#every moment with dorian and chetney is gold | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

chockfullofsecrets · 2 years

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hello it is brains! anon here to chatter at you because i like to chatter about writing

the sunlit metaphor that the whole thing is named for came from me nearly getting caught in a thought spiral because we don't know if ashton runs warm? they have blood? but they're a rock? at which point i went "fuck it, it's sunny, if they weren't warm they're about to be"

also just absolutely taken with the way ashton Is A Brat as a love language and also oh my gosh? this fic received such a response?

and also dorian is SO nervy and SO good for winding up that he was just. the obvious victim. i have it in my head that one day ashton will tickle imogen until she casts shocking grasp on them and then laugh his ass off about it, but they're not there yet. and laudna is a little too fragile for that kind of roughhousing, and fearne IS game, but her idea of play might sometimes involve setting you on fire. something about orym just isn't vibing, i think it's maybe that he'd rather fight fight than tickle fight and ashton's always down to get punched, and i simply CANNOT do chetney. i just cannot get a bead on the man

and FCG!! My beloved!! FCG is, of course, a robot, which is a shame because they'd otherwise be a prime candidate for this sort of thing. Ashton loves them, and they're not built to brawl, but unfortunately they have no nerve endings :(

@sunlitanon i’ve been trying to figure out the C3 gang and i would love to chat about them <3

i don’t know how earth genasi biology works and at this point i’m too afraid to ask but yes Ashton absolutely gets warm in the sunlight and stays cool longer than everyone else in the mornings and this makes them perfect for cuddling in the desert :)) when Laura adopts her obligatory animal companion i fully expect it to snuggle up with Ashton as much as possible

Taliesin embodies his PCs so beautifully every time and brat-with-a-heart-of-gold-maybe-literally? Ashton is everything. i just think! they should get to roughouse sometimes with zero consequences! and play and wrestle and tickle! And speaking of-

lee!Dorian supremacy

i feel like Ashton is kind of in best-behavior mode with the group, but i’m very excited for when they all get more comfortable with each other and they can start trading snark with Imogen bc i think they’d both be very good at it! and every character Laura makes is a terrifying ler in a different way and i think Ashton should have to deal with that

your fic with Laudna getting gentle tickles is so precious and gave me ideas about Ashton helping her get all her bones back into place after battle and not-so-accidentally tickling

“Fearne’s idea of play might sometimes involve setting you on fire” well it’s a good thing barbarians are resistant to lots of damage types :)))

Orym and Chetney! Are very hard! Kind of in the same way it’s hard to write Fjord in C2 because they’re all kind of self-contained and have their problems under control for the moment and so it’s a little harder to make them play well with others, i think. i can maybe see Orym and Ashton brawling when they need to let some steam off and helping patch each other up after and both feeling a little bad about it and play wrestling a bit as a result? And Chetney i see a bit more as a “you’ve been making snarky comments for weeks and i’ve been storing all of that up to tickle the shit out of you in revenge” ler.

i need someone to write a fic about FCG (automaton) and Ashton (a rock with nerve endings) figuring out physical affection and being bad at asking for things that they want. it doesn’t even have to have tickling in it i just want to read it

#critical role #asks #headcanons

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loquaciousquark · 2 years

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4-Sided Dive Highlights - Critical Role C3E1 - E18 (April 5, 2022)

Oh my gosh, it’s been almost a year since the last one. Here at last is the erstwhile replacement for Talks Machina, 4-Sided Dive! I’ll likely continue appending #talks machina as a tag for internal consistency. 4-Sided Dive will air the first Tuesday of every month, and VODs will be available on Youtube the following Wednesday. Podcasts will be on a one-week delay.

Tonight’s guests: Marisha, Travis, Robbie, and Matt. Tonight’s Tavern Keeper host, as determined by the die roll: Marisha. (Matt: “Thank God. I have no idea what the show is.”) Marisha NAILS the heretofore unseen prompter cold open, which includes a rap-like intro for Matt and finishes with: “...or is Chetney Pock O’Pea just another fair-weather wise wanderer with a weakness for Werther’s waiting to wantonly ride away with a whimsical wave goodbye?” Cheers offscreen.

What the Fuck is Up With That? Our first new segment! The new set is really nice with plush green armchairs, a big wooden coffee table, and a tavern-esque background with a stocked bar and a big stone fireplace. We start by discussing GrapeNuts, which I unironically love and which Robbie immediately poisons by talking about microwaving them into a hot milk slurry with a honey drizzle before eating it in the morning. “Almost like oatmeal,” he says. Heretic.

