#vax’ildan fredrick de rolo

[kimba23chi]

Can I say, I was surprised but pleased to see Percy respond to Vax’ildan II with a fond little, “Thank you, Vaxxy.” I always figured they’d steer clear of Vax as a nickname, but I kind of love how tender he was with it. Not the least because it’s really the first time we’ve seen Percy interact with a kid that isn’t Gwen.

[cobaltsoulsearcher]

Like her uncle, Vesper’s solemnity and wit not only coexist but intertwine, leaving her equal parts charming and responsible. The only true adventurer of her generation–she maintains that Gwen just likes getting into trouble–she seems, more specifically, to have inherited the unfortunate habit of flirting regardless of sensibility.

Her diplomatic filter is firmly on in most circumstances, but sometimes she truly can't help herself. Cerkonos definitely fell in that category, as did far too many of her "rivals". Honestly, she doesn’t have a good excuse for the vampire. She’s fairly certain she wasn’t charmed, and she needed a minute to think of her next move, and he had said she looked ravishing, and calling him a dozen synonyms for handsome was the first thing she thought of. Apparently, that particular stupidity runs in the family.

She’s also the only one to have met her uncle–twice. The first occurrence even Vex can’t be one hundred percent sure, but they both want to believe the specter that appeared to her in the afterglow of Vesper’s birth was her uncle, sharing, for a moment, in that joy. The second…well. Vesper has only been resurrected once, but it wasn’t pretty. It took so long for her to die she assumed he was just another hallucination, at first, at least until the pain and cold subsided and her vision cleared and he was still there. He held her gently, shaded by the arc of his feathers, and talked about tradition and divinity and flowers and a hundred little stories they would have shared, had they been alive at the same time. He stayed with her the entire three days it took her team to find and resurrect her. His words have never left her.

Like her uncle, Leona Pike De Rolo hates having her hair in her face, but can’t stand to have it completely pulled up and bunched away. She’s the older twin–by twenty-one excruciating minutes–and her preferred weapon is throwing knives. She doesn’t care what kind of blade, really, she’ll throw an ax if she has to–but still, close enough.

She’s also the one who talks to ravens. Wolfe likes to joke that she is a raven–a petty thief, always attracted to gears and widgets and other shiny things–but he’s the only one that says such things, and only in carefully chosen company. At first Vox Machina thought this might be her way of showing some druidic inclination, but the reality is much simpler; she hates being alone. When her twin huffs off in impatience, or her father delves too deep in focus to be disturbed by conversation with an amateur like her, she prays under her breath and sooner or later a bird tends to appear.

Like his uncle, Wolfe Kristof de Rolo is incorrigible to everyone except Vex’ahlia. The male twin of his (almost) matching pair, he finds himself liable to teasing for being prissy and vain; those that tease him too incessantly find themselves liable to bloody noses and crushed fingers, dealt by either twin. And yes, Leona may be a far better hunter, but Wolfe fights dirty, when he deigns to fight. He fights quick and decisive and disappears as soon as he’s dealt his blow. He fights like his uncle.

He’s also the only one as fearless as Vax was. He climbed a tree in a lightning storm to carry down one of Cassandra’s kittens at twelve years old; at twenty, he swam a mile and a half through floodwater. He’s not as brave as Vax–bravery implies an end goal–but he is every bit as selfless and reckless and unswayed by fear. It’s part of why the twins take their mother so seriously; she's the one who taught him such things, after all.

Like his uncle, Vax’ildan Fredrick de Rolo has dark hair, darkvision, and a dark-and-stormy disposition. The most obviously elven in ancestry, at least by Syngornian standards, he’s also the bearer of the most obvious inheritance. Vax’ildan isn’t a common name, especially since the second root derives itself from an ancient drow war hero, but it is a name that is commonly known, like those of all of Vox Machina. Vox, Vax, Vex…he almost named his bear Vix, to complete the set. He didn’t, only because Cassandra put her foot down at having a “Vax” and a “Vex” and a “Ves” and a “Vix” in one household.

He’s also the one who has never felt at home. It’s irrational, maybe, but anxiety is rarely rational and he is an extremely anxious child. He is slow to learn to walk, to speak, to make his first friend; there is a reason he bonds so thoroughly with Trinket and Charlie, and not another child. Besides, the twins are clearly Vex’s favorites, and Gwen is Percy’s from the moment she’s born; Vesper is gone a good portion of his youth, already an adult herself. He’s not smart or brave or charming like the rest of them, he's just him. He knows he’s loved. He’s the black sheep anyways.

Like his uncle, Gwendolyn Zahra Melanie von Musel de Rolo is the sneaky sibling. She loves growing her skills in shadowing and stealth, and taught herself to write at age three by making (terrible) forgeries of her father’s sketches. She’d rather stab a sparring partner’s armor through the back than lose following conventional chivalry, and she’s as quick a thief as she is a runner.

She’s also the first of her siblings to die. Tieflings don’t live as long as half-elves or the celestially blessed; rogues and wizards don’t live longer lives as they advance in power. They bury her with her father, adjacent to an empty, ceremonial, tomb.

[tiefbeef]

I just really love the hair things that are going on with the de Rolo children? And I’m surprised no one’s talking about it?

Vesper - white hair, like her father

Wolfe and Leona - brown hair, like their father and Aunt Cassandra were born with

Vax’ildan - black hair, like his mother and his namesake, Uncle Vax’ildan

Gwendolyn - black hair like her mother and Uncle Vax’ildan… and the ends are the same white of her father’s hair

There’s just something about Gwendolyn being a tiefling looking like neither of her parents and yet having BOTH of their hair colors that’s so pleasing to me.

[bixbiboom]

[ID: A portrait of the De Rolo family of Whitestone, and an image of a placard naming each person in the portrait, each done by artist Jessica Scates. Vesper Elaina de Rolo is the oldest child, with white hair like her father’s worn in a long braid like her mother’s. Gwendolyn Zahra Melanie von Musel de Rolo is the youngest child, and a red-skinned tiefling with black hair. She’s clutching an owlbear plushie in one arm and holding her father’s hand with the other. Percy has reached middle age. Vex is seated regally in a chair and looks virtually unchanged from the Vex we came to know during the campaign, if perhaps a touch older. Wolfe Kristoff de Rolo is one of the middle children, and posed in a way that suggests he’s inherited his father’s penchant for pompousness, but Leona Pike de Rolo standing next to him is poised to give him a wet willy. Both of them have dark hair and are dressed in similar styles of tunic and breeches with tall boots. Vax’ildan Fredrick de Rolo is sitting on the floor; he’s also a child somewhere in the middle and looks to be younger than the twins. A bear cub, Charlie, is in his lap, while Trinket lays placidly beside them, on the floor alongside Vex’s chair. The portrait is dated 832 PD. /end ID]

The fact that Trinket has a baby and they named them Charlie, after Laura’s beloved dog who passed away a couple years ago, is ending me. 😭

[isuara-ez]

THE ONE ON THE FLOOR IS NAMED VAX’ILDAN FREDRICK DE ROLO IM NOT OKAY

This is rude Mathew.

[oldflyingraven]

The official De Rolo family owns my heart.

[From left to right, top to bottom: Vesper Elaina, Gwendolyn Zarah Melani, Percy, Vex, Wolfe Kristoff, Leona Pike, Vax’ildan Fredrick, Charlie the bear cub and Trinket.]

[daggersandarrows]

screaming crying sobbing thinking about Him (vax’ildan fredrick de rolo)

vex looking at him and going, oh...this one. this one is vax.

percy calling him freddie. trinket immediately entrusting his cub to this small awkward human with the soft kind eyes...