#percy and vex i think probably had the most in common but also like . they had and have vast differences .

[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.

[your-turn-to-role]

vax'ildan and mollymauk: boyfriends

this is my favourite anonymous ask i've ever received

i don't even know if it's asking a question or just asserting a fact

boyfriends: discuss? sure, let's do that!

many different angles you could go at this from

is it possible in canon? not when they're both alive, for sure, by the time molly was molly vax had been dead for over 20 years

but we live in a tragic world with a canon afterlife so let's keep going

have they met now, in that case? highly likely

would either be looking for a relationship in the afterlife? well, i imagine molly's down for anything that makes being dead less boring, he's all about new experiences and things that look fun. his whole thing was "you're probably gonna die soon so experience as much as possible before you do," but if he dies and keeps thinking i can't imagine that goes away

vax.... on one hand, this boy has more than enough romantic drama. he trapped himself in a never-ending guilt spiral over just gilmore and keyleth. he does not need to add a chaotic circus tiefling to the mix. also a part of me wants to say he's still waiting for them, and he would be, once vax loves you he loves you, but if keyleth and gilmore can eventually move on and find other people, i guess there's nothing saying he can't either?

and on the other hand, the idea of vax waltzing up for work one day with this random tiefling in tow and giving the raven queen another instance of her bi-weekly "what did i get myself into" breakdown is fucking hilarious

(and listen..... she loves her bird son. but knowing someone's soul and having to live with that person are two very different things and a very lonely goddess who hasn't been mortal in millennia cannot and will not be prepared for full time adoption of a very bisexual, very ADHD disaster bird, just saying)

(could i write a whole sitcom that's just these two adjusting to living together? yes.)

(am i ignoring any vax characterisation in dalen's closet that contradicts this? also yes.)

but also this is fandom where the rules don't matter and the universe is fake, so how about AUs?

would they even be into each other? well, probably

vax's type is, in general:

-heart of gold

-unpredictable/spontaneous

-could murder him with magic

on the surface of it, not sure how much of that is molly, he has a bit of magic but it's blood hunter magic which i can't imagine the raven queen looks favourably on, and it's generally more for buffs/debuffs than spells in their own right. also molly, like most of the mighty nein, has kind of a difficult to pin down sense of morality? (the unpredictability, however, he has in the bag)

but reading deeper, i think molly's ethics are more in line with vax's than a lot of the group, i feel like the whole "leave every place better than you found it" thing would resonate well with him? and molly does care about people, he's quick to drop anyone outside of his immediate family if they don't respect him, but so is vax, and they both kind of follow a "steal from people if you need to, but only people who don't need the money, do good things for people where and when you can, no one's going to help if you don't so be the one to change things" kind of code. vax is more likely to beat himself up over mistakes, whereas molly would just move on, and vax is infinitely more self-sacrificing (as are both keyleth and gilmore), but i don't think that necessarily disqualifies. and molly's a lot better at taking care of people, vax by his own admission doesn't handle emotional confrontation well, but that's half of molly's job, so it evens out

as for the magic part, he may not have the magic, but he sure as fuck has the spectacle, which is half the fun. vax likes cool things and impressive things and interesting unique things and that's pretty squarely in molly's corner, so they could make it work

molly's type, by his own admission, is nearly everyone. he admitted to being attracted to most of the m9 under zone of truth. and as for compatibility on his end, i think with vax's trickstery nature there's enough to keep him interested. might not be a fan of vax's tendency to obsess over his worries, life is too short to be emo about things, but a) molly's good at dealing with that, he's had plenty of practice, and b) vax was trying to get himself out of that depression spiral, and what really helped with that was the exact kind of rhetoric molly has in abundance

plus, both dex high fighters, the most openly bi/pan members of their respective parties, both have themes of stealth, trickery, and death/undeath, both (along with vex and fjord) have some of the more noticeable fantasy racism backstories (neither tieflings nor half elves were particularly welcome in the environments they grew up in, and occasionally get negative remarks on it from random npcs, also molly got instantly protective of jester when he realised she might not be aware of that, trying to make sure she didn't get arrested just for being a tiefling in the wrong place at the wrong time, and from what we know of pre-stream vox machina vax got similarly attached to keyleth), so they've got plenty in common

(also worth noting: molly was taliesin's backup character for when he expected percy to die, so there's a universe out there where these two were in the same adventuring party and that would be something)

ultimate verdict: chaotic good

(and to clarify, anon, if you're reading this, am not making fun of you, this was genuinely fun to receive/answer!)

[itsblissfuloblivion]

Torch - Chapter 5: January

[c-is-for-circinate]

STOP! MAKING! ME!! CRY!!! (I say, continuing to seek out your meta posts.) Jester already makes me want to cry every time I think about her too hard; that post about her and Nott watching Marion & Luke made tears well. I gotta say, I'd have suspected Luke to be a breeze to take care of compared to trying to keep JESTER out of trouble her whole life?

NEVER!  YOU CAN’T STOP ME!  NOBODY CAN!

Jester is Always Okay.  Which sent me into a three-paragraph Jester vs Vex compare/contrast, one moment, let me go parenthetical for a bit...

(So, Jester and Vex are both absolutely the people in their parties who are Always Fine, Really, and it’s one of the few things they really have in common.  They’ve both got pretty remarkably decent boundaries about not trying too hard to fix the people around them, but they also very much operate from a place of swallowing down and sidelining their own problems so that all the energy and attention in the group can go to somebody else’s.  And with Vex, it’s so fucking obvious how much of that came as a mix of A) emotional abuse/neglect in Syngorn, and B) being Vax’s sister while he carried his bleeding, broken heart on his sleeve for so many years, but it begs a lot of questions with Jester.  A lot of questions.

Because right, there’s a very intricate balance between healthy and unhealthy here, and it’s super fascinating and super easy to overlook when they’re both surrounded by people who are so much louder with all of their problems.  'I’m actively choosing to be positive, to focus on growth and things I like, to seek out fun or pleasurable experiences because I want and deserve to enjoy life and there are plenty of things in life worth enjoying’ is such a thing!  And it’s not always clear where that shades into ‘repressing and avoiding bad feelings’!  Vex was mostly okay for a lot of Campaign 1, in large part because she was old enough, and had gone through enough seriously bad shit, that she’d managed to work even some of the repression/avoidance into relatively sustainable habits.  She had a relationship with her own feelings that worked for her, even if it came off as selfish or greedy sometimes, and the few times she did allow herself to get feelings all over somebody else, Percy was there to commiserate and be actively grateful for the evidence that Vex was also kind of flawed and broken, rather than put out by her need for emotional support.

Jester makes me very nervous, on the other hand, because she doesn’t really have that.  She is still so young, and so new at dealing with so many different kinds of misery.  She doesn’t have a bear to cry on, or a brother who tries his best to validate her feelings when he’s not too busy drowning in his own, or a boyfriend who’s happy to Drama all his insides out as an instructive demonstration or gesture of support.  The only two people Jester had, for her entire childhood, were her mother and the Traveller, who consistently praised her for being a delightful beam of sunshine and chaos to make them smile.  The guy she’s got her sights set on right now keeps himself locked down so tightly that it’s been sixty-odd episodes and half the party doesn’t even know his real accent.  The Nein repress, a lot, right across the board, and the things they repress consistently bubble up and boil over and clash against each other and then get worked on or shoved right back down again.  And Jester is so good at staying happy, and they all value her so much for that.

I am scared of what happens if and when Jester explodes, but I’m actually more nervous about what happens if she doesn’t, because there’s only so much a person can hold in before it hollows them right out inside.)

Which is to say that I, too, occasionally want to cry about Jester, sometimes on only vaguely-related tangents.  At least you’re in company there?

And yes, I do suspect trying to raise Jester must’ve been a handful and a half.  If nothing else, Luke is much smaller, doesn’t come with built-in Thaumaturgy, probably isn’t playing with a chaos god whenever he’s not being watched, and still has his relatively responsible dad around all the time.  

...on the other hand, baby Jester wasn’t also being co-parented by most of the Mighty Nein.  I feel like, looking back on Kiri, we probably shouldn’t discount their collective influence.  Or their ability to provide small children with very sharp knives.

[curriebelle]

currie my dear I've had a thought and you seem the sort of person who would know the answer. do you think people tend to play D&D characters with the same myers briggs type as themselves? feelers playing feelers and judgers playing judgers and the like?

