#Travis is there playing a gag character | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

sturncrazy · 4 months

Text

LIFE OF THE PARTY prt3🔥

chris sturniolo x y/n (fem)

(all other characters are highlighted in green)

warnings: SMUUUUT SMUTTY SMUT nsfw 18+ and language & drinking (unprotected+not pulling out, overstimulation, slight praise, SLIGHT dom chris, lil rough at times)

authors note: HERES PART THREE YALL! sorry she’s LOOOOOOONNNNGGG but i’m a fan of details and build up so 🤷‍♀️ um why am i attached to this story now 🧐 anyways this is smut so yk beware but i hope y’all like it hehe🫶

summary: after a you and chris getting stuck playing a round of 7 minutes in heaven turned into a HEATED makeout session, you attempt to go back to the party….but chris has another idea.

word count: 4,106 w

—————————————————————————

“HEY LOOK! you two didn’t kill each other!” shouted out Madi as chris casually walked back into the basement like nothing happened. you tried your best to take steady breaths and act normal, but your whole body still felt like it was on fire as you headed back to the group.

“GUYSSS this game is boring! can we play pong?” someone yelled and was met by a collection of agreements. you attempted to brush down the back of your hair as you watched chris head over to the pong table. you cleared your throat.

“the fuck happened in there y/n” chuckled nick raising an eyebrow at you.

“oh nothing…obviously. just fucking stuffy in there” you lied. he bought it. “so, madi, did u get to kiss that guy? what’s his name again…?”

“yeah. jack. it was wet. icked me out” she answered shivering.

“oh ewww” you laughed

“OOO I HAVE AN IDEA! let’s do SHOTS” nick said grabbing the two of you. honestly, shots had never sounded better to you. anything to distract you from what had been going on 5 minutes ago. you took a whopping 3 shots in a row and felt immediate regret in the form of intense burning at the back of your throat. Nick gagged uncontrollably next to you. Madi, apparently unbothered, started shouting

“OO I LOVE THIS SONG LETS GO DANCE” at the sound of nightcrawler starting, pulling you to an emptier area of the room. actually having fun for a moment, the cheap liquor doing it’s job, you forgot where you were and began swaying around with your friend, even though your skirt was probably a bit too short to be moving so freely. suddenly, you became aware of the creeping feeling of eyes on you. you glanced over your shoulder and saw chris eyeing you, gripping his cup tightly watching your body. something ignited in you knowing you had his attention again. you continued to dance more, intentionally moving your hips around so your skirt would hike up. you glanced back at him and noticed him attempt to cover up fixing the top of his jeans, fussing with an apparent new problem. feeling bold, you took out your phone and opened snapchat and began typing a message to him. he felt the vibration of a notification in his pocket and reached for his phone, raising an eyebrow seeing you were typing. you finished out your message

“i can see you watching me. you’re not slick”

he rolled his eyes and began typing back before looking back up at you. you opened your phone.

“don’t act like you don’t want me to be watching you”

you looked back up at him. he cocked his head with a smirk and raised an eyebrow, in a challenging manner. frustration and desire bubbled inside you. it pissed you off that he thought he was the one in control here. you wanted to watch him squirm. you typed out your next message with shaking hands and refused to let yourself back out of hitting send

“i’d rather have you inside me than watching me, but whatever”

his mouth dropped open slightly as he looked at his screen. you could see his chest rise and fall from across the room. he looked up at you through hooded eyes, not moving his head. you gave him a shrug before turning your back to him and going back to dancing with madi and a small group of other girls who’d joined. you couldn’t believe how bold you’d been and started to feel regret creeping in as the moments passed by. you refused to look back at chris now, but all you could do was wonder what he was thinking. it started to make you feel queasy. you were just about to tell madi you wanted to go grab water, when you felt a large hand harshly grip your shoulder.

“bathroom. upstairs. now.” Chris growled, out of earshot of the surrounding group, into your hair. your breath hitched as he let go. you turned slightly to see him already heading for the steps.

“Uh-um…I need to get some air and water for a bit. i’ll come back down later” you said to Madi

“Oh okay, you alright? you need me to come with you?”

“Nah i’m good have fun”

“You sure? You’re not gonna puke are you?”

“No” you laughed “I just need a break, seriously though i’m good i’ll be back in a bit” she gave you a small nod and went back to dancing. you tried to inhale as you turned for the stairs, but your body refused to accept the air. you felt your legs shake slightly as you left the sticky basement and headed for the quiet and dark upstairs of the house. the bathroom was tucked down the hall, conveniently in the opposite direction from the front door so it was uncharted territory to most of the party goers. the bathroom door was cracked open slightly. the lights, except for a small blue nightlight, we’re out giving it an eerie blue glow pouring out of the sliver of space. you pushed it open weakly. Chris was carelessly leaning against the sink, supporting himself with his arms behind him. he looked up at you and gestured with his head for you to shut it behind you. you followed his lead and closed it then moved to lean against the opposing wall, facing him head on. you crossed your arms across your chest.

“we’ll you’re quite the little tease, aren’t you?” he said looking up at you through strands of his hair. you tried to look unfazed.

“what do you want, chris?” you said flatly

“you know what i want, y/n” he said hoarsely

“how am i supposed to know what you want? look like i can read your mind?” you retorted, playing dumb.

His breathing was uneasy. the sound of it echoed through the bathroom being the only sound in the room for a moment. your heart raced as he looked at you hungrily. without warning, he pushed himself off the sink and grabbed your face in his hands pulling you in forcefully for a heavy kiss. he let go of your cheeks after feeling your lips give into his, eagerly kissing him back, and moved his hands down to your waist without breaking away from your mouth. he grasped at your skin desperately, as he pushed you up against the wall. he leaned his body against yours and you were sure he could probably feel the immense beating of your heart against his chest. you suddenly became aware of the fact that you had hands again and pushed them back into his hair. he bit at your lip, asking for access into your mouth. you opened it slightly and felt his tongue slide against yours. you pulled at his hair with one had and ran your nails up his shoulder with the other. he let out a small groan into your mouth. you needed to hear him again. you felt his hands start to slide from your waist lower to your thigh. you breathed out unsteadily and felt him smile slightly against your lips. he continued to move them back up your thighs, this time working their way up under your skirt to your ass. it sent chills down your body and you pushed your hips up against him at the sensation.

“fuck” he whispered out as he savagely grabbed at the soft pillowy flesh in his large hands. you never knew his voice could sound so sexy. you brought your hands from around his neck down the fabric of the front of his t-shirt, desperately wanting more of him. as you reached the hem of his shirt, you pushed the tips of your fingers under it. just grazing the sweet spot of his lower stomach right above his waistband with your delicate touch.

“this okay?” you breathed into his lips

“more than” he grunted out against you. with his eager consent you slid your hands up under his shirt, running your them over the smooth skin of his toned torso. you felt his rocky breathing under your palms, which made the wetness forming in your thong even more present. once you reached his collarbone, you dragged your nails heavily back down his skin to the top of his jeans

“oh goddd” escaped his lips, as he wrapped one arm around your waist and one under your ass, lifting you up. you tightened your legs around his waist in response, still not breaking from his mouth. you pulled at his lip slightly with your teeth, loving the feeling of being wrapped around him. he responded by spinning halfway with you still in the air and settling you down to sit on the edge of the sink. you kept your legs around him slightly as he broke away from you momentarily. he maintained eye contact with you as he reached for the bottom of his t shirt and pulled it off over his head. the space between your legs pulsed, begging for contact, as you took in the sight of him shirtless in front of you. your lips parted slightly, scanning him.

“like what you see?” he teased, observing your reaction.

“you have no idea” you said lowly, looping your pointer fingers into the belt loops of his jeans, bringing him back into you. as your lips locked back together again he dragged his hands up from your waist, lightly brushing over your boobs, which were covered by a thin tank top, eliciting a whimper from you.

“you gonna let me see you too?” he said softly. you pulled away and lifted off your top. he exhaled loudly, eyes growing wide at the sight of you.

“my god” he mumbled before bringing his hands up to paw at your exposed chest. you threw your head back slightly and moaned, which he responded to by lowering his head and connecting his warm wet mouth to your nipple, biting and pulling gently. he kissed down your chest sloppily, continuing down your stomach as he crouched. he settled kneeling, looking up at you from the same height as your knees, which you had shut slightly. he looked into your eyes as he gently kissed your kneecap

“open your legs for me, pretty girl” he said in a hushed tone. you moved your legs further apart, feeling the cool air reach the almost unbearable heat coming from your center. he broke away from your eyes, pupils blown out, at the space between your legs that had become visible to him. he sighed hot air against your leg, his lips still partially touching your skin. he reached a hand up your leg, moving painfully slow, to your upper thigh and squeezed. you shuddered, desperate for contact. Chris seemed to understand what you needed and moved his hand further along your skin and to the lacey center of your thong. he ran his finger tips so lightly across your dripping heat, it ached and you bucked your hips forward overcome with the need for more.

“fuck youre so wet” he muttered, almost more to himself in amazement at your arousal.

“chris—please—“ you gasped out rolling your hips towards him again.

“hmmm?” he sung out, just barely pressing his index and middle finger at your clothed entrance. you let out a small cry.

“so worked up for me already huh, baby?” he taunted. the name alone was enough to make your insides throb.

“Chris—stop fucking teasing me” you spat out

“only fair…you teased me first” he said before biting down on your inner thigh, still drawing small light circles around your clit over the lace fabric. you whimpered, loudly.

“But if you’re so desperate” he hooked his fingers around the sides of your thong

“okay” he finished, pulling it down your legs. you suddenly became aware of the fact that you were completely exposed to him and felt the urge to shut your legs, which chris quickly halted you from doing.

“christ” he hissed out before moving his mouth painfully close to your dripping pussy. he was so close to where you needed him you could feel the hot air of his breath hitting your folds.