Travis didn’t want to play an old character, he wanted to play Chetney. When he and Matt discussed starting with a character who would immediately disappear, he initially thought about a wizard & even had art made for him, but they ended up not liking the idea. Then Travis suggested 30-years-later Bertrand, and Travis didn’t realize how much fun playing an older gentleman would be until he was doing it. Matt: “’Ahh, my character died last night.’ ‘Oh, what were you fighting?’ ‘Inevitability...?’” Chetney is a little younger (in spirit) than Bertrand. “He’s coming alive in the 4th quarter.”

For Robbie, the hardest and most fun aspect was jumping Dorian from one world to another, ExU to CR then back to ExU: Kymal. He really enjoyed the fresh, new feelings, especially since he never had a strong vision for the character to start with. It made it much easier to go with the flow. Robbie had written a quite expansive background for Dorian, and the moment Cyrus “came to life” as a real flesh-and-blood character made him genuinely gasp. “That’s the guy I wrote about in pretend, and now he’s here for real!” Robbie has always loved the reluctant noble trope (he cites Aragorn/Strider). He imagined Cyrus as the stalwart, capable first son, so when Cyrus turned into a lovable himbo who wanted to follow Dorian, he had no idea what to do. “Oh shit! What do we do now? We’re both morons!” He liked Matt’s interpretation more than his original ideas.

Marisha points out that the bounty for Cyrus was 20k gold, but by the time they made it to Kymal it was 40k gold. Robbie says it feels like when Matt’s “nickel-and-diming us for $5 silver rides;” the amount is insurmountable, so the exact number doesn’t matter. Kymal is by far the most confident Robbie has felt as a player.

Marisha charmingly asks herself her own next question: what’s up with the Briarwoods? She and Matt talked a LOT about it to make sure they didn’t break canon. Marisha had a nightmare one night about a flower girl with no jaw (which she later repurposed as the vision used to break into the Moon Tower in Jrusar); she dreamed she couldn’t find Matt & ran out in front of her house, and that flower girl was standing at the end of her road. The girl rushed Marisha, who woke up, gasped, and said, “I wanna be spooky for Campaign 3.” She toyed with various iterations, including actually being a young girl, before landing on Vex’s Sun Tree double. When she initially suggested Delilah as the patron, Matt was very hesitant. She envisioned Laudna’s patronage came from the big blast Delilah did at the ziggurat; it combined with Laudna’s innate magical spark, and now Delilah talks in her head sometimes. That’s all she knows as a player.

Robbie asks how they balance tying into past campaigns without falling into hokey. “I feel like the little seeds you’re planting are so cool; you’ve planted the seeds and now you’re sort of just gently harvesting them throughout this universe.” Matt is always careful to make sure each new character/world facet/fact can fully stand on its own without being overshadowed by VM tie-ins. Travis is laughing that Matt is so careful with every little thing, but Travis brings in “this asshole who tried to kill Santa. But he’s a WEREWOLF.” When Travis initially brought it up at Matt’s house, Matt discussed very seriously that they had to be careful not to break the world “because there’s no Christmas in Exandria.”

Werther’s are discussed at length. Coffee Werther’s are touted. I personally really like the soft caramel-filled ones. Werther’s sent them all a bunch of Werther’s after that episode, which is completely charming.

The Tower of Inquiries! Second segment start! Evergreen questions from fans have been collected and assembled in a Jenga tower. Each block has been marked with a number associated with a question. Apparently the paint has made the blocks quite sticky...

Robbie is our first pull, and draws Question 32: similarities between your character and yourself! Travis wanted to join the Boy Scouts in 4th grade and the magazine had ads for fingerless gloves, pocket magnifiers, and whittling tools. Travis was obsessed with whittling for ages until he actually tried to whittle a stick with a pocketknife, so he’s making up for it now. Keyleth was Marisha’s insecurities, Beau was her arrogance, and Laudna is “just her weird side. Weird as fuck.” For Matt & Dariax, they’re both a little flighty in social settings & have a love of spontaneity. Dorian was actively created to be very different from Robbie; he wanted to play someone who didn’t enjoy being around people or had to struggle to be charming despite insecurity. However, he’s always felt like he’s been on the outside looking in, so that line from Dorian in 13/14 about being let into the group was straight from Robbie. He was surprised by how much he found himself lying as Dorian all the time, when in reality Robbie NEVER lies. “If you’re participating in roleplaying in order to open up aspects of your personality and find out things and bond with your friends, new and old, it’s such a great way to get a new perspective on yourself.”

The Deep Dive! Third segment. Dani brings out huge individualized tankards for everyone, which are full of question slips to be answered succinctly. Yeah, right.

Laudna is enjoying having friends for the first time in 30 years. She’s glad she hasn’t driven them away.

Flight of the Navigator is discussed at length because Marisha is too young for a reference. Apparently a great movie??

