#mighty nein wrap up

[wackachewbacca]

Episode two and Beau is trying to disguise herself as a man and she goes up to Fjord asking how to act like a manly man like girl you don’t know it but this man does not know how to be accepting of his own masculinity you picked arguably the worst and funniest person for this

[antomander]

I would give my dogs, my house, my life to see the texts between Ashley and Marisha after C2 about Yasha and Beau’s future.

[polycraftory]

Another belt bag for Nott completed! This one is going to be used to hide a phone while my wife is cosplaying as Nott, and I'm really satisfied with the way it matches the little button pouch I made. She is going to have so so many things on her belts lmao

This was definitely my most complex leatherworking project yet! You can check out our pinned post for a link to my Critical Role leatherworking masterpost if you are interested in the other projects I'm doing for Imogen, Laudna, and Nott. I'm also considering making some "how to" leatherworking for cosplay guides so please let me know if there is anything that you'd find useful!

Some additional process notes:

This bag is made with a 2-3 oz vintage bomber chrome tanned leather and an 8-9 oz vegtan bridle leather. Ideally, I would have used a 5-6 oz leather for the structural part but I needed the heavier leather for belts and couldn't afford to get yet another hide. This totally worked though!

I really like how the internal seams turned out on the thinner leather section but man was it tricky to actually figure out how to hold and do properly.

I added a secondary pocket to the original design by cutting out a second front section and I am so glad that worked out and is functional. It'll be the perfect little pocket for artist alley stickers!

If I wasn't doing this project for cosplay, I might have dyed the edges before burnishing them but I think the lighter edges lend it a more worn in feel and my wife liked it better this way and whatever she wants she can have.

I cannot even begin to explain how much I recommend getting a little disc of grippy material if you are going to sew thick leather together. They are apparently called "Needle Pullers" and they make my little fingers not want to die and make getting the needle through thicker leather SO much easier. I buy the dritz ones, I think they are made of silicon or something???

[cloudy-moth]

Hey hey what do we do if in the mighty nein reunion yasha and beau have adopted a kid hey

[amurih]

So you’re telling me that we are getting Fjord’s weird ass dreams with Uka’toa AND The Wildmother’s beautiful face interpreted through nature in the animated series?

[thequeenofmyownscreen]

what to do now

[magpiex-reads]

June reading wrap up✨️

I read 6 books during June!

Love & other scams: 4.5☆ - a fun British contemporary romance with a heist plot line.

The Mighty Nein origins: Mollymauk tealeaf: 5☆ - pre campaign stories about Mollymauk (would recommend to fans of C2)

One for my enemy: 2☆ - a 'enemies to lovers' Romeo and Juliet retelling (after the atlas six I have now learnt that her writing style isn't for me)

Sleep alone: 5☆ - a sapphic short horror novel revolving around Succubi. (CW: body horror)

Caraval: 4☆ - a magical game filled with wonder, lies and betrayal with the possibilities of winning wishes and riches. (A very fun and intriguing concept!)

The ballad of never after: 4.5☆ - sequel to once upon a broken heart, a series linked to the caraval series. (Very fast paced with lots of twists and turns)

Currently reading:

Legendary by Stephanie Garber

The gilded cage by Lynette Noni

20,000 leagues under the sea by Jules Verne

The thread that binds by Cedar McCloud

Dracula by Bram Stoker (via Dracula daily)

The house in the cerulean sea by TJ Klune

Once and Future witches by Alix E Harrow

(I am aware I read too many books at once but I lose interest so quickly😭)

[rachaellawrites]

Rachael's Reading Wrap-Up [January 2023]

Kicking off the year with a bang! January was full of five-star reads, the much anticipated return of my favourite show, and some fun nerding out on my end.

I used to post these to Goodreads, but I've decided to pivot to Tumblr this year. Let me know what you think!

What I’ve Enjoyed

BOOKS Bloodmarked by Tracy Deonn This book had me in a chokehold. If I had the time and freedom to binge read this book in one sitting, I would have. Bree is such an incredible protagonist, and I loved loved loved seeing her and Sel’s relationship explored. Plus, the way the worldbuilding and magic system was expanded on was incredible. Magical speakeasy, anyone? Mighty Nein Origins: Fjord Stone by Kevin Burke and Chris Wyatt Look. Fjord is my precious baby. He’s easily one of my favourite characters of campaign 2, and the fact that we got so few details about his backstory has haunted me since the campaign ended. But now we have answers! And they’re terrible! Fjord is adorable and sweet and earnest and so, so tormented. He needs a one-shot special entirely dedicated to receiving hugs. Legends & Lattes by Travis Baldree This book was so warm and sweet and cozy and made me want baked goods. I loved the characters, and the simplicity, and how deeply invested I felt in Viv’s success and happiness. Absolutely recommend picking this up if you’re looking for a light read and/or like D&D-style worlds.