“please—“ you whined out in one last attempt to stop his torture. finally, he listened as he pressed his warm wet lips to your clit then dragged his tongue down your folds. you grasped at his hair trying to stable yourself as your legs shook at the feeling of him beginning to push his tongue into your entrance. he groaned, sending vibrations into you, at you pulling his hair which made you lift your hips higher pressing his face further into you. both of his hands were wrapped around your thighs, holding you in place, but he slipped his grip on one side so he could position his hand to rub your clit with his thumb.

“oh fuck” you exhaled. he removed his thumb and dragged his tongue back up to your clit continuing the circular motion. your pussy ached begging for something to fill it and you tried to grind your core harder against him. he began to press two fingers against you entrance. you sucked air through your teeth and moved your hands to claw at his upper shoulders as he pushed his fingers into you, curling them upwards slightly. your eyes rolled back into your head as chris slowly began to pump his digits in and out of you.

“oh goddd-yes chris”

“you look so cute when you’re moaning my name like that” he said looking up at you still driving his fingers deep into your core.

“feelsss—so good” you gasped out as you felt yourself start to clench around his slender fingers.

“are you close already for me baby?” he cooed at you in a mocking tone

“sh-shut up chris—just don’t stop” you spat back pulling at his hair.

“trust me i’m not gonna stop til i see you cum all over my fingers for me”

“ohh my—fuckk” you stuttered feeling the build up in your core begin

“good girl cum for me y/n” chris said pumping into you rapidly with his hand. your body shuddered and your legs attempted to snap together as you came down from your high. you tried to catch your breath, fluttering your eyes open just in time to see chris standing back up and sucking your juices off his fingers, looking at you.

“y’taste fucking good”

“oh yeah?” you snickered out

“don’t believe me?” he asked leaning in to kiss you so you could taste yourself on his lips. he gripped at your thighs again before harshly pulling you down off the counter and spinning you around so your back was too him and you were looking at him in the mirror above this sink. something in his eyes looked almost animalistic now, as he clenched the skin around your hips so harshly it would leave marks. he began to suck and bite your neck from behind, as you heard the sound of him unzipping his pants and fabric hitting the ground. he stopped playing with your neck and looked at you in the eyes in the reflection resting his chin on your shoulder.

“watching you cum for me like that got me so hard baby it hurts so bad” he said with desperation into your ear

“really?” you said almost genuinely surprised that doing something for you would turn him on that much. you felt him wrap his hand over yours and guide it behind you. he pressed your hand to his painfully hard member that was pushing against the fabric of his boxers. he groaned at your touch

“yeah, really” he added pressing his hips forward further.

“Chris it—“ you fumbled looking for words, feeling his throbbing dick against your palm fully for the first time without the thick denim of his jeans in the way.

“hmmm?” he mumbled with his eyes half closed rocking back and forth to build some friction

“You’re so big” you stated. you didn’t know why it would surprise you. Chris gave the vibe of the kind of guy who would be well off in that department but still, something about the length of the hardon you could feel shocked you.

“you sound surprised” he half chuckled

“no i-i-jus-“

“cmon y/n don’t act like you haven’t thought about my dick before” he said pushing himself harshly against you this time

“so when are you gonna bend over the sink for me so i can give you what you really came up here for”

“Chris— already—i mean i just” you stuttered. you were still recovering from the the shockingly intense orgasm you’d had from him fingering you.

“mmm so much for handling you, looks like you can’t handle me”

“hey that’s not fair—”

“so if you don’t want me to fuck you, why are you still grabbing my cock” he snarled. you felt your pussy throb uncontrollably again at his words. he was right. you didn’t just want him to fuck you, you needed it. you let out a pathetic whimper as you leaned yourself over the sink, bringing your ass up higher for him.

“good girl” he purred out as he stripped his final layer of clothes off. you felt him line his tip up with your entrance before he began to sink into you. you let out a desperate cry at the feeling of him stretching you out and you watched his eyes roll back and his jaw go slack as he bottomed out.

“fuck you’re even tighter than i imagined” he exhaled, stopping any motion giving you a small moment to adjust to his size before pulling back out of you again. when he moved again he wasn’t as gentle. he slammed into you fully, causing a slap to echo through the small room. you squealed a pornographically loud moan, as you felt him fill you up. your pussy clenched relentlessly around his pulsating thick length.

“jesus y/n” he huffed feeling you tighten around him, shuddering against you.

“mm more chris” you whined out

“dont need to tell me twice” he said biting your earlobe. he began to pick up the pace of his thrusts, hitting your g spot every time, making you almost see stars. the feeling of him stretching your tight walls and hitting you so deep into your core was such an intense feeling of pleasure and pain, you let out a string of irrepressible moans and curses. you felt tears start to form and roll down your hot cheeks. you hung your head down limply as it bounced slightly with the rhythm of chris pounding into you from behind. his constant grunting and groaning was enough to keep you wet forever. you closed your eyes focusing on the overwhelmingly pleasure and felt one of chris’s hands grip into your hair, pulling you back with force. you snapped your eyes open and saw him biting his lip, hair in sweaty strands sticking to his forehead, pupils so black the blue of his eyes was invisible, cheeks flushed, staring at you as he mercilessly rammed his dick impossibly further into you.

“I want you to watch me while i fuck your brains out y/n” he panted to you. all you could do in response was let your mouth fall open in a pathetic whine, your brows furrowed in overwhelming satisfaction of being so filled up. he took this as an opportunity to slip the hand that had been grasping at your hair to your mouth and slide his fingers between your lips. you followed and sucked on them obediently. he watched hungrily, never letting up on his pace, before slipping them back out of your mouth creating a popping sound. he lowered them down between you and the counter to rub your clit again. you screamed at the new addition to your pleasure and collapsed slightly forward.

Chris smacked your ass harshly with his unoccupied hand before growling

“did i say you could stop watching?”

you looked back up at him again, tears now streaming down your face causing your mascara to make big streaks of black across your flushed skin.

“God you look so fucking sexy. such a mess for me, gorgeous”

“CHRIS—i’m gonna—fuck” you started to pant

“you wanna cum again for me, princess?” you whimpered in response as he pounded into you still drawing faster circles across your incredibly sensitive clit.

“cum all over my dick, baby. let it out” he said kissing your neck in encouragement. you felt yourself release around him as the room seemed to buzz and your vision went blurry, reaching a level of ecstasy you never knew existed before. your walls pulsed rapidly around him as your legs shook wildly, making his thrusts become harsher and sloppy.

“oh god fuck—y/n i’m close”

“yeah? you gonna cum chris?” you breathed out looking back at him. his brows were furrowed as he watched his length disappearing into you, mesmerized.

“shit yeah nghhhh fuck where do you want me to cum, baby”

“just don’t stop, chris” you said watching him, entranced by how gorgeous he looked this worked up.

“wha-/what?” he stuttered looking back up at you shocked

“i said don’t stop, chris”

“but—then i’ll—“

“i want you to cum in me” you whispered, loving the boyish look of excitement and fear wash across his face.

“but—“ he weakly questioned once more desperately fighting off his release

“don’t tell me you’re gonna be boring, chris” you teased, arching your back further which only intensified his pleasure.

“fuck no, y/n” he said breathlessly. he wrapped one hand around your throat lightly.

“i’ll fill you up with my cum if that’s what you want”

“i need it, chris—please” you begged

“OH GOD OH FUCK IM GONNA CUM FUCK”

“yeah, baby? i wanna feel you cum inside me”

“SHIT IM CUMMING OH FUCK” chris slurred out before stopping still deep inside you. you felt his dick twitch against your walls spurting his thick warm release inside you, as his body shuddered at the feeling. he panted against your skin collapsing slightly on top of you, leaving sloppy kisses on your shoulder. you breathed heavily in unison, watching him regain control of himself in the mirror. he lifted his head slightly to grin at you. you let out a small breathy giggle, still supporting yourself with your arms at the sink. you were sure your legs wouldn’t work properly for a few weeks. he slowly stood up enough to pull himself out of you, causing you to let out a final whimper at the loss of fullness and slight overstimulation. he chuckled, reaching back for his clothes. you followed his lead and searched for your own.

“still don’t think i can handle you?” he said as he pulled up his pants

“i’d say you did a pretty good job” you replied, leaning back against the sink, watching him zip up

“PRETTY good job?” he said feigning offense. you leaned over to give him a light kiss on the lips.

“okay, yeah. i stand corrected” you giggled as he leaned back in to give you another light kiss

“still think i’m no fun?” you teased, inches from his face.

“oh no i take that back totally” he said, kissing you once more before pulling away to put back on his shirt. you leaned back to the mirror to try to fix your makeup enough to make you look presentable to the friends you’d have to face downstairs shortly, but you felt chris’s eyes on you.

“what?” you asked

“nothin” he started. he looked down at the floor, scratching the back of his head in thought.

“i guess—i guess i just wanted to say m’sorry?” you raised an eyebrow

“dunno i’ve always been such a dick to you. and look it’s not like you’ve been an angel to me either—but still. i dunno. guess i was always just freaked out by the way i felt around you. like all nervous and outta control. i’m not used to that. so it was easier to tell myself i hated you than anything else, but i always knew it wasn’t the truth—i’m sorry i don’t mean t—“

“hey, stop chris, i get what you mean. think i’ve always felt sorta the same way” you said turning to face him and place a hand on his cheek to get him to look at you.

“yeah?” he asked with a sheepish grin, placing his hand on top of yours. you nodded and he leaned in to kiss you again.

—————————————————————————

AHH OK!!! guys i rly hope u like this one cause i rly like it 🥹❤️❤️❤️

324 notes · View notes

zeephyre · 11 months

Text

CR3 EPISODE 59 RANT

Okay so I've finally watched episode 59 and... it was so good. utkarsh as a fresh player is such a good addition to the table, i ADORE the way he plays because it's the lack of experience of the player really making the lack of experience of bor'dor that much more delightful.

aimee is always a joy to see and im so thrilled she brought deni$e into the fray because that's such an hilarious gag character. reminds me of travis making chutney his PC and it actually becoming a very good character. (miss you already pock o'pea 💏).

