#this is set shortly after Search for Bob - so not long after Vax's death but before they know for sure about ~the pregante~

[blorbologist]

how about 12 with vex? :)

12. Blindness/Deafness

"You can blind or deafen a foe. Choose one creature that you can see within range to make a Constitution saving throw. If it fails, the target is either blinded or deafened (your choice) for the duration."

[Inspired by this post]

Is it a bit ironic that Vex’ahlia is Pelor’s Champion? Hero of the sun? 

Oh, definitely.

Ironic? Oh, she knows those who don’t know better would protest to that.

To most of the citizenry of Whitestone, this would be perfectly apt. The brave and beautiful Lady Vex’ahlia - who drew their young Lord from darkness, took part in leading the whole city back into the light - she knows she’s already being hailed as such.

It’s - it’s actually very charming, and sweet, and when she teases Percy about it he gets such a smitten look to him. And she likes it, she does. Can’t fault Whitestone for wanting a bit of hope - but she’d have thought the townsfolk would know better. 

They know, probably better than most, how badly the sun can blind you.

Picture this: a young Vex’ahlia, only not little because of a growth spurt. Brace yourself and imagine her in Syngorn. No excuse to have a hood up, hiding her ears, should it be a beautiful day. Easier to not get immediately recognized as the Vessar bastard in the shade. The one time she reached for the sun - gold and emeralds, in a tiara made for her ancestors - she got burned. She learned. 

Just because Vax’ildan is

Just because Vax’ildan was the rogue does not mean he is

Does not mean he was the only one to appreciate the cover of shadow. 

Sunlight, Vex learned over the years, was a risk. A luxury, one she could rarely afford. Bright light revealed her to game and predators alike. It gleamed off coins to reveal her brother’s sleight of hand. Open grounds meant money meant trouble.

She’s spent a lot of her life avoiding its gaze. The attention did her no favors - and she could only stomach attention that did. That she could use, spin into a better room, another bounty, better pay.

The sun was warm, and decadent, and a risk. It took a lot of work to teach herself otherwise - with friends to watch her back. With security, and funds. And Percy. She can (or could) lounge in a sunbeam like a cat and enjoy the hard-earned gold on her skin.

Now its (his? Is the sun a he, like its god?) eye is upon her, always, and it’s an excruciating contrast.

Elven eyes are not made for constant, incessant light. Only the drow really suffer for its abundance - but if you look, most elves will squint and tactfully avoid direct light for long periods of time. Just as their eyes gleam gold-green when lit in the dark, they narrow in protest when it’s too bright. 

Every time she steps outside, without fail, it’s sunny. Which was a lovely thing, at first, before the weight of it really began to settle on Vex’s shoulders. She is outside almost daily, due to her duties with the Grey Hunt. Now she’s arranged to delegate more of the time training recruits, and even avoid patrols in her beloved forest. The weather catches up on tantrums and dreary rain when she elects to spend the days inside. 

By cruel coincidence she always wakes facing the dawn, now - at dawn, as the sun first winks over the Alabaster Sierras. She’s almost considered asking Percy if they could change rooms - instead she’s tactfully used her husband as a shield, so even if she turns in her sleep she wakes in his chest and not to a devastating sunrise.

The one day they tried for a picnic, Vex had been so grateful Percy chose to nestle their blanket between the Sun Tree’s roots. But even in the shade of the tree the heat was loud. Pouring through the leaves, bowing them like heavy rain, and beating against her ears, inside her head. It was deafening. 

What she can’t stand is that not the change. It’s trivial, fucking trivial, compared to the fact Vax

Trivial compared to other upheavals, lately. Need to wear shades? She can do that. Put on more tinctures to deal with sunburn. Even deal with everyone seeing her coming, not like she trained to move silently and without notice for several months or anything. 

What has her unsettled is… given all this, how badly this shoe fits…

“Why me?” she asks Percy one night, when the sun’s attention is on the opposite side of the world and she can feel that and it’s disquieting. “Why did Pelor choose me, Percy?”