OTHER The Legend of Vox Machina We’ve only had a few episodes of this show so far, but WOW are they incredible. The CR cast and their team are really using the three-episodes-at-a-time upload format to enact psychological torment, and it’s awesome. So stoked to see more of my favourite moments from the livestream brought to life on the show, not to mention the creative ways they transform this story into something new and unexpected.

What I’ve Created

ARTICLES Genius Changes Made to Season 2, Episodes 1-3 of The Legend of Vox Machina More Clever Changes Made to Season 2, Episodes 4-6 of The Legend of Vox Machina I am nothing if not a nerd. I am nothing if not obsessed with Critical Role. So… I gave myself an excuse to gush about The Legend of Vox Machina by writing these little articles. Hopefully I’ll find inspiration for similar pieces about every three-episode batch released for season 2!

OTHER Starting the Year Strong - Bloodmarked, Mighty Nein, and Legends & Lattes | JANUARY READING VLOG Pretty self-explanatory - a vlog of my reading throughout the month. If you want more off the cuff thoughts about these books as I was reading them, here's the place to go!

[belegc]

I know the Perc'halia shippers are going feral over this scene and I'm happy for them but my first and only thought was

"These kids are so irresponsible, the Mighty Nein had the good sense to get some nice winter outfits for Eiselcross, couldn't Vox Machina have at least packed some cloaks?"

I AM NOT FINE AT ALL RIGHT NOW

[sky-squido]

do you ever think about shadowhand essek thelyss at 1am and how the cast asked matt during the campaign 2 wrap up if he was supposed to be a major antagonist and matt said no because he was "meant to be an antagonistic force in the world" like he was never even meant to be an antagonist, just a force, because his actual personhood was so deeply unimportant from the very beginning, and that he was invented with the sole purpose of making the world a worse place and was never supposed to matter beyond the ways in which his actions harmed others and then he saved the world not because he was a good person but because the mighty nein loved him so much that they bent the narrative around him and he became a character whose personhood mattered because they decided that it mattered and it was their love and nothing else that not only changed him but made him a person that could be changed at all and more than just an antagonistic force in the world, but an antagonist, who could grow and ultimately come to love them back and—

[essektheylyss]

I love that Caleb does not ever seem to take opportunities to take any kind of "this might be the last moment I have" actions. No matter what, when everyone else is going around and making their desperate moves, Caleb doesn't. Even after he recommends otherwise to others, it is notable that he among the group doesn't do so, and this is consistent with his previous behavior.

I like to think that stems from the moment he opted against trying to work with Trent—which I think, at its core, was an attempt at such an action. If Caleb had died fighting the Somnovem, he had every reason to believe that Trent would continue in his actions. Though Astrid and Eadwulf were willing to subtly undermine him, they had made it clear that they were not willing to challenge him outright. Caleb tells the Nein, when they are discussing their last wishes at the Blooming Grove before returning to Eiselcross, that he would appreciate Trent being eliminated in the event of his death. I have to believe that there was a fear or regret that his dearest motivations would not come to fruition which spurred his interest in using an alliance with him in Aeor to trap and kill him.

I've mentioned elsewhere that I believe Essek's willingness to disagree with him was one of the factors in Caleb being able to trust him and his judgment, but I would also argue it was a wake-up call for Caleb—about letting himself be distracted; about not focusing in on the mission at hand; about, potentially, expecting failure in this goal, especially after he has watched his friends say their goodbyes as if they too expect to die. "Stay on task, Widogast," is a mantra he uses in Vergessen, but he does get caught up, to an extent, in enacting as much damage as he can to the place in the process, and regardless of whether this ruthless assault slowed or sped their discovery, Trent did catch up to them, and very nearly caught Veth and Jester as well as himself. Given Caleb's fears throughout the campaign that he will draw the danger that dogs him onto his newfound friends, and his later apology to Essek in the same conversation for drawing Trent's attention to him, it is not a stretch to argue that this is yet another guilt he shoulders.

It isn't lost on me that Caleb almost died before the Nein even met, he was perpetually aware of his fragility among the group, and he was the last member of the Nein to go down and need to be revived. So I just think it's very fun if he, who so often seemed to be on the verge of death, who in fact planned to step back in history and in the process erase the person he had become, found himself at some point determined to live, and firmly confident in his ability to do so.