AND EMILY!!!! im more into cr than d20 but i fucking loved a court of fey and flowers so much and emily was an absolute fucking gem in that, and she was an absolute genius in neverafter. i've seen clips of her brilliance but getting TWO crits back to back almost immediately was fucking crazy, matt I'm praying for you fr. love prism, she's so funky and cool, and so autism coded. (just like bor'dor)

on to the three hellians we're following this go around. taliesin and marisha are trying to ruin my life, im absolutely fucking convinced. marisha already knows how to pull on those imogen heart strings, just like Laura. and taliesin plays ashton as completely wired and absolutely determined to not fall apart even though they lost their shit pretty fucking immediately after they teleported.

ashton saying they'll do whatever it takes to find their people again, fuck saving the world, was just absolute gold. ashton and laudna's motivations have never struck me as particularly martyr like so their single-minded focus on making sure the band is back together was so refreshing i love them so much, i can't wait for more rp moments between them.

LIAM O'BRIEN. YOU ARE INSANE SIR.

i need ashton and laudna to give orym ten thousand hugs and never let my little guy go holy shit he is at his wit's end. all those little moments of trauma flashbacks just running through his head was just *chefs kiss* thank you liam. i know orym said he doesn't have anyone but that pause... that pause was both heart breaking and also gives me room to hope that liam is cooking up a slow burn for the ages. (peep taliesin's face the entire time orym was talking to deni$e -- ashrym nation RISE UP)

i do really hope that orym and ashton have more moments together, especially considering the conversation they had on the skyship about orym not always being able to be "the good one". i hope orym reaches out, and hell, if not then i am BEGGING ashton to reach out cause i really think this group in particular has one of the most best subtle emotional connections for ashton and i just djsjdkdkdl I LOVE THEM AND I WANT MORE ANGST.

119 notes · View notes

conarcoin · 5 months

Text

i could talk for hours about how interesting smplive is as just a piece of media. it's like a really interesting work of metafiction where i'm not quite sure how intentional it was for it to be a work of fiction and it's such a perfect case study for mcrp as a medium and what separates it from just a let's play

like for so long the narrative around it was that it was just people playing minecraft but the deeper you dig into it the more you start to notice that it really wasn't and that at least on some level many of the creators were well aware they were creating a fictional world (schlatt's running gag about being seemingly the only character to not be aware he's in a roleplay, cooper saying he suggested travis's character be similar to bmo, tekkitlive just in general...)

god it's just. what a fucking fascinating piece of media, truly

#mcyt #smplive #mcytblr #liveblr #fandom meta #my meta posts

20 notes · View notes

aspiringsophrosyne · 10 months

Text

Episode 9: A Test of Pride.

Oh, don't you hate cliffhangers? Unless the movie's damn good enough to justify it, and those kinds are a rarity these days.

The Good.

This was another episode written by Sam and Travis, and it shows. Later I'll talk about the show's humor compared to the stream, but for now, I'll say that this one had some pretty good gags. The return of Boulder, Parchment, Shears, and Grog slamming Pike face-first into a barrel are peak Critical Role jokes.

You can catch an early nod to "When the Bald Man Cries" before Scanlan takes off; the beret on the dragonfly was a great little touch.

And hey, Cobalt Soul cameo!

I appreciate the Grog backstory. Especially since, in-game, Travis has been repeatedly reticent (at best) to explore his characters' pasts. Ironic, given that, so far, they've turned out pretty damn hype. The level of brutality is perfect; it shows just how little freedom, care, and love Grog would've gotten had he not spared Wilhand and been given away through him and Pike.

Also, I love the detail that Kevdak has one blind eye in the present day because Grog slashed it out in their backstory. Took me a re-watch or two to pick up on that.

I dig the focus on civilians. I like seeing how not everybody in this world is a mercenary or can defend themselves as the protagonists can. In the game, there would definitely be individual NPCs that got focus and love, but you couldn't do too much, or blood vessels in the DM's brain would eventually bust.

I love Kaylie's design; it's a cute pixie-ish look that doesn't conflict with her justifiable distrust and angry behavior and makes the family resemblance clear as crystal.

In terms of characterization, I appreciate that she and the troupe are trying to get help for the rest of the town; you get the impression Kaylie at least could sneak out on her own, but she's not doing that; she specifically charges Scanlan with the task of getting everyone out.

We got to see a little more from Zanror, too. Most of his portrayal was off-screen before the Kill Box fight in the original, so I liked seeing his and Grog's former closeness and Zanror's misgivings about Kevdak before that in these Herd-centric episodes.

The Bad. (Or at least, not great.)

I have something to say about Dranzel's troupe, but I think it fits better a couple episodes down the road. Keep them in mind for now.

Nitpick

I wouldn't have minded it if they'd made the flash back in the beginning of the episode a montage of different towns instead of just the one instance we saw. This would give us more info within the same amount of time, plus you can show multiple pillaged towns and Grog never encountering someone who was completely unprepared to fight back to any degree. Until he meets Wilhand.

This makes his change of heart make more sense and hit harder.

Pacing.

This is another episode with less-than-stellar pacing.

Grog and Pike's part of the story is handled well, but Scanlan and Kaylie's storyline should feel much less drawn out than it does. There's a cut back to those two, Dranzel's troupe, and the various townsfolk a couple of times; nothing really happens with them before Scanlan convinces Kaylie he can get them out before he reunites with Grog and Pike.

We can fix that.

There's a dragon in the neighborhood: have his presence shake the walls, have Scanlan peer outside only to see a long black tail slinking around the building, or have Umbrasyl's acid breath seep through the roof and down onto the people below, who cry out in fear and pain and then desperately try to stifle themselves so they don't draw his attention.

You can play up the suspense and uncertainty of the moment and make it feel like something catastrophic could happen at any time.

Pike's Mom?

I believe it was Sam who acknowledged during the watch party for this episode that there was some confusion over whether the gnomish woman we saw in the flashback was Pike or maybe her mother. This confusion was due to her hair being black, and her calling Wilhand her grandfather. Sam said that they didn't want Pike to say "great-great" every time she spoke of him, and that's reasonable.

Except...

If you've got a scene where a character looks markedly different than usual, to the point they can be mistaken for another character or a relative, you have to. If there was any scene where Pike needed to refer to her great-great-grandfather as such, it was here, so it would be clear that this woman was Pike.

Kevdak

We'll talk more about Ralph Ineson and how fucking intimidating he and the animators made Kevdak in the next episode...but I gotta say, he comes across as a little generic here compared to his stream counterpart. Kevdak's scary, sure, but not in any specific way. He feels scary the way any big, brutal dude would feel scary.

I like the idea of one of the folks Zanror was talking to about a rebellion getting impulsive, attacking Kevdak, and either getting mutilated (losing an ear, or maybe a finger) or being killed outright in turn. This tells us two things: the rest of the Herd is not and maybe has not been happy with Kevdak's leadership, but he is very good at putting down dissenters. It's a reminder of the Herd and its leader's specific brand of brutality.

In the same vein I would've liked to see them do more to tell us what Kevdak's motivations were. In the wrap-up for the first campaign, the DM revealed that, as had been hinted at during the stream, Kevdak had been biding his time until he would eventually try to take down Umbrasyl. By contrast, the audience doesn't even get hints about what Kevdak's deal is in the show. Is he genuinely cowed by Umbrasyl? Is he biding his time until he can rebel against him? Is that just what he's telling himself to avoid coming to terms with the fact that he's a dragon's servant? What's going on with him? Despite the show having multiple opportunities to clarify this for us, it doesn't.

That's it for this one folks. The last three episodes of the last season were nuts, and this one's no exception.

2 notes · View notes

in-this-crystal-kingdom · 1 year

Text

Ranking the Arcs of TAZ Balance in order from worst to best in my own personal opinion with reasons!

(Respective Interludes joined together with the arcs-- This is for fun please don't kill me)

8. Petals to the Metal

I'm sorry I just don't like this one very much and I don't know why

The stuff with Sloan and Hurley is really good, I'm just not a fan of much else

Ironically one of my favorite lines in the whole campaign comes from this arc ("I am a fully realized creation! Fuck!")

It's not a bad arc, I don't HATE it, I just never remember much of it after it's over

The festival where Magnus dresses like Taako is funny as shit tho I will give it that

Also everything with the "Merle Fucks Plants" jokes are iconic

On the other hand the relic of this arc also isn't my favorite, sorry Merle

7. Here There Be Gerblins

This one is before PTTM for a few reasons but I also have issues with this one

It feels very different from the rest of the series which makes sense since it was originally supposed to kinda be a one off thing before everyone was like MORE NOW PLEASE YES

This is another that I don't really remember much of after it's over, but again-- it's not BAD, just not my favorite

Barry Bluejeans does a die in this one, rip sir jeans, he is one of the most character ever

Taako's Taco quest is so funny and is rarely mentioned throughout the series (which I get but still kinda wish it had been more relevant before the end)

I do like the Voidfish reveal and the Phoenix Fire Gauntlet though, so it pushes this arc just above PTTM (slightly, they are the only 2 I don't love)

6. Murder on the Rockport Limited

We are officially in the territory of having a hard time ranking these because I LOVE THE REST OF THEM SO MUCH

It kind of hurts my soul this one is at six but like... it has to be...

ANGUS MY BELOVED I care him so much

Jerkins Jenkins is such a good character and I love him

Him being the only one who is just immediately sick of their shit is iconic

The entire gag if Magnus being absolutely fucked up and trying to talk to Avi is so funny

TOM BODET

Leinen Kessler (I mean Justin) not fooling anyone is hilarious

Trashy wizard! Miss him dearly.

Have I mentioned how much I love Angus yet

5. Story and Song

Listen this arc is iconic, it is where everything comes together, and I'm not kidding that I spent like 10 minutes trying not to put it at 5 but FUCK I CAN'T RANK IT ABOVE THE OTHERS I'M SORRY

I love it so much and I'm litterally so mad I decided to make this list because I can't believe the arc that made me sob during my lunch break the first time I was listening to it is number 5

But I also need to speak my truth and this one is under some of the ones that came before it simply because of how wonderful the others are and how dearly I hold them in my heart

Taako breaking the Umbra Staff will always kill me, I cry every time.