I have thought a lot about that, yes! I think that there’s loosely a correlation between their own types and the types of characters they’re likely to play, and that their own types influence how they play certain characters, but I don’t think they choose characters that exclusively map onto their exact type.

PREPARE FOR ESSAY \o/

So - as a disclaimer, while I’m pretty confident as to Vox Machina’s types, I’m not as positive about the types of the players, and I’m definitely not confident on the new crew (except for Molly and Jester). There’s a lot of guesswork going on here.

Generally speaking, the more someone is willing to act/commit to a character, the more they’ll be able to stretch themselves type-wise. When I made my bard Byron, I was aware of the MBTI and I (purposefully) played him as an ENFJ. Because of that, I knew there were certain decisions Byron would make that I never would. I’m ENTP, so I like to argue, but Byron was a peacekeeper and he preferred to avoid fights. His biggest weakness was his shame - he was desperate to be a good person, and when he did horrible things either by accident or necessity, he would shut down, and I had to learn how to do that through experience - thinking his thoughts, feeling his feelings, and making decisions the way he would. But, on the other hand, ENFJs and ENTPs can both be loud, flirtatious, imaginative - it wasn’t too much of a step away from my general demeanor, just a lot nicer, and different in significant moments.

If you take VM as a model, the guys playing them are Actors. They should, in theory, be able to play any type, and they could - off a script. But the necessities of improv take over, and players tend to choose characters they have at least a little in common with. A few loose thoughts:

-It’s fairly common for extraverts to play extraverts and introverts to play introverts, only because players who are introverted tend to take more time to decide things and speak more judiciously, which means their characters do that too. That said, it’s one of the easiest things to swap if you concentrate (although it’s a little easier to fake introversion than fake extraversion. Keyleth was introverted; Marisha’s definitely not, but she pulled it off. Taliesin is an introvert, and he’s having a bit of a tougher time faking Molly’s extraversion - boy’s quiet for an ENTP!)

-Switching between thinking and feeling is probably the easiest to pull off (keeping in mind that there are different ways to make decisions using your thinking or feeling functions, btw). Taliesin is a good example here. I think he’s most Definitely the rare unicorn INFJ in real life (which, as a bonus, gives him a good understanding of people). Percy was a textbook INTJ, and he often made ruthless decisions based on what was logical or efficient, not what was right. Tal made a complete switch to a thinking type. On the other hand, Tal can’t completely turn off his feely-ness; some conversations like “I’ve met a lot of people with money and they are definitely not worth you” are wa-a-a-a-ay more INFJ than INTJ 

-A person’s type will also help dictate how they improvise into someone else’s type. Liam, in real life, strikes me as an introverted feeler of some kind (INFP or ISFP). That man has passions, and feelings, and morals. That means he gets very, very deep inside the head of characters he sympathizes with, but there are some character types he might never click with (for example, when he played Jayne, he couldn’t really think of a motive for someone to follow Thariz’dun outside of “she’s completely fucking crazy”). Travis, if you watch him in interviews, has this extraverted-sensor charm (ESTP? ESFP?) about him - he’s extremely expressive and he’s a fantastic storyteller. That’s why his transformations between Grog and Fjord feel so…complete, I guess? (except when he fucks up the accent, lulz). He’s able to shift his physicality and his voice fluidly, which carries him through his improvisations - he can be very convincing very quickly. Laura is EXTREMELY extraverted, very impulsive, and hugely creative. I don’t think she’d ever play like an ISTJ or an INTP because she just….wouldn’t find it fun, which is why her characters have both been hella extraverts (ESFJ for Vex, ESFP for Jester)

AND MATT. Matt is the most adorable at this. I’m pretty sure Matt is an XNFJ of some type, extremely sensitive to the feelings of people around him, extremely imaginative. What this means is that a lot of his characters, from his most ruthless villains to his most rough-and-tumble Kimas and Kaylies, tend to be a touch more….emotionally aware than one would expect :P. And he puts in LOTS of extraverted feelers - Gilmore (ENFJ) Kima (ESFJ) and Allura (INFJ) all have extraverted feeling in their personality.

Conversely, there are some types that are just really hard to fake (read: improvise) if you don’t have the hard wiring already. Marisha’s really funny here: I’m going to guess she’s not an INFP - probably an extraverted thinker of some sort. While she could fake an INFP quite well, she eventually grew frustrated with Keyleth’s ‘illogical’ behaviour. In the episode where they’re looking for the Sword of Kas, people keep saying Keyleth should just leave, and she says “I know, but……Keyleth :/ “ It’s reeeeally tough to be the moral compass of a party when you’re a thinker. :P Sam made a fantastic ENTP (Scanlan) because he can make the requisite insane associative leaps and stupid puns. I don’t know what Sam’s real-life type is, but just watching someone else trying to ENTP - Taliesin playing Molly - shows that it can be difficult for others to imitate. Molly’s still an ENTP, but Taliesin seems to get pretty quickly drained while playing him; in his first scene, he was fuckin’ READY to GO, and if he gets in a good spot he can pull it off, but he’s clearly still acclimatizing to the sacred ENTP duty of Never Shutting Up.

On the other hand, fucking nobody can properly imitate INFJs or INTJs except INTJs or INFJs. Both of those types have this insane ability to summarize situations extremely incisively, to cut right to the heart of matters and somehow encompass everything important about them. Like, how many people would have pulled “You’re at the bottom of my list” out of their hat like that? Only INXJs, I tell you!! That kind of perspective is really hard to fake, which is why I don’t think anybody else could have played Percy that well - and why, as far as I can tell, nobody else is attempting an INXJ this round. The difference between Sensing and Intuition seems to be the hardest to fake on the whole, because that determines what kind of information you notice and prioritize - and it’s kind of hard to notice information your brain doesn’t naturally notice, you feel? :P

So, I guess the tl;dr here is that:

-people can play MBTI types different from their own, but their personalities will influence their improvisation, both by restricting the characters they find appealing to play, and because some shit just can’t be faked on the fly :P

[utilitycaster]

@itsmysteriousmitch I covered why grandchild was not an option in a different reblog but just to cover all of these because I think it's a fantastic example of just how poorly thought-out these theories and the so-called arguments are:

"Vex and Percy might be Opal's grandparents"

- Exandria Unlimited takes place in 842 PD, Vesper Elaina De Rolo, Vex and Percy's oldest child, would have been born at the very end of 812 PD, making her 30 years old at the time of Exandria Unlimited. Opal is at least 18; at the time of her birth Vesper would have been 12.

"Opal speaks about how at her grandma's house she only has to shout to get something"

Literally this just means she has a grandmother who indulges her. This is like...not abnormal behavior nor indicative of any particular grandmother.

"Then there is the fact that percy and vex had several kids"

Hate to break it to you but lots of people have kids? Like...fundamentally, yes, Opal does probably need to be the child of somebody but uh...the fact that other characters had kids (again, all of whom are at the time of this series 30 or younger and would not realistically have a young adult child) is not in anyway related to the fact that some other person exists. This argument only makes sense if you have already, consciously or unconsciously, decided that Opal must be directly descended from a member of Vox Machina, and there's no argument listed here that backs up that assumption.

"that Vex's power up allows her to glow like the sun"

I honestly don't even know what this is referring to with regards to Opal. Like yeah Vex had a blessing from Pelor but I don't think that's necessarily a thing that carries over down generations and even if it were...how does this relate to Opal who I am pretty sure is not like...physically glowing. I think that was meant metaphorically, and also this theory predates the most recent episode.

"that Opal has gone out of her way to hide her last name and Vex and Percy accepting one of their kids marrying for love seems possible."

Dorian is also going out of his way to hide his real name. Beau in Campaign 2 was pretty reticent about her last name. I mean, shit, Vex, Vax, and Fjord all did not use nor identify with their last names and in the case of all of them it was because their father or the orphanage they were raised in sucked. This is an incredibly common trope in D&D and there are many reasons why she might do this.

And as for marrying for love, well, already covered that the children are too young for to be Opal's parents, but at least some of them are old enough to marry and sure, I completely believe Vesper and her younger siblings who are married did so for love! But how does this tie into Byroden specifically, a town that yeah, Vex is from, but has not lived in for 50 years and is across the continent? Like wouldn't it make more sense for said child to have married one of the commoners of Whitestone, or like, someone in Emon or Westruun or the Ashari, all places they would probably visit much more often than Byroden, a small town that is weeks travel away by conventional means, in which as far as Vex knows she has no surviving family? And if they did, this would make the Byroden connection entirely based on someone entirely unrelated to Vex. It takes the single commonality that I think sparked that theory - and then doesn't even use it. It relies on the coincidence that one of the De Rolo children goes to Vex's hometown for [reason not stated] and then finds someone completely unrelated and falls on love. This is honestly like, why I enjoy looking at theories and saying "I don't think that's right actually"; because people will claim there is no such thing as coincidence and things MUST be related and then their entire theory, to conceivably, maybe, work, requires incredible coincidences.