He does not wrap up his affairs, he does not say goodbyes, and while he may acknowledge the stakes for the group, he does not entertain the idea that he personally will not make it out alive—because, as Dorian notes, he has a lot to live for. He has to get back home to his partner and his well-maintained garden; he has to make sure the Cerberus Assembly's nefarious schemes do not continue in Ludinus's absence, perhaps even in the absence of the Assembly itself, depending on what its members do in its wake; he probably has to go egg on his godson's shenanigans as payback for Veth threatening to shoot him out of the sky.

Caleb Widogast is an absolute cockroach of a wizard, and, in true Mighty Nein form, he is at all times thriving on unfinished business.

[maacbrem]

Absolutely insane about the Thelyss brothers in Vasselheim cause like

Essek the Bright Queen is RIGHT THERE SIR PLEASE - but then, so is his brother, his little brother he probably still thinks of as a child because they were allowed to be children so briefly before anamnesis failed to come and they had to make something of themselves as new souls in an ancient Den, and Verin is the youngest Taskhand of Bazzoxan and a highly accomplished Echo Knight but he’s going to war??? Against aliens and would-be god killers and Ludinus Da’leth???? And Essek is a heretic fugitive and selfish to his bones, but he loved his brother even when he didn’t think he was capable of love at all, even if he wasn’t very good at it. So he stays in Vasselheim and he makes sure that these strange, awe-inspiring legendary heroes know his brother’s face, his voice, his armour, so that maybe if he falls one of them will deign to pick him up. He thinks about his friends, far from him now (Caleb, out of his reach and likely preparing to do something reckless but too brilliant to be called foolish), and looks at his brother, who will also go, who might never come back.

And Verin??? The youngest son of his Den, the second new soul prodigy by necessity who never really understood his brother but loved him anyway, who mourned their father so hard that he tried to become him by throwing himself against the endless hordes of the Hells, who now answers the call of all the gods and Exandria itself to fight a war with impossible odds, offering himself and his soldiers as potential cannon fodder so that the legendary heroes of the age might emerge victorious? I need to know how long he’s known what Essek did (because I know that Essek confessed and part of him hoped that Verin would condemn him, his righteous, devoted brother), and I need to know if Essek faked his death or just vanished, and I need to know if Verin wept for him. Verin who loves his people and his country and his god, who believes in things like faith and loyalty because he’s never really had cause not to, who has to find a way to believe in his brother, too. He learns to recognize this Archivist disguise and a few others that Essek favours, and he stops referring to his brother by name ever just so he doesn’t forget at the wrong moment, and he carries the beat-up booklet of Ashari poetry that he first learned to read Common from that still has child-Essek’s penmanship in the margins and he thinks about how seasons change and how winter doesn’t really kill, it just rests, and the process of a butterfly’s metamorphosis isn’t really that far off from the Luxon’s decree to become your ever-bettering self.

Essek doesn’t say “come back” but he does say “fight smart” and Verin knows what he means. Verin wraps him in a spine-cracking bear hug, uncomfortable in his armour but Essek has gotten better about physical affection in the past few years and one day Verin intends to thank the Mighty Nein personally for that. Verin says “stay sharp” and then quieter he says “i’ll see you again” and Essek hears ‘in this life or the next’ and he very calmly and sanely doesn’t start screaming, but he does press a pearl to Verin’s forehead (Caleb’s variation of the somatics, a useless bit of sentimentality made powerful that Essek adores). And then they have to part ways before Verin rejoins the Kryn contingent and Essek disappears back into the crowd, two brothers finally on the same side but unable to stand together.

Anyway, I think they’re neat.

[demigoddessqueens]

Hello there I was wondering if you can do Vox Machina or Mighty Nein or even both who are needy for reader attention like they give off bottom energy and want the reader attention so bad that they sit on reader lap asking for it and reader gives them what they want no hesitation.

So I’ll do VM for this one given I have a WIP for the M9 for something else

Masterlist 10

Percy

He’s a highborn. A noble. He should be above this type of behavior but he’s utterly beckoned to you and just wants you, wants your attention. It’s so shameless!! Ever trying to be the gentleman, he’ll be as humanely close by your side or hold your hand. But the kisses and touches on you linger more with each passing second.

Pike

She sometimes forgets to enjoy the better, intimate moments of a hectic travel life. Sitting in your lap makes her feel otherwise. Cherished, attentive, loved; you hold onto her consciously and absentmindedly until your attentions are beckoned for a kiss.

