Look at this !!!! This is amazing !!! Op wrote a great one shot about my silly little post !!
Apparently, I am not only drawing for the Critical Role fandom, but writing for it, too. After months of nearly no progress I just vomited out 3k words this Tuesday and it only went downhill from there.
This fic is based on this post by @anne-o-nyme, I really hope I managed to capture the energy of it.
Have fun!
Summary: There were eight strangers in the foyer of his dead brother’s towers and Verin Thelyss was slowly losing his patience.
After the sudden “death” of Shadowhand Essek Thelyss, it is his brother Verin’s job to empty out his towers. The Mighty Nein show up to help (and maybe steal a few things).
OR: Verin is grieving, Essek just wants his stuff back, and the Mighty Nein are the Mighty Nein.
Warnings: I didn’t tag this with MCD, because Essek is technically alive and kicking. Since Verin doesn’t know that though, and this fic is written from his POV, this is dealing with grief and includes depictions of depressive thoughts as well as anxiety attacks. For more explicit warnings, please mind the tags on AO3. Take care of yourselves, and let me know if I forgot anything.
Read on AO3
There were eight strangers in the foyer of his dead brother’s towers and Verin Thelyss was slowly losing his patience. “Listen,” he said with what little calm he had left, “I know that by returning one of our beacons you became heroes of the Dynasty and were placed under Es— My bro— his stewardship. But this here—” he gestured vaguely at the interior of Essek’s towers that had always been too cold, too empty, but not like now, never like now— “This is a very difficult situation for me, so if you could please leave, that would be greatly appreciated.”
Afficher davantage
Just finished ep 3 of Exandria Unlimited : Calamity. I have Many Feelings, so I drew this last night. Sorry for the poor quality.
Essek is the Luxon’s champion AU is from the amazing @foxqueen-katarian !
“I can almost touch them, Caleb !”
Hey….cursed thought but…do Long Essek see shrimp colors ??
Give me more Shadowgast Baby !
Don’t think about Caleb lecturing a hall of students with a tiny baby strapped to his chest, occasionally pausing to adjust them to a more comfortable position.
Don’t think about all the speculation about which of his revolving door of lovers got knocked up (the prevailing theory is the purple Tiefling who disappeared after only a month; the slightly pointed ears, pale hair and lack of horns do nothing to deter this theory).
Don’t think about Caleb tucking his chin and whispering in Zemnian with a awestruck expression, before returning to the lesson at hand.
Don’t think about soft new parent Caleb.
!! please send me the link once it’s finished, op !!
I don’t know if anyone else had this idea before (…probably) but I would LOVE to see a fic about Essek’s fake burial.
Listen, picture Verin, heartbroken, very confused about these outsiders who showed up unannounced at his brother’s funerals, claiming to be his friends (”Essek do not have friends !”), and insisting on helping him empty out his tower.
First stage : polite confusion
Second stage : passive aggressive doubts from Verin
Third stage : Verin is convinced these people are huge liars and are trying to loot his dead brother’s precious belongings.
Final stage : Verin starts throwing stuff at the Mighty Nein. Chaos ensues. They end up teleporting with Verin in the Clay’s kitchen in front of a very surprised Essek, in his lounging clothes, busy drinking tea and drawing hearts around Caleb’s name in his spell book.
Essek just wanted to get some of his stuff back.
If I may...
...In return, students and apprentices info dump him all the ethic violations and safety hazards their teachers or masters commit on a regular basis with a big smile on their face, ready to witness one of Widowgast’s famous outbursts.
Caleb being the Gordon Ramsey of the Soltryce Academy, where he is very soft and gentle with his younger students who are just starting out, but getting into knock down drag out fights with other professors and older students over obscure details and ethical quandaries.
YES ! That was amazing op !!!
Hi fellow shadowgast lover ! I need your take on this : what if ann older, distinguished and grizzled Essek (like, around 500 years old or something) was sent back in time against his will / to stop some nefarious threat, and met a young Caleb ? Obviously he wouldn't want to alter the timeline, but the temptation to protect his beloved from all the pain he will go through ? The drama ? What would be Caleb's reaction to meeting a powerful Kryn wizard ? Critical Role fandom, I need your wisdom.
I was going to have a cohesive response but my brain IMMEDIATELY went on “Essek gets back to the time Caleb was in the Sanatorium, disguises himself and he’s actually the one that breaks him free of the Feeblemind” (I know it’s not confirmed but I’ve always thought that the whole sanatorium business was Caleb being Feebleminded - it’s basically impossible breaking free of a Feeblemind after it takes hold without some sort of external help)and I’m… I’m having feelings about Essek seeing Caleb again after centuries but not being able to do anything about it I’m–Maybe he protected him, from a distance, in the years before Caleb met Nott. Essek is determined and focused enough to know he cannot afford to mess up the timeline, but watching over him isn’t that, right?
I was thinking about it !! Caleb has very ambiguous feelings about that : on one hand he’s happy to have this unique chance of growing old with his lover, but on the other he feels guilty of making him change his appearance all the time for his sake.
On his deathbed, he asks Essek to take the illusion down, and so he does. Caleb cries as he strokes the perfect youthful face, kisses the plump lips, and tells a heartbroken sobbing Essek he loves him.
May I present to you:
Essek casting Seeming as Caleb grows older so he and Caleb can be old together
Also for your consideration:
Essek taking Frumpkin as his own familiar since he and Frumpkin are going to live a long time without Caleb, and will out-live all of the Mighty Nein
Shadowgast Baby from @foxqueen-katarian ‘s au, go check it out !
It’s one of those nights where Essek knows he’s had too much to drink, not enough that he’s well and truly drunk, but enough that the worlds gone a bit soft around the edges and the very quiet part of his brain that tells him when things are a bad idea is silent. It’s one of those nights and Essek is lonely, and sad in a way he’d nearly forgotten he could be.
‘Lux, why, why did you choose me? I don’t, didn’t, even believe you were real. I, I’m nothing special, and there are others who could serve you far better and more willingly than I ever will.’ Essek knows he shouldn’t ask, that you don’t question miracles, but between the wine and the ache in his chest he can’t bring himself to care just now.
“Because you were the only one who questioned. Because you above all others know the pain of not knowing, not understanding. You sit in my light and ask how and why, when others have allowed their devotion to blind them.” Hands softly smooth Essek’s hair from his face, “I love you most dearly because how could I not? How could I not love you as I love myself?”
Lux’s hands tip Essek’s face up so their eyes meet, for a breath, a heartbeat Essek stands outside himself, suspended in the expanse of the Luxon, and sees himself as Lux must. Sharp edges and fractures only better refract the light of a thousand stars dancing just below his skin, and the heavy weight of potentiality that suffuses the air around him.
“You are my most beloved because of how brightly you shine in the dark.”
Lips are pressed to his forehead as Essek’s eyes slip closed, tomorrow he will again question his situation, the how and the why, but for now he will sleep.
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