Like, I'm not betting money on it but at least the idea that Opal is a distant cousin hinges on the fact that Vex's mother's family was in Byroden.

In short this is a pile of assumptions, many of which outright contradict canon, several of which contradict themselves, and a few of which like...don't realize that lots of people have nice grandmothers for which I am truly sorry.

Which brings me to another reply because I said elsewhere I was an amateur collector of theories that don't actually make sense:

Since her being a grandchild is, depending on your viewpoint, out of the question or requires at minimum some weird time magic...were she to be a child of Vex and Percy, that indicates that something pretty deeply fucked up happened, for her to be raised in Byroden.

I know all the above indicates that I love evisceration and obviously I do, but @dropsoftheuniverse if there's a joke involved in this theory being true that I'm missing I actually would like to hear it! And of course it's not wrong to think something is funny for purely personal reasons, without that translating to others finding it funny! But if there's not an accessible joke like, I hope it's apparent that if I (random internet stranger in the fandom) don't get it it's also very possible the actual actors wouldn't either.

OK look I am not saying that it's not possible but the idea that Opal is a direct descendant of Vex and Percy is like. You do realize that being from a town is not genetic right. It's very important to me that you know this.

[vohalika]

So chances are we will find out who Pike’s secret love interest has been all along tonight. Last chance to get in your bets! Here’s the options. As I see them, at least.

Random NPC from her backstory/Sailing days. Early on, I was actually considering Tristan the Cleric from the Sarenrae temple in Emon would be it, because he reacted kinda flustered when Pike was mentioned, alllll the way back in episode 25. But if it were an NPC, what’s all the fuss about, really, why never mention it, why would saying it now be awkward? Doesn’t add up. But is the most diplomatic solution, which I appreciate!

Grog. Because. I dunno, they’re close? Never saw their relationship that way, way too fraternal and all that, but it could happen! And boy would that be a twist.

Keyleth. This one came up after Pike kissed her on the forehead after being feebleminded by Lady Briarwood and then cured by Keyleth, in kind of a parallel to the Kimallura smooch, I guess. Also Keyleth is amazing, just in general.

Vex. Because if how Pike was flushed after Vex hugged her naked the episode the secret love interest was a big point of conversation in. Also Laura is famously the only one (besides Brian, I guess) who knows about it... Which is both a point in favor or against, when you think about it. There’s also the time Pike was one of the first to be drunkenly blubbering about how amazing Vex is, but she was joined in by literally everyone, and, I mean, come on. It’s Vex. Being into her is just good taste.

Percy. This is probably the most common assumption around, not helped by the fact that the debate was started around the time when Perc’ahlia started, I dunno, becoming obvious? Ashley has also hinted that the window of opportunity to confess has slipped away, indicating that the person in question is now taken. And while that also applies to Vex and Keyleth, here is where I see it the most brought up. She also gave Percy the bamf back to life necklace in the same episode the secret love interest was mentioned first. She has a song for him on her single playlist. And then there’s the time Ashley and Taliesin were both on Talks together, Brian brought up the secret love interest, and Ashley was very put-out by him mentioning it again. I can see why people think this is it. But. Well.

Vax. Liam was the other guest at that Talks episode I just mentioned. Ashley had a song for Percy on her playlist, and a song for the person Pike was secretly in love with. Ashley also mentioned that something happened pre-stream, and we only know about Pike and Vax spending a lot of time alone together pre-stream. I think they had a session with just the two of them and Matt, once? When the party got split up? Also, by the time the secret love interest came up, Perc’ahlia was just like, apparent to people who had witnessed a whole lot of smaller moments and a reliable set of shipping goggles, and for many of these moments, Ashley simply wasn’t at the table. On the other hand, Vaxleth had been a... Thing. One way or the other. For a long time. Then there’s the fact that on the stream, Vax is probably the person Pike has the most scenes with after Grog and Scanlan. And they’re always had a bit of a special relationship. I dunno, it always made more sense to me than aynthing else, especially with the scene with the bench and the wolf at the end?

So yeah, my money’s on Vax, though there’s points in favor and against pretty much everyone on the list. And the great thing is that this will all be resolved tonight! Probably. Hopefully. Please.

[eponymous-rose]

Talks Machina Highlights: Episode 97

Paper pre-stream reads “Easter Egg: Brian Wayne Foster’s home address is inscribed on the set somewhere.”

Brian reveals that he’s wearing the shirt with the cross-eyed picture of him that Sam was wearing in the last episode.

There is a betta fish on set, and as soon as they zoom in on it, Marisha’s name-card pops up. Brian: “This is a betta fish. The alpha fish we keep behind a paywall.”

Keyleth now holds the record for most damage dealt in a single turn (690) and the most damage taken in a single blow (363).

Matt kinda hoped that Vex would revive Keyleth and just be like “tell no one this happened.” Everyone adored everything about that moment.

Asked about their characters basically becoming demi-gods at this point, Taliesin: “I’m feeling smug about it.” Sam points out that most of VM isn’t particularly mature, so it’s a little worrying that they’re gaining this much power. Matt; “Eh, fortune favors the bold. It’s fine.”

Matt hasn’t had a campaign get to the upper levels like this before, so he’s really excited to try some new things in the coming arc. Taliesin has never played at such high levels before, or even heard of someone playing at such high levels.

Taliesin figures the most Percy way for Percy to die would be to go into a bar, attempt to threaten everyone, and have everyone turn on him. Sam on the most Taryon way for Taryon to die: pre-Vox Machina, he would go off on a paid hunt and he’d somehow still lose.

Brief digression about how to play out death by autoerotic asphyxiation in D&D. As you do.

Matt definitely shied away from having players “roll for baby” over the break, since he thought that definitely wasn’t a fair thing to throw at a player based on a dice roll. ("...unless you’re Scanlan”) Matt also mentions that Vax and Keyleth have had conversations about how they’re "probably for the most part an asexual relationship.”

Taliesin expands a bit on the fancy ball at Whitestone: “It’s basically a Medieval Times version of Santa’s Village.” Brian: “What would Percy wear to that?” Taliesin: “Cowboy boots and a smile.”

Taliesin mentions that Percy and Cassandra are starting to be a little sillier around each other now, trying to remind themselves that it’s all over. The thing they have most in common that VM doesn’t share is being the product of a legacy and learning to find their own way within that legacy. 

Taliesin has already started a playlist for his character in the next campaign.

Matt is gonna start everyone in the next campaign halfway through level 2 so they get to play with their characters a bit before deciding which archetype to go for.

Sam has a brief rant about how many planes there are in D&D. “Let’s streamline. Let’s streamline.” Matt: “Sam, I am so excited for the RPG you’re releasing next year.” Sam: “The Three Places.”

Matt wasn’t expecting the Shadowfell reveal to come so soon. There was gonna be another reveal down the road that might still play out in the game. Elements of the story may have been accelerated as a result of that bit of player ingenuity.

Taliesin’s character was eaten and there was a near-TPK in the Shadowfell the last time a campaign he played in went there. (He and the other dead players had to go back in playing as the mercenaries sent to retrieve their bodies.)

Keyleth’s natural 20 when touching the orb back in episode 34 was sort of an example of failure by success, in that it delayed the Shadowfell reveal considerably. At that time, though, she could’ve died from the damage it dealt, or gone unconscious and bled out on the other side. If she had made it through, she wouldn’t have had Plane Shift and would’ve had to find a way back, which would’ve started the Shadowfell stuff early. So they would’ve had to work out their priorities given that the Chroma Conclave attacked shortly thereafter.

Matt thought of the scry (reverse-whisper) as a successful test run for maybe pulling out most of the party and isolating players again in the future.

Sam talks a bit about how Matt takes the “cartoonish backstories” they make up and turns them into a coherent narrative.

They were at Matt’s house digging through his minis trying to figure out where the story was gonna go next. (Brian calls out Matt’s impressive mini-painting skills.)

The silencer is a ten-foot bubble of Silence spell that follows Percy around: downside is he can’t hear or say anything while he’s taking those shots. Taliesin is very excited for those potential downsides.