Matt wanted to explore a new Marquesian city rather than an established one to show off how different Exandria could be. Again, he never wants new worlds to be tied too heavily to past campaigns.

The most depressing part of Bertrand’s death was the chat insisting he died with his dick out. Travis reminds us all he designed Bertrand to die during the Search for Grog; he was always doomed. He never expected to bond with the group or serve as a catalyst for the group the way he did; he loved his relationship moments with Imogen & Dorian.

Dorian learned to take spa days and trust himself with other people. “It was a really supportive group, even in their dickery. Dick-outtery.”

Robbie mentions something about romantic vibes and Marisha FLINGS herself from her chair in excitement. Me too, argh! “I was wondering! Spill the tea!” She asks if Robbie had a crush on Imogen. Robbie: “On Imogen? That’s interesting. I’m glad I know your ships.” He immediately deflects to Matt for another question. Marisha scream-groans from off-screen. Ditto, ahhh.

Matt likes being in the city, but enjoys the jungle as well. He likes not having to have nine pages of spires, NPCs, and places at the ready for the players’ whims. Travis is excited to get on the road so he can transform without concern.

Omar appears with a bowtie! He is upside down and so floofy. Just so, so floofy.

Travis on transforming into a werewolf: “IT WAS AMAZING.” He laughed so hard internally when Liam needled him a few episodes prior about losing his chance to become a gnome werewolf. He’s been doing research by watching a bunch of werewolf movies. Travis has loved werewolves since he was tiny in the 80s: he always watched Godzilla movies and werewolf movies. (Great choices!) There was a Teen Wolf cartoon in the 80s; Travis’s mom once found him after an episode one morning with brown marker all over his arms and hair and cardboard triangles taped to his fingers. He brought a tiny Lon Chaney werewolf figurine to church as a kid. This is so stinking cute. Matt has been waiting for him to play a werewolf since Ukurat in C1. Travis regretted not getting Grog bitten by him for the rest of the campaign.

Marisha asks again who Dorian’s crush is; Robbie goes deaf and tells us instead he left the toy skyship behind for two reasons: one, toys are for kids and Dorian wanted to give it to a kid, and the second was that Robbie wanted to leave a lasting image behind as he knew he was leaving that episode.

Pâté de Rolo came from the character design stage for Laudna. She initially had scissors and string, but it’s “like when Taliesin dresses you for a ren faire. ‘You need more dead things hanging off of you.’“ The artist came back with the rat, and Marisha suggested the raven skull to make it more craftsy. She named Pâté de Rolo well before she knew what Laudna’s name was, ha! She felt out the puppetting in the moment. Robbie: “The real question is what was the moment you decided they should be horny.” Marisha: “I don’t know where that came from!” Travis laughs at the memory of Matt’s face.

Travis has been seriously considering multiclassing into rogue for Expertise & multi-attack. However, “I want to get up into the higher classes of Blood Hunter because...well, somebody needs to do it. IloveyouTaliesinI’msorry!” He has to top the leaderboard by reaching level 6 and then will hop in and get some “roguey-rogue. He’s gonna kill me.”

Matt pulls from the Tower. #34: what kind of book would your character write? Laudna: composting techniques, sustainable foraging. Chetney: a Whittler’s Quarterly magazine. Dorian: Shel Silverstein-esque poetry.

Marisha takes a turn at the Tower. #24: how do you like flavoring your combat? Travis likes describing stuff, but C1 Grog was so graphically violent he couldn’t expand on it. Matt loves how Liam describes Orym giving a flair to everything. (There’s a moment when they describe how “Liam played a full wizard in a previous campaign” to Robbie and the disconnect is hilarious.) It took Robbie a minute to figure out if Liam was just being extra in ExU before he realized he could paint his own pictures himself. Marisha likes mixing up the canon descriptions with her own flavor, but thinks it’s important to keep it to bigger moments when it feels special rather than taking over every single spell.

Matt talks about reflavoring skin and function to move, for example, Laura’s Imogen away from the tentacley canon of Aberrant Mind. She liked the spells but didn’t want to be quite so cosmic horror. Robbie talks about a new player thinking about the idea of the archetypal barbarian and loving the realization that these things can be reflavored.

Post-Break Shenanigans: Mario Kart on the...Switch, I think? Robbie asks where the gas button is as they start. Travis: Wario; Robbie: Link; Marisha: Dry Bones; Matt: Waluigi. Travis the utter neophyte wins the first race (and the eventual prix outright), and Matt & Marisha’s outrage is hilarious. Bumpers were on though, I’m pretty sure.

And that’s that; our first new talk show is a wrap! Is it Thursday yet? :)

#4 sided dive #4 sided dive spoilers #critical role #critical role spoilers #4sd #4sd spoilers #talks machina #do hyphens still break tags?#long post for ts

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