Crit Role Sideblog | likes/follows/replies from atalana | Art Blog (Spoilers tagged for a week after the episode comes out, and maybe longer if it's in the queue)
Author reveals are out for Hurt/Comfort Exchange 2021, and I am delighted to unmask myself as the author of proof by contradiction!
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RATING: T
ARCHIVE WARNINGS: No Archive Warnings Apply
CHAPTERS: 1/1
WORDS: 19,620
RELATIONSHIPS: Dairon & Essek Thelyss, Dairon & Beauregard Lionett, Essek Thelyss/Caleb Widogast
CHARACTERS: Dairon (Critical Role), Beauregard Lionett, Essek Thelyss, The Mighty Nein
ADDITIONAL TAGS: Hurt/Comfort, Sleep Deprivation, Imprisonment, Rescue Missions, Psychic Violence, Enemies Must Work Together/Trust Each Other To Solve Problem And/Or Prevent (Fate Worse Than?) Death, Angst, Torture, Angst with a Happy Ending
FIC SUMMARY:
When Beauregard asks for Dairon’s help freeing a friend held captive by the Cerberus Assembly, they agree, expecting a rescue mission to clear the way to bring down Trent Ikithon for good. But when they meet Essek Thelyss in the depths of the Vergesson Sanatorium, they discover that Beauregard hasn’t told them everything.
As the clock runs down and Dairon and Essek find themselves in a game of wits not only with the Assembly but with each other, they must find a way to trust each other–or risk neither of them making it out alive.
I honestly can’t wait for Caleb to tell the cobalt soul about what vollstrucker training is and watch Dairon and Yudala Fon personally beat Ikithon to death with their accountability boxing gloves.
You know, it occurs to me that Dairon spearheading the investigation into what was essentially Beau’s kidnapping might be the first time someone’s made a decision on her behalf that wasn’t to hurt her, benefit them, or to reinforce her position as a dependent.
Beau is used to people prioritizing themselves over her. She’s worked hard to get to the point where what she says goes when it comes to herself and her decisions. We all hoped the Nein would tear Thoreau a new asshole in Kamordah, but the fact is that they knew her well enough to understand that following her lead was the right call. Acting on her behalf without her permission was not an option. They are equals, not administrators.
But Dairon’s job was to lead and facilitate. They were put in a position of authority over her specifically to make decisions on her behalf if needed, and they showed the fuck up and did it. They didn’t ask Beau if she wanted an investigation (or even if she wanted to keep Zeenoth for some reason). They had to have known that even if Beau did vaguely grasp how wronged she had been, she probably wouldn’t have seen a reason to dig deeper. She might have even defended Thoreau, because that’s how authority works to Beau. You’ll never matter more to authority than power itself, which is why you strive to give absolutely no one an ounce of it.
It matters that Beau was made an Expositor before this all came to light. Dairon acted on her behalf as someone charged with taking care of Beau - and that is exactly why Beau very likely would have resented them for it. Had this come out while Beau was still Dairon’s official protégé, it would have only reinforced to her that she was still in a position to be manipulated, however well-meaning.
But she is an Expositor. She answers to virtually nobody, and there is no part of learning that the Soul cares about what happened to her that could be construed as a debt to be repaid. Beau is a free agent. This was done because it was the right thing to do. Down the line, Dairon and the Soul worked in her best interest, while taking care to respect the way she might react as a victim of systematic abuse. Every step was calculated, but for the first time in Beau’s life, it was calculated in acknowledgement and respect for her agency.
Beau needed someone to intercede on her behalf as a child, and without that intercession she developed a keen sense of mistrust - an understanding that she was the only person she could or should ever count on, because to rely on anyone else would be to give them power. She’s already put so much work into undoing some of that, but we see the struggle as often as the progress.
It just means a lot to me that by the time someone was put in the position to act on her behalf, they did so in a way that truly accounted for the damage that had already been done.
I just keep thinking of Beau telling Zeenoth to his face to cram his lies up his ass, never believing for one second that anything would come of it - that her word could ever be taken seriously over his. He was relying on that too, that nobody would believe this shit-kicker punk.