Sam had no warning about the kidnapping; he found out when the rest of us did. When she handed Taryon a cream puff, Matt secretly rolled a constitution saving throw for him---it was essentially a delayed Sleep spell.

Percy’s chilled out a bit over his anger at Scanlan during the past year.

Tary’s started to learn his limitations over the past year---he’s aware of how strong he can be as part of a team, but hasn’t really ventured out on his own yet and is worried about how much of a crutch the money has been for him.

Talks Machine in the Dark:

Matt talks about some of the weird and wacky dragons out there in the expanded D&D literature. Sam: “By the way, in my RPG, there’s only one kind of dragon.” Matt really enjoys creating new creatures, so he’s been veering away from the books a little more often.

Someone suggests that Tary could multiclass into bard. Sam hadn’t thought about that. Matt points out that Doty’s the one writing the book, so maybe Doty should become a bard. Sam: “Can Doty be a bard?” Matt: “No.”

If Percy had the power, would he bring back his dead family? If he thought the consequences would be minimal, sure, but he also has a respect for death. Every time they’ve managed to bring someone back, it was the D&D equivalent of a crash cart, within 24 hours. Percy doesn’t even know where his family’s bodies are. Matt, grinning: “I do.”

Matt points out that this is part of why Keyleth is so frightened of higher-level resurrection spells: how do you choose who you can bring back? What gives you that right? What are the moral implications? He also brings back Kerrek’s probing questions about resurrection. Taliesin sums it up beautifully: “It’s dark and twisted and strange once you start pulling it apart.”

The hardest character death for Matt was Pike’s death back in the home game---it was the first time for a lot of the players to realize that they’d spent a year and a half with this character and she could still be gone like that. Apparently Ashley came home at 3AM distraught and tried explaining the whole thing to Brian, who knew nothing about D&D at the time and was a little confused. “...you died? At Travis and Laura’s?”

Doty can speak primarily because it’s funny, and also because Sam wanted to give Matt something more to do when he plays Doty. There was a lot of discussion over which word it would be. Sam: “It could’ve been Hodor.”

Someone asked whether another Battle Royale will come up, and Matt thinks probably before too long, next time they have players away or just need a week off.

[jessieleaf]

Episode 99 reaction

Like everyone else, I have lots of feelings. I will most certainly go in order for this. First off, Pike is fucking amazing. Skipping ahead a little, I loved that Tary got full control over the house. It lets him legally decide what to do and it legitimizes his control. Now his father can't really say no since Tary is the one officially letting his family stay in the house. Sleepover part 2. Joke all you want about Vax and Keyleth being weird with animal forms, I personally think it's cute and harmless and they do what they wanna do behind closed doors leave them be. Also Pike got to be apart of the pillow fort this time. I'm going to draw all the things. The next morning's conversation. Holy moly I knew that it would be bad, but Matt's face, that silent rage that grew as Tary talked. That was scary and I'd hate to get on Matt's bad side that was scary. Tary also coming out with everything he has learned and wanting to right the wrongs his Family did? I...like man I love how much he has developed. And then going through what everyone has taught him? I can kinda see how Vax can be like a father but Grog kinda stumps me...but everyone else was dead on and then....Percy...like we all knew but to hear him confirm it was...that was excellent. I was very happy to see Howart finally come around. I'm glad there was a concession on his part. There was nothing he could do and he needed to accept it. The deed was done and he probably got the best he could have given the circumstances. Moving on, I was really sad to hear Tary say he wanted to stay, but I also perked up at that, because that would either mean another new character from Sam, or it meant...Scanlan. That whole deception thing threw me through a loop. I thought it was him with an illusion coming down the stairs, but Matt was playing him, so I didn't suspect...until he finally mentioned the origins of his name. Then I knew. Man...As soon as Vex knew, he...that little move to Modify her memory? No. You've been using that spell on the regular. You've been wiping minds and changing people's thoughts to get what you want and it's become second nature. And now you use it in the people who trust you the most. Who accepted you despite all your faults. Your family...the girl who looked to you like a father. Glad you didn't succeed. But the intent was there and Vex was hurt by that. You are in for something when that girl snaps, and trust me, it's gonna hurt worse than most. So everyone comes out and there is now a realization from Grog and Pike. And silence. You could feel that energy, it was palpable though the screen. Grog then seeing Lionel with Scanlan? That. Is. Fucking. Terrible. You can argue that Vox Machina replaced Scanlan with Tary, but that is so not true and they've made it abundantly clear what Tary is to them and how unlike Scanlan he actually is. So Grog now feels betrayed. After he stuck up for Scanlan, this is how he is treated? Like he could be replaced with another Barbarian who is also a Bard? Grog helped bring you back, he respected your privacy for a while. He wanted to give you space. But now it looks like you've replaced him with a better version So now we can get into everyone's reactions. Tary, who is indifferent, focuses more on how accepting Vox Machina are of Lionel than they were of him. Vax was...well Vax had forgiven Scanlan long ago and was elated. He knew they'd meet again and wanted to know what was going on. He wanted to catch up. Keyleth recognized the tension and was probably the most outwardly angry, but it was still pretty subdued and she was probably a little bit in shock. Percy trying desperately to maintain the high ground. Like Grog, and probably the rest of VM, he felt betrayed but was having a hard time trying to figure out why he wasn't more angry. He was even trying to sort out his thoughts and seek advice from his significant other. The comment about Sybil was amazing and a great gut punch. His gradual coming to terms will probably lead him to forgive a lot sooner but the way he left that tavern speaks volume for how he will treat Scanlan in the future. Moving on to the silent crowd...Pike and Grog. Scanlan knew that they'd be difficult to crack so he didn't address them first. He saw their silence and accepted it for a while. But Grog's seething rage as Lionel sat down to drink with him? That was so palpable, I was leaning closer to the screen the whole time. Then, as soon as that Awkward fight came to a head with some strange moves from Lionel, It shook Grog enough to take him out of his rage and send him away. CAT! C-A-T! That was everything. That broke my heart. Pike dragged Scanlan. She dragged him so hard and I applaud Ashley, that girl can do no wrong. Scanlan was right about a few things when he left, but Pike deserved none of that. She hadn't done anything to have Scanlan inflict those hurtful words on her. She called all of his bullshit and took him down. Good on her. Nothing is forgiven, but at least they understand one another and can work from a common ground of understanding. And lastly...the other amazing Liar in the group. Vex, so clearly acting as if she forgave him, fooling her brother, fooling her significant other...but she is so broken. She has to be. Scanlan insulted her personally. He has been on her mind for so long and as soon as he shows up he wants her to forget? To cover up his ruse? Oh man that was the final nail in the coffin for me. She was acting through the whole ordeal that she was trying to forgive, and it may turn out that she does. But...I can't see that happening. He came back and the first thing he does is try to modify her memory. A family member. Someone she thought he trusted. Someone she looked to for advice sometimes. Someone who she loves. He tried to break all of that with a single spell. I'm...to me that is the worst betrayal. He never apologized for that. He assumed Vex was fine, with her open attitude and jubilant words, welcoming him back. But I see a Vex haunted by that moment, a Vex reliving the words he said when he left. I see a Vex hiding it until something snaps and she goes beserk on him. I don't see the forgiveness lasting. I see a broken girl desperate to try and hold things together. I Can't Wait. Now, as for the rest of the stuff that happened, we now have the beginning of the final arc. With no message from the Raven Queen, Vax has begun to see the fates beginning to align. Scanlan is back and Vecna's ritual has now been successful in another temple. Who knows what has happened in that two week span. We also have Vex and Percy with a little secret. Pregnancy? Marriage? I wonder what those two are keeping from everyone else, and why Vex has chosen to keep it from her brother. Lionel was perfect, I applaud tonight's guest and found his performance immensely entertaining. Sam was freaking phenomenal. He hit all the right story points and played all of his cards as best he could. He performed at 110% and evoked so many emotions. Thank you man, and you and Matt are terrible people who toy with our minds. Sigh Ok I'm done.