He hums, pulling her up a bit more to nestle her head under his chin. She feels him grin when she presses a smile to his throat out of reflex. “Well. I get credit for choosing you. He simply approved of my excellent taste.”

Percy’s chuckle dies when she does not respond to his cheer. “Vex, dear?”

“I mean. We both can agree I’m, just, so beautiful, and brilliant, and hot,” she says. Stalls. “But - the Champion of Pelor? The sun god? Me? Sunny?”

“Probably not the best descriptor,” he admits. “Though I think I could convince you of the similarities.”

Vex is perhaps a bit too unsettled by all this to roll her eyes. Which, she suspects, is what gets Percy to hold her a little tighter. 

“You burn, dear.” Percy presses a kiss to her temple. “Even before all this, and ignoring the whole Orthax ordeal. Vox Machina’s guiding beacon, without which we would be bumbling in the dark. How a room would orbit you and you could so easily dictate others to your whims. You inspire growth, and joy, and trust. The sun will always rise, and set, and warm us in the meantime.” He pauses, then, a touch too long if not for how his mind works. “So often, I would look at you and it would hurt if I stared too long. That’s very sunlike.”

“I knew you were looking at my ass,” Vex mumbles. Her husband snorts. He makes worry impossible, holding her like this, sounding so fucking romantic.

“Don’t be crass,” he scolds cheerfully. “I was admiring you. From a distance. Because you were also a little terrifying.”

Vex pulls back with great reluctance to scrutinize him. He’s serious. “Me? Scary? Darling, we were traveling with Grog.”

“As well as -” he changes course: “And I had a solid hunch I’d be gutted like a fish if some people caught me staring. But no - you, Vex’ahlia, had me impressed. Which was scary for me, that anyone could be impressive other than myself.”

“I love the arrogance, darling.”

Percy snuggles her back in to kiss her cheek. The pressure brings to Vex’s attention the faint glow of her freckles. “I do, too. There was… something, even then. You kept people at a distance with the cold front. But it felt like it was that or burn them alive, because  - like if you dropped your guard the intensity would be blinding.”

“Are you sure you’re not talking about Keyleth?”

He makes a face. “I certainly hope I’m not talking about Keyleth. I love her, but that’s my best friend, I - ugh.”

Now Vex feels well enough to roll her eyes, trace patterns into his shoulder to draw his mind away. “Maybe I’m just like the sun because I’m eating myself alive. Burning at the expense of anything else. And bring pretty sunlight that scorches the earth to drought and gives deathly pale nerds a sunburn.”

“Darling.” This time it’s Percy who pulls away, gently tilting her chin up. “Sineath, remember?”

Fuck him, his pronunciation has gotten perfect.

She grumbles vaguely in response. 

Percy takes the time to think, running his fingers through her hair, sometimes kissing her gently. She catches the reflection of the glow here and there - in his teeth, warming his skin, gleaming on his wedding ring.

“I think,” he says eventually, quietly, gently, “that the dawn can be scary, after so long in the dark. And it takes a bit of doing to feel like you can stomach being so seen.” 

Vex nods into his neck. 

“And,” Percy continues, “I’ll endure it too, if I can. Not that I’m a Champion of anyone, but… well. Get a tan with you, I guess?”

She snorts. “Oh, you’d look so silly!”

“I will sacrifice all that and more for you,” said so very gravely. Vex’s stomach does a giddy little flip.

(Maybe she’s being a little touchy about this. Because it’s not Pelor’s fault, that everything is too bright and too loud, but there’s a correlation that’s safer to blame for how she is right now. Oversensitive.)

(Maybe she has an idea - just an idea - as to why.)

(Maybe.)

“You answered your own question. Earlier.”

“Oh?”

“It’s fitting, that the Champion of the solar deity be hot.”

Vex takes a second before smacking his chest with a pillow. “Flatterer.”

“I speak only the truth!”