Grog

Every so often, even the biggest ones need a break. It’s amusing but sweet when Grog entirely leans his large figure on your shoulder, completely dwarfing you and a large arm wraps around you like a blanket.

Vex’ahlia

You didn’t think anything of it at first, given how she never shies from physical affection, but this time felt different. Legs on your lap and thigh(s), head on your shoulder and looking up at you with “that look”, you can’t tear yourself away fast enough from the crowds to be alone with her.

Keyleth

It was a debate within herself to be as close as she was to you now. It was even more of a debate to be so forward but you caught on. The Druid exhales the deep breath she didn’t realize she was holding in as soon as you reciprocate with touch, gazing back. Whoever or whatever occupies your time will not do so any longer.

Scanlan

The gnome bard starts off with some flirtatious excuse to be near you but he genuinely does want to spend time with you. Jokes and flirtations become more serious and solemn and you note the change in his demeanor. A gentle kiss back from you makes his heart leap.

Vax’ildan

Oh you know he’s just dying to get alone time with you. That pose with Bogie and Bacall where he’s holding her?? That’s Vax, except now the wings are cocooning you. Maybe he’ll stay around longer for your sake if you want him to. Or if you change your mind to be with him….

[utilitycaster]

as a bit of a coda to my post re: C3 likely ending very soon and why some of the worst of C2 fan responses are unlikely, I want to highlight something from C2's ending I forgot that is still relevant: the ending of the campaign is ultimately much more about when the party would part ways, rather than every single thing being resolved. There are also important parts of people's stories that just don't translate well to D&D actual play (notably in C2, Thoreau and Trent being put on public trial).

No matter what Bells Hells do, everything about the moon will have long-term ramifications, and because of Imogen and Fearne we will presumably get some idea of the fate of Ruidusborn in the immediate sense, but anything more needs to marinate. For all I take issue with the ending of Rusty Quill Gaming (not spoiler tagging as it's 2+ years old but: destruction of all magic, arcane and divine, with basically no lead-in or earlier seeding that this was a possibility) they did make the very intelligent choice to end the campaign right after the climactic battle, and then show two brief RP-centric epilogues for the characters, one five years out and one further down the line, to give snapshots of how the world and characters have adapted. Those epilogues did a lot to soften my opinion of an ending that I genuinely think wasn't very well done, because they were thoughtfully chosen.

The Mighty Nein were very much not done adventuring, to a degree, but they were done with the adventures they were having as a group, at least as a constant thing (obviously, they'll bring the gang back together - they're doing so right now). They had conflicting needs that were all somewhat time sensitive, and several of them did wish to pause and spend time with their family at that point. Some of what we thought were plot hooks at the time became stories for another party (Team Wildemount in Molaesmyr was a highlight of C3 for me!), some were the subject of one-shots (Uk'otoa and Trent), and some might be even more long term, whatever that may mean (Chained Oblivion - which could also in theory pay off even in the presumably very few C3 episodes we have left).

So: not every plot thread needs to be wrapped up, the end of a campaign doesn't mean the end of a story, and some parts of a story are better told outside the context of the campaign. Again: I am not judging you for being sad it's ending! In fact, I think anyone who is doing that is kind of an asshole! But I do think it's important to recall that the campaign ending and the story ending are different things, and to consider what actually needs to be wrapped up for a satisfying conclusion, vs what you want to see, particularly because "what you want to see" is very likely to still come to pass down the line as a one-shot, two-shot, beat in a future campaign, or something else. (Unless it's some non-canon shipping bullshit in which case. please check out ao3. great website. will have what you want.)

[hoardingpuffin]

Fable ending this week reminds me of when Mighty Nein ended. Both the excitement for the finale and the wondering how the story could possibly already be wrapped up I've seen around the fandom space, and my own emotions and plans around it.

Mighty Nein ended years ago now, and I still make fanworks and cosplay for it and likely will continue to do so.

And Fable, well... my costuming special interest is satisfied for now after finishing my Enderian Dress, but - I have so many fanfic ideas still so there is that.

[cringefaecompilation]

also as the Numbers Guy, good news everyone, we're gonna surpass 115 episodes and beat out campaign 1 in count if next ep is going to be wrapping up vox machina's key assault and then immediately going into mighty nein, provided if their mission is also two episodes long. then it's bell's hells from early december going into the new year to defeat ludinus and whatever sidequests they wanna do next (ex: permakilling delilah, hag deal aftermath, issylra, popcon) so even if we end at like, episode 129 hey at least we got that.