[sunstarelanor]

I re-watched Veth and Yeza’s most recent convo last night, and the idea Veth and Yeza left off with is that maybe they would spend half the year in Felderwin and Half the Year in Nicodranas. Yeza liked the idea of them being “one of those trendy couples that travels all the time” which sparked an idea for a GREAT ending for Veth, which is that when Luc gets old enough she starts bringing both Yeza and Luc on adventures (and starts getting Yeza out of HIS Nott Brave shell) and ends up getting them all involved with the Darrington Brigade for low level adventures/ monster hunting. Either that or joining the Golden Grin through Shakasta so Veth gets to go feral for justice and freedom. Or! ooooohhhhh Veth/Reani/Shakasta team-up w/ Luc and Kiri and TJ being jr members and occasionally joining fjord and beau and jester at sea while marion and yeza just relax for a bit on the beach with Ruby of the Sea’s that have tiny umbrellas jester made for them with her magic paint. 

I guess I’m saying that I don’t imagine Veth settling down ANYWHERE and I feel like Yeza’s already low-key on board with not quite settling down either, and I so I like to imagine Good Things resulting from all that. 

(lol sorry for the rest of this my brain Got Away From Me and i already mentioned how I imagine a lot of them are going to be  Continuing After Adventuring so the rest of TM9 and all of VM below the cut). 

I didn’t mention Caleb, Yasha, or Cad above because they are The Introverts so  i project onto them i see them as less prone to adventuring for adventures sake, and having more of a calm retirement, lol. For Yasha, I think for her settling down is just less violence instead of less travel, so i could see her being part time with the above group, which is how I see Jester as well, because Jester would want to spend plenty of time with her mama. Cad is hard to tell for me. He so often doesn’t express he wants/needs (mood) but I think he also feels best when he’s helping and taking care of other people (what was I saying earlier about projecting lmao) but also has complicated feelings with what he’s supposed to be doing with his life (holy forking shirtballs MOOD!) so like that’s something that he’s gonna have to work on. Caleb at this point is the one who I  absolutely see as someone who wants to go back and settle down where he grew up, some of this being from some sort of weird twisted nostalgia. I feel his arc is going to change that, however, because he’s gonna learn just how much “rot” as he calls it there is in the empire. probably learn something with themes of systematic oppression and imperialism. (which imo has been hinted at by matt, especially early in the campaign w/ the history of the growth of the empire, religious persecution, and classism. ie: Zadash and the knights of requital, the family they left Kiri with, etc.)  I’m also interested to see how the Cobalt Soul works with this system and how it works to undermine it. This is a tangent within a tangent now tho. RIP.

As an extra note, I feel this wanderlust is interestingly a lot more common as the endgame for the Mighty Nein than for Vox Machina. Like contrasted to Vex and Percy esp. but also Vax, Scanlan, Tary, with the exceptions being occasionally Pike and Keyleth, and all the time Grog. This is especially seen with what they all do/ how they all deal with their year long break. Grog travels alot and takes Pike along for the ride, and after the break Keyleth Keyfishes, and then says that she did the stupid thing because she has been so stressed lately, and that’s  because she’s had to settle down somewhat and take on the voice of the tempest responsibilities, and even then she has a project she’s running around working on. (The emergency alert alarms). At the end of course she’s pretty depressed, so it’s hard to gauge what she’s doing. But like. The search for Grog she calls a good distraction. and How she is during the Dalen’s closet one shot? Yeah. This girl is NEVER gonna fully settle down and learn to zen.

This was supposed to all be about Veth. Whoops. 

okay on top of everything else I'm trying to manifest right now, the thing I would actually like to see the most in this episode is that Yeza bought a permanent place of residence in Nicodranas with the money Veth gave him. I cannot explain to you how important it is to me that the Brenattos remain in Nicodranas.

so I'm low-key obsessed with Veth and Yeza and their relationship. like Yeza is easily my favorite male NPC and I just adore him and Luc, but I'm actually super neutral towards whether he and Veth stay together or not. that being said, if they stay together, I want it to be in Nicodranas (or really anywhere other than Felderwin). I want these two to flourish and I think returning to their little lives in Felderwin is such an uninspired take on Veth's narrative. I really love that Yeza is such a good, stand-up, supportive guy because it makes it so much more complicated how bad Veth's life was before she became Nott. in a way similar to what I've seen people say about Cad, Veth's experiences with the Nein have made it where she can't and shouldn't return to the way her life used to be, and what better way of symbolizing that her journey isn't supposed to end with her simply going back home to be a housewife, that she hasn't simply turned back from Nott to Veth but melded the two into a person she was always capable of being, than changing where home is? a home that isn't where she was terrorized her entire life until all she believed she could be was a homemaker, a home that makes it easier for her to stay in touch with her second family after she retires, a home that has more opportunity and adventure so she can continue to shine even when she hangs up the crossbow.

[critrolestats]

She’s Vex, He’s Vax.

vcxahlia asked: How many times have people mixed up Vax and Vex? I feel like that would be a good stat to have. scaraman2112 asked:How many times has Matt confused Vex and Vax? Anonymous asked: Hi just wanted to say thank you for all the work you guys do But now here is the question how many times mas matt mistaken vax for vex and vex for vax coz like omg its soooooooooooooo easy to remember XD      

Oh, soooooooooooooo easy. It’s not vaxing vexing at all. In fact, we went ahead and just tracked every time it happened to anyone. Wait… Is it Vex or…

Thanks to actualkatebishop, Brendan G., @cwittland, @dutchcritter, @EBalensuela, Eric R., @InvictusRob, @jgraveart, @jmworland,  KageyKritter, mooberg, @mrsgoodreaver, mthwiz, @nakedinahat, René B., @silmarienn, @unnamemeN, and @ytoti_ for their work compiling this list!

Times twins’ names mixed up on Critical Role: 58 Updated through Episode 79.

02 Into the Greyspine Mines

(1:05:16) Travis: Vex?  Laura: He’s Vax. I’m Vex. (Note: It sounds to us like Travis said Vax the first time, but it sounded enough like Vex to Laura that she commented on it, and we’re going to trust her.)

04 Attack on the Duergar Warcamp

(1:06:06) Keyleth: Wait. What does Vax have to say about this?  Vax: Vex, you mean? Vex? My sister, Vex?

(1:19:40) Keyleth: I go ahead and I cast enhance ability on Vex.  Scanlan: Vax.

05 The Trick About Falling

(2:52:39) Keyleth: Do I have enough speed to get to get next to Vex there?  Matt: Vax, you mean?

06 Breaching the Emberhold

(0:44:38) Keyleth: I go ahead and I cast guidance on Vax.  Vex: I’m Vex, he’s Vax.

(1:22:18) Keyleth thanks “Vax” (Vex) for reminding her of the child she killed in the battle with the Dread Emperor.

(2:04:55) Keyleth: Before they leave, I just kind of, like, tap their shoulders and meditate and grant them guidance.  Matt: Ok, you can give one of them guidance, because it’s a concentration.  Keyleth: Uh, Vex. (seems to nod to Vax)  Matt: Ok.  Vex: That’s me. (awkward pause) Did you mean to give it to him?  Keyleth:…yes.

07 The Throne Room

(2:07:43) Sam (jokingly) to Liam: Are you Vex or Vax?  Liam: I’m Vix.

09 Yug’voril Uncovered

(0:48:12) Matt: Vex… Liam: Ok, I’m going to use.  Matt: Vax.  Laura: Mmm.

10 K’varn Revaled

(1:06:57) Matt: Ok, Grog and…Vex…  Scanlan: Vax.

12 Dungeons and Dragons Campaign Tips

(1:45:54) Matt, “So, Trinket will advance pretty much alongside Vax, err Vex.” (looks at Liam) “You’re not wearing your shirt.” (Referring to the Vax/Vex t-shirts from the previous week)

13 Escape from the Underdark

(1:12:39) Tiberius: Pick up Vax! (sounds remarkably like Vex)  Vex: Why?  Tiberius: I said Vax.  Keyleth, Vax? Pick up Vax?

14 Shopping and Shipping

(2:05:14) Gilmore: "Vax'ahlia!" (thanks to @runmeoverwithazamboni)

(1:33:48) Travis: I try to do my best Vax wink.  Laura: Vex.

15 Skyward

(0:09:54) Sam: Oh-what’s-his-butt has something.  Orion: Vax has something.  Laura: Vex.  Sam: Oh s***.  Laura, just kidding, I’m Vex.

21 Trial of the Take Part 4

(1:23:54) Matt: Suddenly, you see Vex pull his daggers out, er, Vax pull his daggers out.

(1:34:17) Matt: I need all of you, except for Vex, to go ahead and make a wisdom saving throw.

(1:52:51) Tiberius: Vex, no! Stop. What are you doing?  Vax: My name is Vax.  Tiberius, That’s what I said.”