Speaking of the Umbra Staff, Taako pointing it at Lucretia and counting down gives me chills every time.

"There is magic in a Bard's song" FUCKING KILLS ME EVERY TIME I CRY SO HARD

Small mention for all the members of the Taakitz and Blupjeans nations, come get your dinner-- I know that’s not even close to the only important things going on here, but this arc did so much for us.

The endings for each character make me so happy and I cry every time hearing them all

Merle and his kids. Merle saying he loves Mavis and Clint confirming later that he was talking to Justin, Travis, and Griffin as well as the audience when he said that always gets me.

Taako getting to be a part of a family he never knew he had. Taako and Lup getting to be together again, Taako teasing her and Barry, Kravitz's hand being warm. Taako getting to return to the lives he loved with the people he loves. Perfect.

Magnus and Julia reunion is one of the main reasons I was debating this rank because on one hand I love the other arcs dearly for personal reasons but on the other hand I can't deny it is one of the most poetic and romantic scenes in any media I have ever consumed. Griffin and Travis play off of each other so well, and this scene genuinely remains such a gut punch for me. "She smiles-" will happen and every time I immediately start crying without fail. This moment is so raw and emotional and I hold it dear in my heart.

Fisher and Jr. being free will always get me so hard. Such a beautiful end to a beautiful story that I will never hear anything like again. What I wouldn't give to hear it for the first time again.

4. 11th Hour

This arc was the arc that made me bolt up in bed several times for several different reasons.

God I just love this arc so much I'm so excited for the novel I just- AHHH

This arc was probably the first inkling I had that something big was coming, I felt it a little in Crystal Kingdom but this arc made me realize "Oh shit, Griffin has something PLANNED and it is going to be BIG" because even though I am several years late to this party I somehow encountered no spoilers for my first listen (sort of, will explain later in this post)

But back to my point

The reason I rank this above Story and Song is not because I think it's better story wise (although it is really fucking good story wise) it's because of how excited I am to listen to it

The first moment I realized they were stuck in a loop- God I was screaming in the car on my way home from work

Everything with Junebug and the Chalice was so well done and I love how Griffin decided to do that so much

Taako learning that it wasn't his fault all those people died, I could feel the weight being lifted off my own shoulders that was so evidently huge for him in that moment.

Magnus crying as soon as he sees Julia in his memory and not even being ashamed of it, just so emotionally raw and powerful.

The fact that Taako and Merle understood why Magnus might want to take it and they didn't stop him

Magnus not taking the chalice because "it's not what Julia would want" is so good, I cry every time.

Taako making a joke about them needing to make his dick bigger on the statues they made will always send me becahse I almost always forget the joke when it happens.

Barry The Red Robe trying to protect Magnus from the scroll, Magnus realizing that he himself is a Red Robe and he just can't remember it is another moment that really got me

I love this arc so much

3. Stolen Century

Man this arc has so much to it and it is so wonderful

I feel bad not ranking it higher but as much as I love it I have two I love more

Underrated moment people never mention, Magnus being a children's team coach for a cycle and them winning it all is so wholesome

Merle in the congregations he helped and taught through the cycles

Davenport being a great leader and such a complex character despite what we used to know him as

Lucretia learning and growing so much and making the most difficult decisions whether they worked out or not

Taako being similar but all at once nothing like the Taako we know. Taako being one of the smartest people in the IPRE. Taako loving the culture and unique qualities of each cycle.

Barry being so kind and brave even though he's a nervous wreck. I have never seen a character with anxiety be portrayed as someone who can put themselves before others without a second thought and be so brave in the face of danger that he faces death and laughs in its face.

Lup. I can't express all the things I feel about Lup. Courageous, firey, kind, compassionate, so torn apart by her decision to create the Phoenix Fire Gauntlet that she risked her life to seal it away for good. Lup, who was smart enough to create the very item that would be her prison for so long. Lup who can never forgive Greg Gramauldous to save her life. Lup.

Magnus having several reoccurring themes of learning to accept help, learning to ask for help, learning to work with others, learning to share the glory, learning to he humble. Magnus learning his strength can be his weakness and that weakness doesn't mean he's not strong enough.

Lup and Barry's duet. The undeniable love they have for each other is so beautiful.

Everything with Merle and John. Merle being kind to him, always leaving the door open for him to admit he was wrong. I love it.

This arc is so... yes. All of it. I hear people saying the format was bad but I loved it.

2. The Suffering Game

God so much shit got real in this arc

Lucretia revealing she lost a lot of her life in Wonderland

Magnus' secret break in to the brig to see Pringles

Magnus accidentally leading to the death of two guards

Wonderland has such a cool description and I can not WAIT to see this shit in book form you don't even KNOW

EDWARD AND LYDIA MY BELOVED

Taako being absolutely delighted by Wonderland at first and knowing what comes next always makes me weirdly sad

The wheel. That fucking wheel.

I will not be covering every little thing in this arc that I want to talk about because this post is already a novel but the wheel you guys. Fuck.

Trust or Forsake

SPELL SLOTS

Magnus and the Red Robe working together

GOD EDWARD STEALING MAGNUS' BODY. CHILLS EVERY DAMN TIME.

Taako using the spell to go get Magnus and Merle using the last of his magic to help. God. I am in tears just thinking about it.

"I'll be having my body back, you undead fuck."

BARRY REVEAL BARRY REVEAL BARRY REVEAL BARR

DAVENPORT SPEAKS IN THIS ONE Y'ALL

THE FIRST TIME I LISTENED TO THIS AND GRIFFEN PULLED THE "Of course, Lup, how could you forget your sister?" I WAS SCREAMING SO MUCH.

1. The Crystal Kingdom

If you saw my username and didn't see this coming I don't know what to say to you.

I know this isn't the most significant arc but it means a lot to me for one big reason-- it was the first one I went in completely blind on. At the time the Crystal Kingdom book hadn't come out yet, and the books were how I got introduced to the podcast.

That and because this arc fucking rocks (no pun intended... sort of.)

This post is honestly long enough already I'm gonna go more in depth on this with a separate post soon because I have a LOT to say about this arc

But seriously-- this arc is the fucking best and I will boy be judged by my choice

#taz #the adventure zone #justin mcelroy #griffin mcelroy #clint mcelroy #travis mcelroy #dungeons and dragons #taz balance #taz spoilers

5 notes · View notes

sylvanas-girlkisser · 2 years

Text

Honestly though, I would enjoy CR3 so much more, if not for the inclusion of Chetney.

Like, he's written with such a uniquely American hatred for the world around you and it's dragging the pathos of the entire campaign down with him. The central premise of his character is "haha old people are annoying" with a side of "lmao look at this idiot committing his life to a craft, doesn't he know about Amazon?" The cast treats the very notion that age can bring knowledge as absurd. Even when Dorian or Orym try to uplift him it gets shot down by Travis so he can make more jokes about being a gross old pervert.

Like, his character is a retired toymaker dealing with a chronic illness, there is room for so much compassion there, and it doesn't have to come at the cost of Chetney's hard exterior, but Travis doesn't want that, he wants a gross old man and also occasionally to play a werewolf.

And now he's going around traumatizing people for fun and its treated like this gag of "oh that Chetney he's so silly" again instead of treating the NPCs with the kind of humanity they usually attribute to them.

I dunno it just has the vibes of like, when you let that one new player join the table and he insists on bringing his murderhobo who does not gel with anything and just keeps sticking his dick in the emotional moments.

And like, even Travis is evidently fighting back against the character going that wayby showing him giving thoughtful gifts, but then 10 minutes later we're back to "old man masturbates in public" jokes.

Like I dunno dude maybe you just need to call the character a dud and start over.

#valk yelling at clouds #Also why did he feel the need to play two old men one right after the other #who both had the same premise of old men are gross and should be out in a home #it's times like these I'm reminded most of the CR cast are hets

7 notes · View notes

kelila · 1 year

Text

I don't want to put this in the tags and start a fight and I know most of my followers don't also watch cr so there's a lack of context for a lot of y'all. Sorry. (and I'm going to intentionally misspell things to avoid the search as best I can)

But I gotta complain.

How the FUCK are you going to call fearn a gag character and hope she dies when Ashley is by far not the only player being silly this campaign. Travis and Sam have both been consistently silly. Travis had played TWO whole gag characters.

(hmmmm I wonder what the difference between Ashly and Sam n Travis is?)

And then "maybe she'll roll a new character more like yah sa"

Like uh yeah Ashley already played a serious character let her shake it up with her playstyle a little. Not everything has to be serious.

Also just because fearn e is a little silly (if non watchers want a little context she has huge Jennifer Coolidge energy I love her so much) doesn't mean she can't or won't get serious or have serious or deep moments.

In fact she already has with the little arc about her parents and Nana mori.

Everyone knows a dnd campaign that starts out like Monty python are the ones that end up having the most emotional impact.

And more importantly quit putting hate in the tags. You don't like fearn e fine. Use an alternative tag and leave your negativity out of the main tag you fucking party pooper.