Beau didn’t say she was forced to be here because she thought anyone would help her. She knew better than to expect that.
The funniest combo of allies the mighty nein could assemble imo xD
Essek “I committed treason against the Dynasty with the Cerberus Assembly out of my own curiosity and have exiled myself to the Arctic to avoid forces from both” Thelyss
vs
Dairon “I root out corruption within the Empire and am seeking out those colluding between the Empire and Dynasty” Cobalt Soul
vs
Astrid & Eadwulf “We are trained assassins of the Empire who work from the shadows to execute the will of the Cerberus Assembly” Scourgers
Because @hit-it-or-crit-it urged me I totally should get around to doing this after our brief discussion on the Nein and Unraveled after my screencap redraw, here it is—
Beau: “Listen to these quotes: ‘All warfare is based on deception,’ ‘If your opponent is of choleric temperament, seek to irritate him,’ ‘Steal their hats.’”
A strong contender: “But do I regret reading the Geneva Conventions? Of course not. Knowledge is its own reward. Could I really call this an Unraveled if I didn’t spend a whole day reading 224 pages of dense legalese for no good reason? Of course I couldn’t.”
Caduceus: “And if you have bugs in your house and you make the conscious decision to WANT those bugs in your house, they aren’t pests, they’re pets…s.”
A strong contender was: “[authoritatively] And that is no good, is it? [earnest] Is it? I actually have… um, I’m a little confused right now.”
Caleb: “With all the spell-casting and shouting you must do as Dragonborn, who really has time to read all these books? I do. Apparently.”
I absolutely agree that “God has cursed me for my hubris, and my work is never finished.” is absolutely a Caleb quote. I hear you—I hear your questions constantly. However, is it not just the state of wizardry in which you are cursed by God for your hubris? I opted for a more specific Caleb vibe, and that is books.
Fjord: “It’s very hard to cuddle with someone when there’s an inferiority complex between you.”
Now, I know "But when all hope seemed lost, I had an epiphany. ‘I am going to throw myself into the sea.’" is PEAK Fjord. I even did a quick screenshot redraw for it. But, also, this choice encapsulates WHY Fjord is going to throw himself into the sea—will someone please let Fjord cuddle every single one of his friends? Also, “I fully expect my boss, Tara Long, to put me out of my misery when I stop being useful. That’s good management.” and “I know how much it would disappoint my friends if I changed my appearance.” were also strong contenders. Fjord is just, honestly, a pile of BDG quotes.
Jester: “[holding cat] So, here is Zuko, Barbarian class level 63. I love him with all my heart, and he loves me just the same. [gets whacked in the face by cat]”
Folks probably expected the one about cults: “And before you get upset with me saying, ‘Brian, aren’t you just starting a cult?’, look at this question answered by cutegirlcorr! Technically speaking, religions and cults are the same thing!” But, I can never turn down a good Sprinkle joke. And it feels like it better captures Jester’s energy.
Molly: “If I can’t be accurate, I sure as hell am gonna be extra.”
A strong contender: “They’ll see me as an artistic genius that’s right and incomparably handsome.”
Veth: “[exasperated laughter] The Red Bull’s wearing off.”
Veth is just the entire video where Brian searches for the hottest Castlevania monster. Just pick any quote out of that video: “[holding up image of Slogra] If you’re not attracted to this, you’re wrong.”, “That hyena can get it!”, “If someone comes up to me and introduces themselves to me as Duke Mirage, my pants are already off.” But, I feel the exhausted oh shit of this choice better captures Veth outside of her being thirsty for Mr. Minotaur.
Yasha: “When I was a kid, my mom thought I had a nutritional deficit because I kept wanting to eat mushrooms so much, like I only ate mushrooms for a whole week.”
A strong contender: “And finally we are cutting all of the recipes that include monster parts because we all know the true monster is man. [long stare into camera] And cannibalism is frowned upon in New York.” I just felt the chosen more captured the almost dead-pan and strange whimsy Yasha has.
Bonus:
Essek: “Why does no one understand the time break except for me, Brian David Gilbert? Why am I the only scholar in time break studies?”