(1:53:21) Matt: Thorbir, you see Vex kick the door open.

(2:28:21) Matt: Tiberius, Thorbir, Vex, and Kash to all make dexterity saving throws.

(4:35:05) Matt, during Critmas: …next to a Vex.  Laura: That’s, by the way, the third time you called him Vex tonight.

22 AraMente to Pyrah

(3:32:15) Matt: …it’s doing a touch attack against Keyleth and Vex.  Vax: Vex or Vax? Matt: Vax, I’m sorry.

(4:13:10) Percy, Tiberius, Vax, Grog, you all take 3 points of damage from the fall. (Vex had rolled the Nat1, not Vax)

24 The Feast

(2:22:29) Tiberius: Vex…Vex…Vex… (Vax looks) No, Vex. Vex.   Vex: Me?

25 Crimson Diplomacy

(1:25:10) Matt: And with that, Vex. (points at Vax. Vex gasps) Vax, Vex. I did it again.

26 Consequences and Cows

(1:03:00) Keyleth: Wait. No to Laura…to…to Vax.  Vex: I’m…I’m Vex.

27 The Path to Whitestone

(0:40:20) Marisha: Let me scooch over so I can be behind Vax-Vex. Laura: Vex

(3:02:48) Matt: Both Scanlan and Vex…

(3:03:26) Grog: I jump and try to grab Vex.   Vex: Vax. You wanna hold me? (Grog does commit to this and holds on to Vex)

29 Whispers

(3:16:10) Keyleth: Looking up and seeing that Sir Kerrion is gone and Vex is blindly...oh, sorry, Vax…

31 Gunpowder Plot

(p3. 0:46:08) Matt: And I think most of it, of course, thanks to Vax. You’re pushin’ close to 10,000 gold pieces you guys have saved.  Liam: I’m Vax. (points) That’s Vex.  Laura: Did you just call me Vax?  Matt: No.  Laura: You did.  Matt: Man.

33 Reunions

(p1. 1:29:00) Matt: Vex, what’d you get?  Vax: I’m Vax.  Matt: I know, I said Vex. I got it right this time!  Liam: O, you’re from California.  Matt: *pouts and glares*

(p2. 1:46:38) Matt, to Percy: Go ahead and make 3 attacks against Vex…Vax. I mean Vax.

35 Denouement

(p1. 0:21:26) Travis: Can I try giving Vax a common healing potion? (While Vax isn’t with the group and Vex has 1 hit point)

38 Echoes of the Past

(2:07:18) Matt: Vex appears, seemingly out of nowhere, and slaps his lockpicks your hand.  Vax: I’m Vax.  Matt: Sorry…Vex. (smirks)

39 Omens

(1:27:28) Matt: You can see Vex’s, uh, Vax’s bleeding, unconscious form slip out of the purple worm’s body.

40 Desperate Measures

(2:24:07) Pike: What were you trying to do when you brought Percy and Vex up here?  Liam: Vax.

41 In Ruins

(0:30:21) Laura: Hey man, I was helping too!  Matt: You were helping, until you were pulled away after the 5 minutes.  Grog: Good job, Pike! And you too, Vex.  Matt: And good job, Vax.

42 Dangerous Dealings

(1:35:30) Matt: You can take a d10 inspiration die, Vex…uh, Vax.

(2:59:52) Keyleth: Vax, do you have an arrow…err, Vex, do you have an arrow?

43 Return to Vasselheim

(3:34:02) Matt: Vex, you take… Liam: I’m Vax.  Matt: Sorry, Vax. Every now and then.  Liam: Every time.

44 The Sunken Tomb

(2:09:43) Matt: So, Grog and Vex are heading to the right.  Laura: Vax.

47 The Family Business

(1:04:19) Vex: I pull out the broom and lift up in the air. [...] Keyleth: That’s pretty cool, Vax!

48 Into the Frostweald

(1:10:35) Scanlan: Or we could just send Vax…Vex on a broom right now to get it…solo.

49 A Name is Earned

(4:34:45) You see Vex come rocketing toward you.  Liam: *mouths* Vax.

53 At Dawn, We Plan!

(2:15:57) Sam: I’m going to where I dropped her off at the sewers. And I’m hoping that [Vax] can track or something?  Laura: Probably shoulda brought a ranger with you who’s really good at tracking.

55 Umbrasyl

(2:45:29) Matt: You come to rest at the side of this one pillar that juts out of the ground with Vax right up above you.  Laura: I’m Vex!

(2:45:43) Matt: You do hear, right in front of you, a growling, snarling bear [...] the bear that you saw Vax summon forth from her throat.  Laura: I’m Vex!

(3:06:16) Both Shale and Vax are… Laura: Vex.  Matt: I’m just gonna keep saying it now, over and over.

59 Into The Feywild

(0:24:19) Matt: Uh, Vex- uh Vax you go ahead and make your way, uh, towards one of the tree trunks and kind of just dart out of the way to remain hidden.

61 Denizens of the Moonbrush

(3:09:47) Sam: I’ll inspire Vax! The girl!

64 The Frigid Doom

(1:50:43) Taliesin: As an aside, I want to grab Vex for a quick walk on the way to the castle. I want to go by the cemetery.  Liam: You did say ‘Vex’ right?  Taliesin: Vax.  Liam: You said 'Vex’.  Taliesin: Vax.

66 A Traveler’s Gamble

(2:49:19) Scanlan: I want to go back to that place and get my revenge. Are you with me, Vax?  Liam: Vex, Vax? Which of us?  Scanlan: Vax!  Taliesin: That’s Vex.  Laura: What?  Marisha: Wait, what?

69 Passed Through Fire

(0:50:16) Marisha: And I hand the dagger to Vex….Vax. Sorry.  Laura: No, thank you, you said it, it’s mine.

70 Trust

(2:07:33) Travis: Can I go find Vax?  Laura: Yeah, I wanna go find Vax and Keyleth as well.  Travis: Oh, I’m sorry, I meant Vex.

71 Vorugal

(0:20:33) Vex: Is anybody going to keep track of us like you kept track of Vex...Vax. I just called my brother me.

76 Brawl in the Arches

(1:20:22) Sam: Where ya goin’ Vax…..Vex?

77 Clash at Daxio

(0:29:10) Travis: The one Vax shot that, like, hit the ground and went buh-buh-buh-bah!  Laura: I’m Vex.  Travis: Yeah, whatever.

And, by special request, we also have Talks Machina on this list! (That’s 4, Brian.)

(Ep01, 0:39:20) The closeness of the twins’ names, and the common mistake of mixing them up, is discussed.

(Ep03, 0:58:26) Brian: A lot of people asked, when did Percy and Vax… Vex.

(Ep05, 0:47:08) Brian mixes them up before threatening CRS. Hence why we added it.

(Ep07, 0:19:15) Brian: Was the red dragon that slew Vax slack-- slash Vex’s… I hate this job.

[ruggercayden]

Reaction Fic to Ep. 81

So, while this episode was lighthearted, there were also some dark moments. I wanted to credit anyone who wrote reactions to the events that are talked about in this story because reading them helped inspire me to write this. So, thank you. Warnings are below the cut.

Warnings: Drug abuse, shouting, arguing, blaming, breakdowns. I have no experience with hard drug abuse nor the complete mechanism of addition (I know about it from a medical standpoint but that’s it.)

Vox Machina finds out about Scanlan’s…problem.

It was a few days after they confronted Raishan. While there was some trepidation of their plan to wait, in the long run it worked out for the better. They managed to come back with relatively few injuries and another thing crossed off their list of things they need to accomplish.

Vax was walking up to his bedroom to start getting ready for bed. Along the way, he passed by Scanlan’s room. His gut, the common sense that he was taught to listen to when he was younger, caused him to slow down and stare at the closed door to his room. Having the time to think about his immediate reaction to Scanlan, and the fact that the bard hadn’t really been around him much in the past day or so, made him walk up to the door and give it a gentle knock. There was no answer, so Vax assumed he was busy and made to walk away. After a few steps, he paused, unable to shake the growing feeling of dread in his gut. He walked back to the closed door and knocked again, louder this time and called “Scan-man, you ok in there?”

He then pressed his ear against the door, but heard no sound indicating that someone was coming. Making a decision, he grabbed the doorknob and turned it, calling out, “Scanlan, I’m worried about you, I’m coming in.”