#no tags for helping find this #if you know you know #apologies to everyone who doesnt #anyway i already blocked the person #ive actually blocked a lot of people who have posted their negativity in the tag #pro tip! you dont have to tag every dumbfuck thought you have in the main tags! people browse those!#Also I apologize for being bitchy and judgemental #I usually keep that to myself but I've been through a very tiring month and a half fixing my house up to sell #So I'm at the end of my rope here

0 notes

byneddiedingo · 1 year

Photo

Jeanette MacDonald and Maurice Chevalier in The Love Parade (Ernst Lubitsch, 1929) Cast: Maurice Chevalier, Jeanette MacDonald, Lupino Lane, Lillian Roth, Eugene Pallette, E.H. Calvert, Edgar Norton, Lionel Belmore. Screenplay: Ernest Vajda, Guy Bolton, based on a play by Leon Xanrof and Jules Chancel. Cinematography: Victor Milner. Art direction: Hans Dreier. Film editing: Merrill G. White. Costume design: Travis Banton. Music: Victor Schertzinger. It irritates me a little to think that MGM, thanks largely to those That's Entertainment clip shows in the 1970s, is celebrated for its movie musicals, when in fact the genre was pioneered and perfected at other studios: Warner Bros. with its Busby Berkeley dance spectacles, RKO with its Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers cycle, and Paramount, where Ernst Lubitsch virtually invented the story musical with The Love Parade and subsequent re-teamings of Maurice Chevalier and Jeanette MacDonald. (Oddly, today MacDonald is better known for her inferior and unsexy MGM teaming with Nelson Eddy.) MGM didn't achieve musical greatness until the end of the 1930s, when after the success of The Wizard of Oz (Victor Fleming, 1939), the studio put its associate producer, Arthur Freed, in charge of the film musicals unit. True, MGM had won a best-picture Oscar with The Broadway Melody (Harry Beaumont, 1929), but that was a standard backstage musical, not one in which the songs and dances are fully integrated into the plot. Besides, it's almost unwatchable today, whereas thanks to the charm of Chevalier and the sexiness of MacDonald in her revealing pre-Code frippery, but most of all to what is known as "the Lubitsch touch," The Love Parade is still enjoyable. Lubitsch's "touch" as a director was based on a sly conviction that the audience would get the joke, usually a naughty one, and it was perfected during the silent era, when things had to be shown, not told. So the film opens with a mostly silent demonstration of why Count Alfred Renard (Chevalier) has caused such a scandal with his dalliances in Paris that he has to be recalled to Sylvania and rebuked by Queen Louise (MacDonald). But this is also a film that wittily integrates sound into its sight gags, as the entire Sylvanian court eavesdrops on the burgeoning love of Alfred and Louise. The plot, derived by screenwriters Guy Bolton and Ernest Vajda from a French play, is standard, slightly sexist stuff about the prince consort, Alfred, feeling miffed by the fact that his marriage to the queen leaves him with nothing to do, but it's carried off well by the leads, as well as the saucy servants, Jacques (Lupino Lane) and Lulu (Lillian Roth), and a court full of skilled character actors like Eugene Pallette, Edgar Norton, and Lionel Belmore. It's too bad that the song score by lyricist Clifford Grey and composer Victor Schertzinger isn't better -- there are too many reprises of "Dream Lover," for example -- but Lubitsch's staging compensates for its weakness.

#The Love Parade #Ernst Lubitsch #Jeanette MacDonald #Maurice Chevalier

1 note · View note

watching-pictures-move · 1 year

Text

Put On Your Raincoats | Water Power (Costello, 1977)

On paper, this has a lot in common with Forced Entry, both movies by Shaun Costello about deranged loners who stalk the streets inflicting their violent desires on unsuspecting women. But this was made with bigger stars and more money, and has a very different energy from the earlier movie, and in most respects is an easier watch. Now, the one respect in which it might not be easier to watch is integral to the premise, in that it's enema-themed porno and is about as appetizing to watch as it sounds. In the interest of transparency, I'll admit that I looked away from the screen a few times. But aside from the gross central gag (which the movie repeats a few times, so I'd recommend not snacking while you're watching this), it does consciously lean into titillation (one scene has a pair of sisters with pigtails, playing into fetishes more up Costello's alley), and the climactic (and least gross) sex scene features C.J. Laing, who specialized in rougher stuff and throws herself into the proceedings, making her scene a bit easier to watch. And unlike Forced Entry, which feels like an exercise in pure repulsion, you get the sense that Costello found the concept of a Travis Bickle or Frank Zito type going around and giving people enemas pretty funny, and finds ways to inject some humour into the proceedings, most notably the medical roleplay that introduces the concept to the protagonist, with Eric Edwards and Marlene Willoughby both leaning into the sketch comedy dimensions of their perverted characters. (Also, I'd be remiss if I didn't mention how brothel owner Gloria Leonard promotes "high colonics", insisting that they're "all the rage".)

Surprisingly, the central performance by Jamie Gillis makes this both easier to watch and less potent as horror than Forced Entry. In that movie, perhaps because of how few grace notes were present either in Harry Reems' (sans mustache) performance or the movie around him, he came off like an authentically deranged psychopath. Here, while Gillis becomes more credibly scary later on, early scenes have him struggling to reconcile his freakouts, which have a cartoon quality, and his performance in the rape scenes, where he comes off more like a calculating dom than a genuine sicko. (This might seem a little surprising, as Gillis is generally regarded as the better actor and was the more unsavoury guy in real life to boot.) I can appreciate Gillis' commitment to the role (he tried to interview the real life Enema Bandit on whom the character was based), but likely because of the speed at which Costello worked, Gillis has trouble finding his groove right away.

I do think the movie has a nice sense of forward momentum, thanks to a procedural plot (which is admittedly undercooked but still gives the movie some structure), and Costello's street level style, which gives the whole thing a nice grungy atmosphere and effectively blurs the lines between the protagonist's headspace, his dismal looking apartment (walls lined with porno mags and a telescope trained on his pretty neighbour) and the grime of pre-cleanup New York. In his blog entry about the making of the movie, Costello recounts that he stopped himself from laughing at the mobster who asked him to make this, and that Taxi Driver was a conscious influence. I wonder what Scorsese would have thought of this movie.

#film #put on your raincoats #movie review #water power #shaun costello

1 note · View note

thechekhov · 3 years

Photo

Critical Role Deadblog time.

Yes, it’s true. I’ve done it. I’ve watched all of Critical Role’s first campaign. All 115 episodes, and then some. As a tribute, I may as well dump my thoughts here, for anyone who’s interested in reading them. Spoilers ahead, obviously.

It’s called a deadblog because initially I was going to do a liveblog, but as soon as I announced how excited I was to give it a go, I got about 30 people barging into my askbox going “NOOO, DON’T WATCH CR, WATCH/LISTEN TO THIS OTHER TTRPG REAL PLAY PODCAST INSTEAD, IT’S SO MUCH BETTEEERRRRRR”

Which. Immediately put me in a bad mood, because I did NOT ask for suggestions on what to watch, and out of spite and spite alone I decided to watch CR anyway.

(Yes, it’s petty. I know.)

To make it clear, I am fully aware that Critical Role, despite its popularity, has tons of issues. I noticed them myself, I winced in multiple places, and I’m in general agreement that it’s by no means perfect.

Nevertheless, it was a thoroughly entertaining affair, and I think it stands on its own, and I still really enjoyed watching it.

Instead of doing a complete writeup of the story, I think I’ll do a writeup of the characters - because after all, with a cast full of actors and voice actors, they are an integral part of this experience.

[Description: Image of Keyleth from CR with her short hair whipping behind her, clutching her staff and looking worriedly straight ahead.]

Kind of shocked by the amount of vitriol I’ve seen in the YouTube comments about this character, and all of it just made me like her more. She was definitely the least gritty of the group, but overall, I loved her storyarc. I think Marisha nailed it when she mentioned that overall, Keyleth’s growth has been the most gradual of them all. It was actually really neat, because by the end of the Vecna arc she was making good decisions while still having her bumbling moments which, in my opinion, is a lot more interesting to watch than just ‘perfect, flawless, strategic gameplay’.

I am also really side-eyeing all the people praising Travis for ADHD rep while ignoring the fact that Marisha, who is also clearly a bit distracted with taking notes/discussing stuff with Taliesin gets the short end of the stick when she isn’t paying perfect attention. All of them do it at various points throughout the series, but it all kind of falls on her.

[Description: Image of Percival from CR resting a gun on his shoulder, with clouds of smoke billowing past him as he stares straight ahead.]

He’s definitely a fun one, and I found it hilarious that Taliesin always spoke of Percy more poorly than he played him. Despite always painting Percy as the silent asshole with anger issues, outwardly he was always just a hurt child who was shouldering shit-tons of trauma and poor decisions and doing his best to pretend he wasn’t shaking under the strain. The anime protag here is, obviously, off the charts, and I also appreciated the fact that Taliesin managed to tie in the fact that his invention was always a dark part of his life and something he created out of pain, not ingenuity. The metaphor of the fact that his creations had a tendency to backfire and literally explode in his face was a nice touch.

[Description: Image of Scanlan from CR, smiling but with tears in his eyes, a whirl of magic between his two hands as he looks onward.]

Scanlan, Scanlan, Scanlan... I waited with baited breath for the day that everyone told me would surely come... the day when you would be less annoying.... alas, it never came. I think I’m probably alone in this, but Scanlan’s grating sexual harassment, as much as it faded after his arc, was nevertheless replaced with other grating qualities, such as disregarding the emotional needs of others while making dramatics when it came to his own. Scenes like the penultimate discovery of Kaylee’s body were touching, but tasted burnt when he insisted on continuing his gag of ‘who cares about Vex and Vax’s sister who’s dead, casualties of war, etc’.

I think Sam’s brilliant improv acting drove Scanlan to be far more likable than he would be in anyone else’s hands. The wit and brilliance of his abilities in battle soothed what would be an otherwise grating personality that only Vox Machina could love. Then again, perhaps that’s the point...

[Description: Image of Pike from CR, her hands clasped together and her eyes shut. Two white wings unfurl behind her.]

Shocked how little we saw of her, and genuinely disappointed that we couldn’t have more. I loved Pike’s adorable sunniness contrasted by her more genuine “Aren’t You Tired of Being Nice, Don’t You Just Want to Go Apeshit” streak that sometimes shone through the cracks. I think the arc with her and her family was absolutely brilliant, and she is way more than just a nice ball of heals for the party. I wish we could have had more of her in the games, because I anticipate that her chaotic nature would have brought tons of nuance to the table, and would perhaps even counterbalance Scanlan being an asshat a fair bit.

[Description: Image of Vex from CR in her white dragon hide armor, looking straight ahead as the light shines down on her.]

Ended up loving Vex way more than I anticipated. I think initially I expected her to be simple, vixen-like and shallow, and that’s on me. She was actually quite a complex character, and her constant bickering with her brother helped endear her to me. Not to mention the fact that she managed to tie in her obsession with gold into her and Vax’s struggle to be accepted into elven society. I think her dragging Trinket about is double hilarious, although I admit I kind of shared Scanlan’s frustration with how useless he ended up being. That’s not his fault though.