Strong alternatives are “And if you’ll excuse me, I have to go do my dark bidding in these spreadsheets.” and “That starts in stage one of all villains: you have to be contacted by a future version of yourself.”
Yeza: “Acid man was meant to be a chemist. What’s he good for, titrations? [beat] That’s a chemistry joke.”
Trent: “Once you’ve got that boy under your possession, time to get real into unethical science.”
The Bright Queen: “You sweet summer child. You babe swaddled in the cashmere blanket of ignorance.”
Dairon: “‘When you love what you do, you never work a day in your life,’ but that’s bullshit. I love what I do, and let me tell you something—I’ve worked some days.”
Yussa: “Come on in. Hope you’re not as big of an asshole as the past few of your friends.”
All the "Expositor Beau may not know what an expositor does but shes doing great!" posts are hilarious.
But. Tbh. What was Dairon expecting. They just promoted Beau and clapped her on the shoulder and went "Aight keep doing what you're doing."
(Which, with the M9 is mostly kicking ass, causing chaos and then accidentally ending wars?)
Which COULD mean one of MANY possibilities:
Expositors are meant to just Follow Their Instincts To Root Out Evil, aka Fuck Around And Find Out. Beau is doing great.
Expositors do have things they have to do but Beau just has such a knack for it she's doing it just by Fucking Around And Finding Things Out
Expositors have things they need to do that are covered in the classes Beau pretended to not pay attention in, and all of her not knowing is part of her ongoing facade of "I'm definitely not a nerd"
The above, except Beau actually wasn't paying attention and is either doing it perfectly or is slowly but surely creating a tornado of paperwork back at the Cobalt Soul.
Expositors have things they need to do, Dairon forgot to tell Beau, and no one is really sure what Beau is doing, including Dairon, and definitely including Beau.
Caduceus' "Trick question I don't have handwritting" in response to Dairon saying she could fake their handwrittings is the single most powerful sentence ever said by any low intelligence character EVER.
So, this is something I've wanted to do for a while and why not do it for Matt Mercer's birthday? A little belated but here we are. Happy birthday! I hope you had a good one!
A gathering of voices.
Here's everyone in the picture.
Yeza
Luke
Kiri
Essek
Darion
Pumat
Bright Queen
Avantika
Orly
The Gentleman
Trent
The Ruby of the Sea
The Traveller
I know MANY are missing but these are some of my faves and also some of those most important to the plot.
Do not alter or repost my art anywhere. Reblogs are love.
this one took me a bit longer, because as critrolestats calculated a couple months ago, across both campaigns, matt has over a thousand npcs, and we'd be here all year if i had to rank all of them 😂
but in my attempt to brainstorm all significant npcs from both campaigns (though i'm sure i'm forgetting someone i'm gonna immediately remember as soon as i post this), i've got gilmore, allura, kima, jarett, kaylie, cassandra, kynan, artagan, kiri, essek, dairon, orly, yeza, and pumat sol, so i can do those guys!
(not including villains, figures we don't know much personal about like the bright queen, or guest pcs, because they're still technically pcs. also not splitting by campaign because allura and artagan appear in both)
1 - kaylie motherfucking shorthalt. i adore her so much, and she is feral as fuck. granted, she's highly competent feral, she's good enough at the flute to challenge scanlan, and good enough at the violin to be a professional fiddler (which, i reiterate, takes so much dedication to learn), and aes adan/the meat man definitely didn't become as powerful as he did all because of scanlan. but also, is a thief and a conman and will 100% get in a bar fight with just about anyone, absolutely unafraid to speak her mind, and her approach to meeting her father for the first time was to work out all her grudges by trying to kill him with a knife. see also - her epilogue was deciding to finish the schooling she dropped out of, but at a really fancy academy so she could prove she's better than all the rich kids, just really rub it in their faces. i so wish i could have seen it.