Opening the door, Vax took in the sight of the room and paled in shock. Clothes were everywhere, plates of food and drink were scattered around the room, armor and other gear mixed in, like Scanlan hadn’t bothered to clean up. But what terrified Vax was the figure laying face-down on the bed, not moving. Shaking out of his shock, he dashed to the bed and grabbed the figure turning the now familiar body of his friend over onto his back. Scanlan’s eyes were closed and it was hard to tell if he was breathing. Vax quickly jabbed his left hand into the gnome’s neck while his right reached up to his earring yelling, “JENGA, HELP EMERGENCY IN SCANLAN’S ROOM. BRING PIKE PLEASE, PLEASE HELP, PLEASE HURRY!” Through his calling, he managed to feel a faint pulse in Scanlan’s neck and if he looked closely, he could see the faint rise and fall of Scanlan’s chest as he breathed. Thanking Sarenrae and the Raven Queen, he quickly shifted around on the bed until he found that thrice damn flute, filled with the remnants of whatever Scanlan had taken. By this time, the rest of Vox Machina had crashed into the doorway and saw Vax with Scanlan’s head on his lap and the flute raised in his left hand. Pike let out a soft cry, which was enough to jerk everyone out of shock. Pike reached Scanlan and immediately started to cast Greater Restoration on him. When the spell was finished, Scanlan started to stir in Vax’s lap and opened his eyes to meet the half-elf’s. As soon as his brain caught up with his body, he immediately jerked out of Vax’s lap to a standing position at the foot of the bed and his eyes grew hard and cold.

“What are you doing in my room Vax’ildan?” he asked, his voice the coldest and most devoid of emotion that anyone had ever heard. Vax stood up from the bed, dropping the flute on the covers in shock at the coldness radiating from his friend, and softly replied, “I just felt something was wrong so I came in to check on you.”

Scanlan flinched at the sound of Vax’s voice. “Why do you care? Why do any of you care?” he turns to look at the rest of Vox Machina standing in the doorway. “I’m just a dude with cool magic shit,” he says quietly as his eyes lower to the floor. Vex’s soft gasp fills the room and immediately she starts to say something. “Scanlan, I didn’t…” She gets no further before Scanlan shouts out, “What? Are you trying to tell me you didn’t ‘mean it like that’?”, he drawls out mockingly. “What would you expect me to believe? That you guys cared about me. How about when NOBODY ASKED ME HOW I WAS DOING AFTER I DIED?” Scanlan’s voice starts raising into a shout, “HOW ABOUT WHEN THE FIRST TIME ANYONE TALKED TO ME, I WAS BEING HOISTED IN THE AIR AND THROWN DOWN WITHOUT AN APOLOGY? HOW ABOUT WHEN I SPECIFICALLY ASKED TO NOT BE RESURRECTED BUT WAS ANYWAY?” Tears started rolling down his cheeks and his voice going softer, “How about when I made one promise to my daughter and I couldn’t even do that right? How about me being a failure, both as a father and as a member of this family?”

He dropped to his knees and started sobbing, choking out words through the sobs. “Suude allows me to forget how much I failed all of you and Kaylie. It allows me to live on top of the world, even if only for a little while. It helps me not relive the memories of dying over and over. It helps me forget that my family doesn’t care about me.” Scanlan then put his face in his hands and sobbed.

For about thirty seconds, the only sound in the room was Scanlan’s sobbing. Suddenly, soft foot-falls were heard. Scanlan’s head shot up to see a tearful Pike coming over to him slowly, hands up and palms out. She kneels down next to him but doesn’t touch him, her eyes watching him. Slowly, she starts to murmur to him, “Scanlan, you are right. We have been horribly inconsiderate of you and using you. We should have asked how you were doing after the first Raishan fight. We should have talked to you, I should have talked to you.” Tears start pouring harder down her face but her voice remains steady. “I know you didn’t want to be resurrected but...I couldn’t do it. I couldn’t lose you like that. Not when I could do something about it. I am sorry.”

Scanlan looks into her eyes and simply says in a hollow, broken voice, “I don’t know how to deal with everything right now. I didn’t want the guilt of knowing I broke my promise.”

Percy, who has been quietly observing the whole time, suddenly comes forward and kneels behind Pike, Scanlan’s eyes following him the whole time. “Scanlan, yes technically you broke your promise,” at that Scanlan looks away from him and lets out a sob as Percy continues, “but you didn’t mean to. You did everything in your power to try to stay alive, and you are alive now. Yes, dying is not pleasant, it’s not fun, it’s not easy; but you have a second chance. Do you really want to spend your second chance ruminating on your failures, or attempting to right them?”

Scanlan looks Percy in the eyes and faintly says, “But how can I forget that I failed? How can I forget that my family doesn’t care about me, doesn’t think that I am valuable as a member? I’ve been there for all of you, and yet when I needed someone, or when I had legitimate concerns, all I got was rough-housed, yelled at, and laughed at?”

At those words, Vex comes forward swiftly and words start tumbling out of her mouth mixing with sobs, “I didn’t mean it that way at all. I swear, I was just kidding around with you and when you answered back I thought you were still joking. Scanlan, you are an amazing man, with a good heart. You protect us every time we need it, you are always there for us. Your humor and ability to keep us going even in the darkest of times is everything that keeps us together. You aren’t just dude with cool magic, although you do have cool magic,” at that comment, small smiles form on the faces of everyone. Even Scanlan has a twitch of the lips that would’ve been a grin had he been in a better place. “Scanlan, you are a member of our family, and I am so sorry.”

Scanlan looks over to Grog and Keyleth standing in the doorway and at Vax who hasn’t said a word nor moved from his spot in the corner of the room, where he ended up after Pike came over. Keyleth is looking at him with tears in her eyes, and he can tell that her, Pike, and Vex are fighting the urge to hug him. He appreciates them resisting that urge as his eyes rove over to Vax. Vax was looking everywhere except for him, until he felt Scanlan’s eyes on him. As Vax turned his head to meet his eyes, Scanlan saw remorse and guilt playing in the orbs. As soon as their eyes met, Vax lowered his body down the wall until he was sitting with his legs bent in front of him and started slowly softly speaking. “That day in Thordak’s lair, I was riding high on adrenaline and exhaustion. I know its no excuse, but it was there. I had just watched you die, and be brought back to life by Pike. I was scared, confused, and just wasn’t thinking. Seeing you, lying there on the floor, after something of your doing, my protective mode kicked in. I know I didn’t handle it correctly. I knew after I walked away. But I didn’t know how to apologize. I didn’t know how to approach you to talk. I thought that my note said what I thought needed to be said, but I should have looked after you, approached you, talked with you. I know this probably doesn’t mean much but I am so sorry Scanlan. I am so sorry.”

Scanlan watched as Vax’s head got lower and his knees drew into his chest. Scanlan could hear it in his, and in everyone else’s, voices that they were sincere. They do care about him, and they didn’t mean to hurt him. He sighed softly, “I know you all are sincere in your apologies, but that doesn’t stop the hurt I felt, that I have been feeling for the past few days.”

He felt everyone’s head lower and tears fall harder on the faces of Pike, Vax, and Vex especially. He looked around the room at the ragtag group that he had grown to love and realized that maybe he did matter...just maybe he did. Sighing, and ignoring the headache that was starting because of the mixture of his breakdown and the lack of suude in his system, he set his jaw and gently reached his hand out to touch Pike’s shoulder. Pike’s head shot up at the touch and met his eyes. “Maybe, maybe we can work on healing together. All of us.” Pike’s eyes widened and she gently reached out her hands to pull him into a hug. He stiffly went into her arms, head resting on her shoulder. With his hands, he gently pulled on the clothes of Vex and Percy and their arms slowly and gently wrapped around him. Looking up at Grog and Keyleth, he gave them a slight nod. Within seconds they were at his other side, kneeled on the ground, arms wrapped around him and the others. Lastly, he looked at Vax in the corner, making no move towards the group. Sighing loudly, Scanlan called, “Vax.” Vax looked up, meeting his eyes. Scanlan gave a small head tilt, one that clearly meant, “Get your ass over here.” Vax looked down, hesitating slightly. Clearing his throat so Vax met his eyes once again, Scanlan said tenderly, “Vax get over here.”

With that Vax slowly walked over to the group and wrapped his arms around who he could reach. After a few minutes, the group, feeling Scanlan’s discomfort, started to pull apart and sit on the floor around him, close but not crowding. Scanlan looked at each of them in the eye and said, “It will take me a while to forgive all of you. Some longer than others,” looking here specifically at Pike, Vex, and Vax, “ but I think I can forgive all of you. I do still love all of you; not particularly fond of y’all right now, but still love all of you.” Taking a deep breath, he steeled himself for the next part of the statement he had to say, “But if you ever hurt me like that again, I don’t know if I can give a third chance.”