[Description: Image of Vax from CR, heavily in shade except from the light coming from below, looking grimly ahead.]

Ahhh, the beautiful emo boy.... I honestly didn’t like Vax until later in the series, when he stops moping around and finds a purpose. I think Liam nailed it when he said that, had Vax been accepted by the elves, he would have just become a common foot soldier without much drive to do anything. Vax strikes me as one of those people who need a direction, a leader, or something, which is why I think it’s endearing that he planned to essentially retire to be Keyleth’s guard dog, until fate knocked on their door.

Also, dumbass bisexual, 10/10, absolutely relate to him walking into the bedroom of Lord and Lady Briarwood and immediately falling back on hitting on both of them at the same time in an attempt to cover up for poor decision making.

(In general, I’m of the opinion that Team Half-Elf has maybe half a braincell between them, tops, and Vex has it 90% of the time. Percy has the other half of the braincell. Pike has confiscated both Scanlan and Grog’s only braincells for safekeeping.)

[Description: Image of Grog from CR, grinning and pulling a card from the Deck of Many Things while a dark void opens behind him.]

I’m probably with many people on this train, but Grog is genuinely a delight. I do like how he’s not a good person 50% of the time, and Travis never gives in to the thousands of simps and incel wannabes trying to get him to “admit” that he’s the smartest player. I actually think Travis is genuinely a smart guy, but he never lords it over the others, never takes advantage, and I really appreciated that. The entirety of Grog’s interactions with The Deck is also absolutely bloody brilliant, right down to the last episode. I don’t think there was a better way that could have ended.

And here we are, at the end, and you will perhaps notice that I never gave an answer to perhaps the most obvious question - who was my favorite character?

The answer is... Matthew Mercer.

It’s not a cop-out. I think the guy is an inspirational, story-driven and genuinely kind person I’ve seen in entertainment media for a while. He plays all of his NPCs, even the most hilariously voiced ones with empathy and depth that one would not expect out of most Player Characters. I think I can see how the Mathew Mercer effect took off, and it’s a pity he’s gotten the blunt of the hurt for it. He is clearly invested in the game, in the narrative, and in making his players all feel special and assuring they all have fun while keeping the stakes high.

I also dearly, dearly love Allura, Kima and Gilmore. Here’s some Kima and Allura doodles I did after I heard they got married.

I know the show isn’t The Best Thing Out There... but I enjoyed watching it. It’s given me about half a year of solid entertainment, has given me lots of ideas, and has inspired me into new projects.

I’ll be doing Campaign 2 eventually, once I get through all the one-shots, so keep your spoilers out of my askbox or else. :)

#critical role #critrole #cr1 #critical role 1 #vox machina #critical role vm #chekhov draws cr #chekhov draws critical role #chekhov draws vox machina #doodles

969 notes · View notes

glossolali · 2 years

Text

TLOVM Ep 5 Watch Party Summary

- If there's dying guard NPCs it's all of us just screaming in a sound booth alone at home

- Sunil is so good as Gilmore he just gets it

- Gilmore's shop is so gorgeous, critters on the design team put in a million easter eggs. Like Sprinkle!

- IF WE EVER GET MIGHTY NEIN CARTOON, WE'RE SETTING UP FOR SPRINKLE (DON'T TEASE ME LAURA i can't)

- Shopping episodes are the best. Travis hates them, Tal loves them.

- They're big fans of both Vaxleth and Vaxilmore (mica: why not both?, me: Vax has two hands!)

- The cart is so epic and classic as the start of an adventure!

- Percy @ everyone: "You're not old enough to drive."

- Every dog is the best dog even these perfect but disturbing tentacled demon doggos

- All dogs go to heaven, the best dogs come from hell (Taliesin <3)

- They love how overpowered Keyleth is and how she always saves the day as long as there's no planning

- Scanlan and the tentacle: "Maybe I don't wanna be saved..."

- Marisha made a dog growling noise first time she recorded Minxie Keyleth growling (LOL)

- #justiceforthehorses

- "Such a good boy!" @ Necro Dog

- It was terrible and shiver inducing to see the family and the kid before they got Sun Tree'd

- They love the wind downs to balance the action, great opportunity to learn about characters and develop their relationships

- Compressing hours and hours of the stream into a very effective and precise scene or just a few lines to sprinkle throughout the season took hundreds of hours and a lot of work

- The lighting is amazing, the world is very complex and layered, lots of love went into this world

- Keyleth always accidentally killed things, it was a running gag

- The foreshadowing in the twins conversation!!!! :(

- Whitestone is sadly beautiful, beautifully sad

- They animated the reveal of the Sun Tree so that it takes a second, like in the game. Actual chills for the sun tree scene (oof me too even the third time around!), including the creaking in the end credits

Q&A

Q: Vex and Percy, what do they see in each other?

Taliesin: She's hot. He thinks Vex is the only other adult in the room. Vex is so kind to him, especially when he's freaking out

Laura: Percy is hot too. And Vex is interested in seeing what he's hiding, and that's incredibly enticing to her.

Q: And Vax and Keyleth?

Liam: It happened over a long time and there was 30 pre-stream games to represent in the development of Vaxleth's relationship and do it in a way that makes sense with the other relationships' development

Q: The twin's sibling dynamic and Vaxleth, why is Vex feeling threatened by Keyleth?

Laura: They've always had each other's back, this is the first time she's seeing the vulnerability of her brother and what could happen. The terror of being left behind is what makes her give Keyleth the cold shoulder, shittiness, pushing away the thing that's putting me at risk and Keyleth's coming between the most important thing in her life. But she loves Keyleth and is kind of forcing herself to dislike her. Would love to be a perfect person, but it's a really honest emotion.

Liam: Vax understands where she's come from but wants her to feel supported and loved, not abandoned. (CRIES)

Q: The incredible chase scene! Let's talk about it.

(Over the cliff draft animatic plays!)

Sung: Chase scenes are challenging, keeping track of speed, momentum, etc. the horses were difficult too and that's why they had to die! Initially dogs were weird creatures but too hard to animate so they did an in-between with the dog and the weird frankenstein creatures

Q: How long did TLOVM take to sink in?

A: It's still a fever dream, hasn't sunk in yet. Feels unreal, but we're very happy with it and proud of it. That's all artists want is to have people enjoy and feel something about their work. We feel very fortunate, and we get to make people forget about their lives for just a little while. (CRIES) The opportunity to open up the story to a brand new audience is so great. We wanted it to be accessible, it was always on our mind. Like 'this doesn't make sense unless you've seen the game' while also rewarding long time fans. Friends, family finally watched what critters have loved for years.

Q: Can we talk about the sun tree again? Comparing the stream and the show

A: Brought back all the feelings of the original stream. It's a bit of a warning for watchers like "you can get off the ride still!"

#the legend of vox machina #critical role #cr spoilers #tlovm spoilers #cr 1 #cr #glossopost #long post #edited and added some bits i forgot

125 notes · View notes

oryms-shield · 2 years

Text

What if the running Gag for the campaign is Travis playing old men who dies in various ways. By the end of the campaign he has played 14 different characters.

#critical role #travis willingham #campaign 3

119 notes · View notes

stickandthorn · 3 years

Text

Something I always think about when debates about queer rep in cr come up that I don’t see talked about often is something I’ve come to refer to as “gay resources and resource allocation.” And no matter how I try to describe it when it comes up I can never really encompass what I mean, so here’s my one big old try at explaining it. I am truly not trying to discourse with people, I just want to explain my feelings on all this finally.

So, let’s start with, what the fuck do I mean? Basically, dnd live shows aren’t actually set up the best for queer rep in some ways, logistically speaking. They don’t have as much resources and those resources they have to allocate. And what the fuck do I mean by that? Well:

PCs are your main source of rep, but there are only so many PCs, 7 every 3/4ish years for cr in particular. And besides that, you have NPCs, which are numerous, but usually interactions with them are so surface level or unrelated to their sexuality or gender that it almost never comes up unless they use they/them or neopronouns, or are actively flirting in a visibly queer way/in a visibly queer relationship. So in short, there’s only so many people with so many sexualities to go around. And if someone isn't comfortable with something, like how Travis wasn’t comfortable doing romance in C1 (tho I guess you could argue that Grog was aromantic from that angle), they shouldn’t be forced to do that and that takes another piece off of the gay board. Resources and resource allocation, basically.

And then there’s the issue of, well, characters being run by singular person. Usually when someone chooses to make a queer character in a TV show/book/movie whatever, they have resources. They have the time to rewrite and rewrite, to get other queer people and sensitivity consultants to help (and yes I’m pretty sure cr does have a sensitivity consultant but it’s not completely relevant to my point), do test screenings, etc. They often don’t because they don’t care, but they have the opportunity.

But CR has none of that because they’re literally live. Even if the show isn’t broadcasted live, it is completely unedited (besides gags and goofs for the ad read) and they can’t reshoot something. It’s a continuous, completely improvised, fully live story. That can be very scary I’m sure, because you have to do your rep 100% right at all times or you’ll get trashed online. What if you’re portraying an identity that isn’t yours? You wanna do it right, but that’s very hard when it comes down to Just You and you actually care. Even if you aren’t doing something wrong you’ll get trashed online.

Also this isn’t me excusing mistakes they’ve made representing queer people, it’s not me giving them a free pass. But I’ve heard people tear the cast to shreds for stupid, inane, unnecessary things, in the most bizarre way possible. Like, look at all the shit Liam has gone through with two bisexual characters. And the live format also means that opportunities to do rep are harder. If you write a book, you can engineer the perfect scenario for someone to come out. But when you do a live play show, things have to come up naturally, and that sometimes just doesn’t happen. Look at Caduceus. He was aroace, and in my opinion played very well and very consistently throughout the entire show. Hell, a lot of ace people identified him as being ace from the beginning. But the actual conformation, the “coming out”, was waaaay after he was introduced. It wasn’t that they were hiding it, it just didn’t come up in a way that made sense. And it’s even harder for NPCs. Now let’s look at romances themselves. With NPCs it’s easier, look at Kima and Allura or how in EXU it was confirmed that Gilmore has a husband. But PC romance not only takes a long time, but is complicated as fuck. The emotions you feel while playing dnd are real, even if they aren’t applicable to you the person. So developing a romance takes a lot of time and energy and can be very messy, especially when it’s getting torn apart on the internet. Not to mention if there isn’t anyone in the party you can romance (but want to), or how hard NPC romances are. Once again, less resources.

