that means. After 120 years of solitude.

Of course he doesn’t fucking know how to make a joke that’s actually funny. Of course he barely knows what a joke is. So he just goes “ah yes I’ve told them before that I really like soup so if I say I’m not a big fan they’ll know that that’s very untrue and that’s funny!.. right?” And I find that extremely endearing.

[sparring-spirals]

Narratively? Very poetic that the Mighty Nein are surrounding and needling this monstrosity with reminders of humanity and someone they love and callbacks to a relationship that so strongly defined them, and its working.

Mechanically? Very funny that surrounding this eldritch being and whispering choice phrases is actively working to battle it. Like a bunch of middle school teens waging psychological warfare. No one is immune to The Mean And Pointed Whispering. Even wanna-be tentacle eyeball gods.