All of them solemnly nodded. They knew that they had gotten lucky that they got a second chance with their Scan-man, and nobody wanted to risk finding out if he would make good on that threat. Letting out a sigh, Scanlan rubbed his temples trying to ward off the headache, “I am also going to need help getting out of this pit I dug myself in…I am not sure how well this is going to work.”

Keyleth, who had been very quiet until now, spoke up saying, “Of course we will help you. Whatever you need us to do.” The others nodded, murmuring their agreement. Scanlan looked at each of them in turn and replied, “Ok then. I think it’s time I try to sleep then.” As he said that, his eyes spotted the flute turned pipe sitting on his bed. Sighing for what felt like the millionth time in the past few hours, he picked it up, the remnants of his last hit still in it. He could feel everyone’s eyes on him, waiting, knowing that if he really was going to do this, if he really was going to give them a second chance and try to turn his life around again, he would have to give them the flute of his own accord. Scanlan looked around at his family, meeting each of their eyes, and delicately, but decisively handed the flute to Percy. Percy took it from his hands, and stowed it in a pocket of his coat. Collectively letting out a breath they didn’t know they were holding, they each gave Scanlan a nod and small smile. He gave them a smile back and made to crawl into bed. He noticed out of the corner of his eye, Vex, Grog and Pike share a look with the rest of them and then dart out of the room. He raised his eyebrow at the three left, each of them shaking their head. Rolling his eyes, he crawled into bed, wrinkling his nose at the smell in his sheets as the other three came back into the room. In their arms, he saw pillows and blankets that they must have grabbed from all of their rooms. His eyebrows raised for a second time as everyone started to make pallets on the floor of his room. “What are you all doing?”

Vax raised his eyebrow back, asking, “Do you really think we will leave you alone after everything that happened today?”

Scanlan rolled his eyes for the second time in as many minutes and gave them a shrug as if to say “suit yourself”. As he turned into his blankets, he couldn’t help the small smile that came over his face. For the first time since the Thordak battle, he felt the love radiating off his family for him. As soft and loud snores started to come from the floor, from Pike and Grog respectively, and the noises of everyone else shifting to get comfortable faded, he knew that that this was a new chapter, a new beginning, and more importantly, a new chance to make himself a better man. It wouldn’t be an easy road, but he knew now he had the support he needed from his family.

[notadrde]

Alignment

I just wanted to weigh in about alignment because there’s been a lot of discourse around it and I wanted to throw in some thoughts about alignment in general and aside from any CR character

D&D was designed to tell and involve characters in certain kinds of stories. Its connection to high fantasy is the reason for the kinds of stories the D&D typically is about. D&D was meant for stories that involve large-scale conflicts between good and evil, and between order and chaos. Powerful entities behind these, like demon lords, ancient dragons, and gods and angels, are the setting and driving pieces of these stories because they embody that conflict on a fundamental level. This is the reason why D&D draws a distinction between devils and demons - they are on opposite ends of the spectrum between order and chaos, and therefore opposed to one another despite the fact that they are all evil. Similarly, lawful and chaotic good deities have been known to have major beef with each other on that basis.

Alignment is simultaneously a really great system and a flawed one. It’s a really great system because it’s a quick, succinct, and broadly-encapsulating system that tracks where any creature falls down on that spectrum for the sake of those conflicts. Where does an orc stand? What about a dragon? and so on. It also measures, importantly, where the player characters fall, especially with regards to their motivations. 

That’s why neutrality exists. Characters who are neutral on one axis of the spectrum are there because that particular conflict is not their motivating factor. Characters who are neutral on the good-evil axis may or may not pick a side in the large-scale conflicts of good and evil, but when they do it’s because of their law-vs-chaos stance. A lawful neutral character who picks a side does so because that side aligns with the way they’re lawful, so on lawful good vs. chaotic evil, which is a common combo, the lawful neutral character probably falls in with the lawful good people, not because they’re good but because they’re lawful and the character is opposed to the chaotic evil people over there, again not because they’re evil but because they’re chaotic. Similarly a chaotic neutral person might side with the underdog, or the one who can advance their personal goals, or selfishness, regardless of whether that side is good or evil. But lawful good vs. chaotic evil is probably the most common conflict in D&D because it is closest to a lot of western myth and legend, so lawful neutral is thought to be closer to good than chaotic neutral. Importantly, a similar thing applies to characters who are neutral on the good-evil axis. When faced with the conflict between order and chaos, a neutral good character is neutral good because they choose the side that is the most good, irrespective of order or chaos, and a neutral evil character chooses the side that most fits their brand of evil.

Evil when evil is tied to things like selfishness, power, and gain, it is always also specifically at the expense of others. On the D&D scale selfishness does not equal evil. Similarly good represents doing things for the benefit of others. Law and chaos deal with the order with which people go about their own actions and what they support in the systems in the world. Basically:

Alignment is a very simple system that deals with large-scale conflicts well. Player characters have alignment for the purposes of tracking their motivations for where they fall down on those conflicts. It’s clear why it evolved if you look at the evolution of D&D - it came out of wargames. The original D&D came out of a session of a wargame where, to add complexity for fun, one of the players (I think it was gygax but I could be wrong) decided he was going to give each of his little pieces their own personality and motivations. But he had a lot of little pieces, hence, well, are they good or bad, do they like the rules and the government or not?

This is why virtually nobody plays true neutral, because by definition the true neutral character almost never chooses a side and if they do do not do it on the basis of any strong motivations in particular. Player characters are by definition the major actors and affectors in the conflicts of the world, especially at high level, so it’s pretty hard to do that and be active without in some way becoming a bit sympathetic to good, evil, order, or chaos. NPCs who don’t give a shit about you or your adventure, however, are great at being true neutral.

So alignment is great for these kinds of questions and conflicts. What it is not great for is small-scale or individual conflicts. Your willingness to, say, grab a magic broom and then secretly keep it for yourself, tricking the original owner out of it effectively, says little about where you stand on the conflict between evil and good and more about your motivations in that moment.

Any time a character does something in a smaller-scale interaction, one way to kind of suss this out is to think: would a solar or a demon lord care about this? For example, if you stole a loaf of bread to feed your family and the baker noticed but isn’t gonna miss it, a solar isn’t going to care. They’re beings of cosmic morality and the cosmic weight of moral actions, and on the cosmic scales that hang in balance, whether you a mostly nice person stole a magic broom from another mostly nice person weighs zero pounds and zero ounces on that scale. A solar cares whether you’re with it or against it in smiting the legions of hell or saving the world. Any conflict on a smaller scale than that is mostly peanuts to it. Same with a demon lord. If you once pet a puppy and saved a guy, Asmodeus doesn’t care, he wants to know if you’re with him in taking over the world and fucking up those pesky angels.

All of this is why I don’t think alignment is a big deal in everyday PC roleplaying or interactions within the party, and the discourse around alignment in the CR fandom right now is a big reason why I strongly encourage my players to mention their alignment as little as possible - once you mention it, people’s characters then have a tendency to pay attention to it and treat you like your alignment, and not based on your character’s personality and interactions. I’m hugely in favor of making smaller-scale interactions based on smaller-scale personality traits and characteristics, on roleplaying, and on more nitpickey character motivations, and when it comes to the big themes and conflicts of the story caring about the character’s alignment. Being greedy, or impulsive, or not caring sufficiently about the rest of the party, or whatever, says more about a character’s personality than their alignment.

Now at the start I said I wouldn’t get in to the CR discourse but I lied. I think the majority of the party is correctly aligned, which is neat because it’s almost like they’re generally good D&D players with a really good DM to help them out with this. Percy is good, because he cares about the people who might rationally matter to him, he generally works for what he believes are their interests, and wants the best for them. He is chaotic, because, as Talesin specifically said, he is afraid of his own nobility and the responsibility it entails. Vex is good, especially moreso nowadays because she cares about herself and the people around her, wants to better herself, wants to help those who are victimized by others, and wants to ensure she’s not being hasty or vengeful when she has to fight. She’s chaotic because she pilfered a broom that one time. Vax is good because he wants to destroy bad things, simple as that. Again, I think everyone would do well to think big-scale when it comes to all this. If you’re nitpicking with alignment, I don’ think you’re doing alignment right.

/endrant