And this isn’t just in CR. In one of the home games I play a huge percentage of the players are queer in some way, including our DM. But we have all these same resource and resource allocation issues, though they aren’t really issues in our case because we aren’t setting out to do rep. PC romances are rare, and NPC romances even rarer, and although there are plenty of enbies in both party and NPCs, actual sexualities rarely come up because they just aren’t applicable. The only time thats come up a lot in my experience was in games designed for romance.

And this isn’t even touching on how CR1 wasn’t set up for live-streaming and purposeful diversity, it was originally a home game, etc.

So now we look at what all this means. Well, I don’t have a big conclusion. I still think queer rep is hugely important and cr should continue to work to include it, like they’ve done in the past. I think actual fuck ups in rep should be discussed. But I think some parts of the fandom need to keep in mind all of this when discussing queer rep, because the debates can get really bad faith at times when this stuff isn’t considered.

#critical role #cr #cr meta #cr discourse #i guess #sorta #cr disk horse #I don’t wanna start any but I don’t wanna risk people who block the tag #seeing it #and getting upset #critrole

88 notes · View notes

chasingpj · 3 years

Text

𝐀 𝐒𝐞𝐭-𝐔𝐩

"We should go pick the strawberries over there. Percy and Y/n can work on the ones here."

pairing: percy jackson x child of hecate!reader

words: 3,887

warnings: none?? pls let me know if i missed anything

timeline: post sea of monsters

if you want to be tagged every time I update this story click here

a/n: hi hi! I was supposed to post this yesterday, but oops. I don't have much to say. again, it's a little bit of a slow start just because I want to introduce characters and establish relationship dynamics before getting into the good stuff. anyways, i hope you like it! i love hearing feedback so don't hesitate to reach out to me!

Part One Part Two Part Three

When you were stressed or needed to be alone with your thoughts, you often found yourself in the strawberry fields, either helping collect the harvest or simply sitting on the grass patches nearby. You usually preferred being in the fields alone, peacefully listening to the chirping of the birds and cicadas while inhaling the scent of sun-baked strawberries. However, there were times where you did stumble upon the company of the girls from the Demeter and Aphrodite cabin. You didn't mind hanging out with them, always amused at their banter and choice of conversation. They were always bubbly, taking advantage of the leisure activity to gossip and have girl talk, and it was nice, even if you were just listening.

Today was one of those days where you weren’t alone in the fields. Standing alongside Silena, Katie, and your half-sister, Lou Ellen, you find yourself zoning in and out of their conversation. Their chattering and giggling serve as background noise as you focus on cutting the strawberries from their stems to carefully place them in your basket.

"Who do you think are the cutest boys at camp?" You hear Silena ask when you decide to tune back into their conversation. A silence falls amongst the group; Katie and Lou Ellen were suddenly hesitant to speak. You look up, waiting for one of them to break the silence because it definitely wasn’t going to be you.

"I know what you're doing! You're trying to find out our crushes," Katie points her finger at Silena accusingly. Lou Ellen nods,

“Yeah, we know your tricks, Silena! You’re gonna try and set us up with people.”

"What? No!" Silena denies, but the smirk on her face said otherwise. "I'm just asking in general! You can find someone cute and not have a crush on them,” she points out. The three of you weren’t convinced at Silena’s claims, and the silence returns. You turn back to what you were doing, not really wanting to trap yourself in this conversation, and you decide to leave the pressure of confession to Katie and Lou Ellen.

"Okay.” Katie turns her body to face you. You hesitantly meet her gaze, already knowing what she's going to confess. "... this might be weird, but I think your brother is really cute," she admits, giggling nervously as she looks at both you and Lou Ellen. You scrunch your nose, shaking your head while Lou Ellen joins your reaction as she gags theatrically. The confession didn't surprise you, but it still felt weird to hear it.

"He's ugly!" You exclaim. Silena laughs, her head thrown back as Katie gasps at your insult about Atticus. Even though this wasn't the first time you've heard this from girls at camp, you still found it strange. Even your mortal friends have told you that they think your brother is adorable. You’ll never admit it out loud to anyone, but you were aware that your brother definitely wasn't ugly. Obviously, he wasn't if almost all of your friends had to mention his appearance at least once. Not only was Atticus conventionally attractive, but he was also a natural flirt, so he got attention from girls fairly easily. So much so that before your mother claimed you, Connor and Travis Stoll swore you guys were going to be claimed by Aphrodite.

You've only seen him flirt a handful of times, usually with the wood nymphs and playfully with the girls from the Aphrodite cabin. It was strange seeing girls flirt with him and giggle at all his stupid jokes because that “smooth” Atticus they meet is so different from the Atticus you saw. The Atticus you got to see was a clumsy dork that obsessed over Harry Potter and had a habit of bursting into song whenever he was bored, most often singing his own rendition of a song from a broadway musical or of a rock song from the 90s.

"No, he isn't! His facial structure is amazing!” Katie gushes. “And he's tall and has broad shoulders. He's also really funny!" You and Lou Ellen stare at her with a straight face before simultaneously bursting into laughter.

“He’s a dork!” Lou Ellen chokes through her laughs, and you nod, agreeing with her.

"Hey! I get where Katie is coming from! As his sisters, you guys are biased. Of course, you’re gonna say he's ugly," Silena points out, and you sigh,

“Live with him in the Hermes Cabin for a couple of weeks, and when you see him in his natural state, you won’t find him cute anymore,” you joke. Katie shakes her head,

“I don’t believe you. I bet he’s even cuter! You’re calling him a dork, but jokes on you, I like dorks,” she says playfully, crossing her arms over her chest, and you smile at her.

“To each their own, I guess.”

"What about you? Who do you think is cute?" Silena asks you. You side-eye the other, and you feel your face heat up. You really didn’t want to be the target in this conversation. Turning back to the bushes, you answer her question with a shrug of your shoulders. Silena scoffs, "there has to be someone! We have a good group of guys to choose from at camp."

"I mean, yeah…" you trail off hesitantly, and you feel the stares of the girls as they wait for your answer. You knew they weren't going to let this go, and so, you sigh softly, taking a moment to find the courage to confess. "I guess Percy is cute-"

"Y/n!"

Your breath hitches in your throat, and your shoulder tenses up at the sound of the familiar voice. It was too much of a coincidence that Percy showed up the exact moment you were speaking about him. The girls laugh at your reaction and your cheeks somehow become hotter as Silena smiles at you knowingly. If she didn't sense your crush before, she definitely sensed it now. Snapping your gaze away from her, you find the courage to turn around.

"Hey, Percy," you say, smiling sheepishly. You fiddle with your fingers as you take in his appearance. Percy was wearing his orange camp half-blood shirt and cargo pants. His cheeks were a little flushed at the summer heat, and you assume he probably came from training. As usual, his dark hair was slightly disheveled, and you couldn’t help your lips curling into a soft smile.

"Hey, I've been looking for you. You left these on the dock," he says, presenting the black pouch filled with your crystals in his hand. You gasp softly as you take it from him.

"Oh! Thank you. I can’t believe I forgot them," You shake your head at yourself as you put them in your strawberry basket in the meantime. You didn’t understand how your forgotten crystals never came to your mind once, especially this late in the day.

"No problem. I think they’re all in there," he smiles at you before acknowledging the girls standing behind you. "Hey, guys.”

He furrowed his eyebrows as they giggle amongst themselves. They murmur a few things to each other before turning their gaze to him again.

"Percy, I wanted to ask who do you think is the prettiest girl at camp?" Silena asks as the girls move to surround him. You're stomach flutters crazily with nerves, and you cringe, feeling embarrassed even though Percy was oblivious to the motive behind the question.

Percy looks around him, shifting his weight from one foot to another,

"This… feels like a trap,” he says slowly, making the girls giggle.

"It's not! We just want to know. Anyone, in particular, stands out to you?" Silena steps closer to him.

"Any crushes?" Katie asks.

"There has to be someone, right?" Lou Ellen smiles.

"Um… I- why are you guys asking so many questions?" He mutters, his shoulders tense up as he avoids the stares of the three girls practically towering over him.

"Guys, leave him alone," you laugh shortly. "You don't have to answer all that," you reassure him, cutting through their little circle as you squeeze between Silena and Katie.

You stand beside Percy, the girls deciding to step down and return to their original places. Silena smiles, and you can't tell what she's thinking, but you knew that the smile playing on her lips made you nervous. You awkwardly exchange a look with Percy, noticing that he was just as flustered as you were.

"You know… I noticed that those bushes over there get a lot of sun," Silena says, breaking her silence as she turns to Katie and Lou Ellen. She points at the bushes about three rows from where you were all standing, and Katie nods,

"We should go pick the strawberries over there. Percy and Y/n can work on the ones here." Silena gives you a smirk, winking at you before turning around and taking the other girls with her.

You resume your strawberry picking, chewing on your button lip. You were hoping that he didn't witness Silena wink at you because if he did, it was then way too obvious that the girls spontaneously set up this. There's a silence for a moment, and you feel your palms start to sweat as you try to figure out what you were going to say to him.

"Where's Ambrose?" Percy asks softly, and you glance over for a second, watching as he picks the strawberries beside you.

"Oh, uh, he ran off a little while ago with my brothers. They're probably playing somewhere." You smile, remembering how Ambrose wasted no time, running over to Alabaster and Ernest the moment they had offered to play with him.

"... how do you play with a ghost dog?" Percy gleams, amused at the idea of playing with Ambrose considering he couldn’t touch many things.

"There's a process where you can offer things to his spirit, so he has a few toys that he can play with," you explain. “He and I play with his toys all the time, but he’s with my brother’s right now, so they're probably wrestling."