2 - kima will fight you. kima will fight anyone. i don't know why all the short girls in cr are so feral, but like literally all of them are just pure feral condensed into three feet of girl, i love them. kima is no different, except she has a dragon god on her side and also is very gay and she's great
3 - artagan. now, feral in large part constitutes an unwillingness or inability to play by the rules of a functioning society, and that's all artagan's about. show him a rule and he will run the other direction until he feels safe and then come back invisibly and use that rule to fuck with people. he has the chaos part down too, and i was almost gonna put him in first place. however, feral also implies something of a willingness for violence, and artagan doesn't really have that? like he does to an extent, but in the words of mr matthew mercer, "even the nicest of fey are weird and have their dark sides". and as far as fey go, artagan has been shown to care about people a lot more than he's ever wished them harm. like he's still feral, because he's an archfey and the entire feywild is feral. but like... relatively tame feral. give the boy a pen and some paper and he'll leave you alone.
4 - kiri. she's adorable, and is baby, but is also a bird with a knife whose catchphrase has more or less become "go fuck yourself!". i love her.
5 - orly's pretty chill. but also, let's be real, there's a limit to how non-feral a tortle sailor and tattoo artist with bagpipes fused into his shell can be. also is just generally down for whatever illegal antics the m9 feel like getting up to
6 - cassandra. i debated for a while about putting her higher, because there's definitely an argument to be made for that, but you do have to take into consideration how well put together and fancy she is at nearly all times. however. cassandra at no more than maybe 13 was the only person to not get caught in the briarwood attack, rescued her brother from the dungeon where they were torturing him and keeping the bodies of her other siblings, guided him out, got nearly murdered, and lived in a whitestone full of zombies and villains and vampire mind control for five years. she's feral under the surface, she's had to be
7 - jarett. god i love jarett, i forgot about him last time someone asked me my fave c1 npcs but he's the best. anyway, captain of their guard, good at fighting, terrible liar, Definitely Has Never Dealt Drugs Before, will go kill a dragon with you. but like, as long as you're paying him. he's doing this for money, not just out of base feral instinct. Probably Needs A Break.
8 - dairon taught beau and earned her respect somehow, so you know they're at least a little feral. but also, widely respected expositor of the cobalt soul, competent spy, and at least moderately capable of keeping beau in line, so that knocks down their feralness level a fair bit
9 - essek is a fancy boy, and definitely is beholden to a lot of rules. the whole floating thing shows that, like, he's pretty damn far from feral for most of the time he's in rosohna. but i debated who was higher between all the wizards for a while, and i think just because essek is (or at least was) neutral evil and is so driven by his hunger for knowledge and to explore the darker parts of dunamancy, that does push him up the feral scale a little bit. there's very little essek wouldn't do when it comes to discovering secrets. (also, you know, his entire job as the shadowhand, we've seen involves some fucked up stuff, so he's far from squeamish or naive in that sense)
10 - allura is a wizard and a politician and a fancy person and generally rather chill. but as far as the wizards go, wins second most feral because she's been an adventurer. she took down thordak the first time. casually reminisces about how weird all adventuring groups are when vox machina are like licking the weird powder they found in the necromancer dungeon and mentions she was like that too. girl's seen some shit
11 - pumat is not an adventurer, and has no wish to be, and on the whole, is not feral at all. but also, pumat swole.
12 - kynan, wants to be feral? and then was, kinda, for a bit, and then severely regretted it. has had his moments, but on the whole is a Soft Boy
13 - gilmore. we're definitely getting to the definitively Not Feral end of the scale now. i mean, points for crushing a man to death with his mind, also points for "if you could find a way for me to become a dragon, that would be sexy". but gilmore is extremely concerned at all times with putting on that charming and excited mask, he puts a lot of value on his image and practically nothing will get him to tarnish it (even when thordak nearly killed him and he was still barely hanging on, he tried to use prestidigitation to make himself look better, like... those walls run deep). is also just a really genuinely nice person, cares a lot about people, is very empathetic, and again, refuses to show negative emotion if it will hurt someone else in any way. it's hard to imagine shaun gilmore as feral in any way, and if he did get close to that, it wouldn't be in front of other people
14 - yeza. now, points for the slightly mad scientist vibe yeza's got going on, it seems to be veth's type. but also, veth has 100% of the feral in this relationship and they both know it
I think the thing in Critical Role I’m most excited for is the inevitable moment towards the end of the campaign when Beau just hauls off and sucker punches a god in the fucking face with her bare fucking hands.
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