"What? Really? I wouldn’t want to wrestle Ambrose,” Percy admits as a short laugh comes from his mouth.

"Yeah, me neither. He would definitely win if we did. Once he was so excited to see me; he jumped on me and knocked me down no problem,” you shake your head. “I think he forgets how big he is, and he ends up getting carried away sometimes.”

You look up from what you were doing, unexpectedly meeting Percy’s green eyes that resemble the color of the Caribbean sea as the sun shines into them. The butterflies in your stomach return, and you’re trying not to focus on the fact that the other was already looking at you. You look elsewhere, suddenly too shy to look at him, but your eyes couldn’t help but flicker back to his face. From this close, you noticed things about him that you didn’t see before, like the scattered freckles on his face, his long eyelashes, and his slightly chapped lips.

“I-” he stops himself suddenly, and your eyebrows furrow. The tension between you both was something you've never felt before. You didn't understand why Percy looked dazed, staring at you as if he found you to be the most captivating person in the world.

You open your mouth, but before you could speak, you see something moving at the end of the bush row. Breaking your gaze with Percy, you notice Silena's focusing intensely on you and him. It suddenly dawns on you that the strange tension was because she was working that love magic that all the Aphrodite children can do. She smirks when she sees that you’ve noticed her, and you swore you saw her mouth a “you’re welcome.” The tension suddenly falls as she hides behind the bushes right as Percy turns around to find out what you were looking at.

You giggle nervously, “um, yeah. Anyways... Ambrose can put up a fight,” you say, trying to revert to the original topic because you really didn’t want to discuss what just happened. You give him a second to get himself together, Percy looking a little disoriented after being under Silena's look magic. He blinks a few times before turning abruptly toward the strawberry bushes. A nervous chuckle leaves his lips, and his hand comes up to rub the back of his neck. He shifts on his feet and nods,

“Yeah, I can imagine.” He clears his throat, his voice coming out a little higher than he had intended it to be. You bite your bottom lip, trying to refrain from laughing, and you hum softly in response.

The two of you sat in silence for a bit before your conversation had picked up again. Surprisingly, even after being unknowingly manipulated by Silena’s magic, Percy moved on quickly from the awkward tension. You found it was easy to talk to him, the two of you chatting as if you didn't just meet yesterday. The two of you talked and laughed a lot, sharing funny stories from quests or about your mortal parents.

You’ve never been a closed-off person, and you were able to share things easily with people, so the conversation flew naturally. You guys talked about the weird perks of your powers. One of the weird perks you shared is your ability to see and communicate with ghosts, and you end up freaking him out with the many stories of your paranormal experiences.

You weren't sure how long you were talking to him, but time felt like it flew by, and eventually, your baskets were filled with strawberries as you finished picking the row. The sun was lower in the sky, and you assume that it was almost time for dinner. You figured you should find your siblings, and Ambrose and Percy had mentioned that he had plans to climb the lava wall with a few of his friends. So you guys placed your baskets in the drop-off section where they package the strawberries, exchanging a short “see you later” before parting ways.

☆’.･.･:★:･.･.’☆

The last thing Annabeth was expecting to see today was an out-of-breath Atticus bursting into her cabin, but there he was. She jumps in her seat at the sudden bang, the sound cutting through the silence. Her gaze snaps from her book to the door, concerned for a second as Atticus looks panicked. He lets himself in, scoping out the room in search of something.

"What are you-?"

"Have you seen Harvey?" Atticus asks, frantically looking for his familiar. Harvey is a black-footed ferret that was given to him by his mother. When you guys found out that Ambrose was for you, Atticus was pretty bummed. He was jealous that your mother had given you such a cool gift, and you had assumed that she had seen how upset he was because a few days after Hecate officially claimed you, Atticus received Harvey as a present. The morning he met Harvey for the first time, Atticus was thrilled to wake up with the ferret casually sitting on his chest.

"I'm sorry, Harvey? I don't know a Harvey?" Annabeth turns in her chair to face him, her arms crossed over her chest.

"My ferret, have you seen him?" Atticus drops to his knees, looking under the beds and the nightstands. He just saw him jump into the back window of the Athena Cabin, so he was sure that Harvey was hiding somewhere.

"Um, no?" Annabeth rolls her eyes, finding it rude that he has barged in as if he lived there. Suddenly, a small animal jumps from the top of the bookcase beside her and right on her desk. Annabeth yelps, getting up from her seat quick as Harvey snorts, and he clumsily runs across her papers before prancing across all the desks that were lined against the wall.

"Harvey, what are you doing?!" Atticus exclaims as he moves to stand up. He attempts to meet Harvey at the last desk, but Harvey jumps out of his reach just as he closes his fist to grab him. Harvey zooms across the room, forcing him to play a one-sided game of tag that Atticus was definitely losing. He occasionally slips and stumbles, the snorts that leave his snout starting to sound like mocking laughter.

"What's wrong with your rat?" Annabeth jokes as her eyes follow Harvey around the room.

"He's a ferret," Atticus corrects her, mumbling under his breath. He sighs as he tries to catch up with the animal, failing miserably as not only was he crazy fast, he was able to find the smallest corners to hide in.

"Similar family," she shrugs, smirking at him. "And you didn't answer my question."

Atticus sighs, getting on the floor to try and grab Harvey, who’s tucked in the corner under one of the beds. He squints at the small animal, not sure why he’s acting this way when Harvey was curled up on his desk, peacefully taking a nap about 20 minutes ago.

"He does this sometimes. I don't know. He wants to play, and then he causes chaos," Atticus grunts, almost grabbing Harvey, but he runs out of his reach once again. Atticus groans as he sits back on his heels, pinching the bridge of his nose. He decides he might as well take a breather since he's been chasing him for the past 10 minutes, and he considers that he should stop entertaining him since Harvey obviously saw this as some game.

He sighs softly, choosing to forget about Harvey as he looks over at Annabeth. Her gray eyes are fixed on him as she leans against the edge of her desk. Her curly blonde locks are pulled back in a messy low ponytail allowing the front strands to frame her face prettily. Atticus smiles as he admires her, taking in her appearance before she starts telling him off.

"You look pretty like that," Atticus compliments, his heart skipping a beat as their eyes meet. He watches as her expression softens for a second, her eyes wide at the random compliment. Atticus smirks softly, not surprised, as her face suddenly darkens into a scowl. If Annabeth felt anything for him, she was good at hiding it.

When Atticus had first arrived at camp last summer, Annabeth and he spoke here and there. Their conversations were brief but pleasant, and Atticus found himself wanting to talk to her more often. As his crush for her grew, he had taken it upon himself to harmlessly flirt with her, hoping she’d get the hint that he was interested.

"Like what?" She asks, her chin up as she moves to stand up straight on her feet.

"With your hair in a ponytail like that. It's cute.”

"Hmm. Thanks for letting me know, so I'll never do it like this again,” she says in such a serious tone that made Atticus laugh. There it is. Annabeth was always quick to shut him down, and she never failed to make witty comebacks. He was pretty certain that it was just banter, but it made it hard to tell if she was maybe into him. But he never failed to notice how occasionally, she’d momentarily be lost for words or have a flustered look on her face before it hardened as it did a moment ago.

"You'd be pretty regardless, Chase.” He feels his knees start to ache, and he sighs as he gets back up on his feet.

"Don't call me that," Annabeth says abruptly.

"What? Chase? What do you prefer? Annie? Beth? Anna?" He teases.

"I prefer Annabeth, thank you." She gives him a tight, sarcastic smile, and a short laugh comes from Atticus’s mouth.

"That's not fun, though…" His hand comes under his chin as he studies her. He ponders for a second, trying to come up with a name that he can personally call her. Annabeth shifts, avoiding his gaze as she looks elsewhere. She was weirded out that the other was looking at her for so long, and she tried not to show how flustered she actually was. She grunts,

"What?! What are you look-"

"Goldilocks," Atticus blurts out, his finger pointing into the air as his face brightens, thinking he’s an absolute genius for coming up with that name. Annabeth shakes her head,

"Don't call me th-"

"It's been decided. I will call you goldilocks. No one else can call you that," Atticus cuts her off, the same proud smile plastered on his face even though Annabeth’s eyes narrow dangerously at him. Atticus takes a step back hesitantly. At first glance, she didn’t come off as intimidating, but Atticus knew better. He was always sure not to push her too far because he was completely aware of her ability to kill him.

Atticus suddenly remembers Harvey, noticing how the sound of his little feet pattering along the wooden floor ceased a while ago. He scans the room finding Harvey standing on his hind legs a couple of feet away, calmly watching them. Atticus still couldn’t understand why he had acted so strangely. Familiars couldn’t talk, obviously because they’re animals but their actions are never out of vain. They’re usually trying to tell you something if they’re acting strange, and it takes a while to put the pieces together since there is only so much they can do. After thinking for a second, it dawns on Atticus that Harvey purposely made him come to the Athena Cabin so that he can talk to Annabeth. He smiles to himself, walking toward Harvey. He didn’t run away this time, allowing Atticus to put him on his shoulder.

"He just stopped,” Annabeth points out, her head tilting to the side.

"Probably got tired?" Atticus makes an excuse for him, not wanting to admit that Harvey had decided to be his wingman today. "Sorry for barging in, by the way," he apologizes. “I saw him jump in from the window, and I was worried he’d break something.”

"Whatever. Don’t do it again.”

"Got it. Well, I'll see you around, Goldilocks. Happy studying.” Atticus turns on his heels, hearing a scoff coming from Annabeth as he walks out of the cabin.

"When did I ask you to be my wingman?" Atticus asks Harvey as he walks off the steps of the Athena Cabin. He reaches up, his index finger petting the top of his head. "You're crazy, bud... But she is cute, isn't she?" Atticus laughs, Harvey snorting as if he agrees with him.

masterlist

#my writing #pjo #percy jackson x reader #percy x reader #percy jackson #percy jackon and the olympians #percy jackson fic #percy jackson fanfiction #percy jackson oneshot #pjo x reader #pjo reader insert

265 notes · View notes