#shaun geddmore | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

mollymauk-teafleak · 3 years

Note

“there’s something on your shirt. you – that’s blood!” + Vaxilmore

I kind of feel like we wrote this together with how much you helped me with the campaign 1 crash course :,)

Also on Ao3 if anyone would like to leave a comment!

---------

Shaun Gilmore looked like a man who enjoyed noise.

He looked like a man made for excess, for festive music and loud, wine fuelled laughter, for company high on fine food and dancing and whatever else they cared to bring to a party. With his embroidered edges and dripping gold jewellery, he would never strike anyone as someone to enjoy the silence after the end of a long day.

And there were some places where Shaun Geddmore and Shaun Gilmore blurred, where he couldn’t remember which likes and dislikes, what features of his personality he'd carried since birth and which had been carefully woven into the costume he’d worn to find success in Tal Dorei.

But this wasn’t one of them.

Shaun did like quiet. He liked his own company, he liked peace and silence, the ache in his muscles and clinging scent not unlike burning that came with a job well done and a lot of magic expended. He was content now, as he retired for the night in the evening stillness, locking the chamber door of the house he kept in Whitestone with full intention to not speak to another soul until the sun came up.

His work with Allura on the city defences was rewarding, a way to put his skills to a loftier use than selling trinkets and making the lives of common folk easier. Here, he was defending them. He was protecting people. It was just so exhausting.

He took a long, indulgent bath, though so much of him just wanted to collapse into bed and sleep away the brain fog. He knew the soak, the warm water, the scent of the herbs and spiced oils that always reminded him of Marquet, would do him better in the end. He made himself take his time as he took out all of the clasps in his hair and beard, combing the thick, black curls through, as he cleaned the salt of the day from his face. So it was nearly midnight by the time he wrapped himself in a silk robe and padded to the canopied bed but he certainly felt fresher and more relaxed.

A few pages of his book and then a generous handful of hours to sleep. Shaun chuckled to himself as he slid under the blankets, imagining what his love would say if he could see him. Most likely he’d be teased at how pampered he’d grown, at how one day of hard work could leave him so tired when he spent all his time tramping through gods only knew where, sleeping on the hard ground and living by his blade. Facing unknown foes every single day and now this business with the dragons, risking death in countless ways-

Shaun forced himself to stop, closing his eyes, fingers gripping his book tight enough that there would be indents left by his nails when he eventually let go.

You cannot help him by worrying he told himself with the weary sternness of a parent who’d told their child not to climb that tree a million times only to find them amongst the leaves again, you’ll only make him feel guilty when he returns.

When. Because his little bird would always fly home to him, every time, he promised whenever they had to part. And one day it would all be over and he could finally put a ring on his finger and he would never have to worry about where Vax’ildan was ever again.

Shaun had to believe that.

He made himself focus on his book, lighting the candle by his bedside with a wave of his hand, extinguishing the ones in the adjoining bathroom in the same gesture. And after a while, the tension eased and he could let go of his worries. Though his fingers still itched for the feel of soft, dark hair under them, his chest wouldn’t have felt so hollow if it had the gentle weight of a head pillowed on it.

Dawn would have found him slumped back against the pillows, glasses slipping off his nose and book slipped onto the floor if it hadn’t happened.

The magic had an unfamiliar, unpleasant scent, not unlike the dank, wet earth smell of a grave. That grabbed Shaun first, had him nearly up and on his feet, power crackling in his palm, before the sudden flash of energy even engulfed the room. He braced himself, muscles taut and face lined in cold concentration, ready for the attack.

But the flash faded, dissipating from the room like smoke, a powerful but uncontrolled moment in time, gone as fast as it had appeared.

And there was a new weight in the bed beside him.

“Vax’ildan?” Shaun cried in a strange mix of relief and horror.

His love was curled in a tight ball, still in that awful rank armour of his. His black hair had fallen across his face but what skin showed between the fronds was ashen and he trembled softly all over. Mud and ash and grime smeared Shaun’s silen sheets where it met his body.

Something was very wrong.

“Vax’ildan,” there was only urgency in his voice now, “Vax, speak to me. You’re safe, you’re here with me, it’s all okay…”

“Shaun?” his voice was a strained whisper, sounding strangely vague and disconnected like it didn’t come from him at all.

Having to fight to keep his calm, Shaun touched his shoulder gently and rolled him, wanting to see his face.

“Vax? Little bird, it’s me, you...what...there’s something on you, what- oh gods, that’s blood.”

All questions fled to the back of his mind. There was a large, dark stain of it spreading across his middle, soaking the padded shirt he wore beneath the armour. Shaun wished feverishly that it was someone else’s, a thought he’d feel guilty for later, but when he pressed gently, more welled up and Vax’s breathing turned shaky and pained.

“Oh Vax, my love, what happened?”

He asked but didn’t expect an answer, nor did he wait for one. He ripped away the light, leather plate, letting it fall carelessly to the floor, not stopping until the half elf was down to his undershirt. That went too, so he could see the wound. Small, nothing that wouldn’t heal in time, but he still found it so hard to look at, that ragged hole against the pale skin, where he’d placed who knew how many kisses.

“There was an arrow…” Vax mumbled vaguely, very out of it, “Must have left it behind…”

“What?” Shaun didn’t understand, he just jumped up and dived for the small medicine kit he kept amongst his travel bags, coming up with rages, bandages and a salve, summoning a bowl of clean water. He wasn’t as skilled a healer as some but he’d been around long enough to know how important it was to learn the basics.

Vax hissed and moaned through the process, the cleaning and the binding, the wound may not be fatal but it certainly was painful and it would only get more so as it healed. If it healed. If it didn’t get infected. Stop that.

It was only when the wound was securely bound and the herbs were doing their numbing work that Vax found his voice again, as his fingers groped blindly for Shaun’s. Even though there was a bowl of dirty water, bloody rags and armour that reeked of death waiting to be cleared away, Shaun clutched them tight and knelt by his side, not realising until he did so just how much he’d needed it.

“Sorry,” Vex exhaled weakly, “Didn’t mean to drop in on you like this.”

“But how?” Saun shook his head, trying to reconcile it with his own knowledge of magic and coming up with only one, seemingly impossible anwer, “Vax, was that a teleportation spell?”

“Was it?” Vax murmured, still a little vague, “I’m still getting used to all this…guess it could have been, it’s not like she gave me an instruction manual…”

Shaun felt a cold hand grip his insides. He didn’t have to ask who she was. Just another thing he’d been folding away, admonishing himself for thinking about.

It would be okay. Vax had promised. He had to believe that.

“We were on the way to Draconia...got jumped on the road, didn’t even see their faces. If it was just fucking high road bandits I’m going to be so pissed…”

“What? Getting yourself here all the way from Draconia...Vax, easy, try to focus. Slow breaths, that's it…” Shaun squeezed the slender, callused fingers held in his own, “You were attacked? Were you with the others?”

“Uh huh,” Vax tried to take deep breaths, wincing when it moved some clearly bruised ribs, “Was. But then I saw the arrow coming. Right at me, was going to bury itself right in my guts. Ever seen someone die like that? Slow. Messy. Your own poison leaking into you, no way to stop it…”

“Vax,” Shaun hoped his love was too out of it to hear the break in his voice, “You’re not going to die, it didn’t go deep enough.”

“No,” Vax managed a rough laugh, though it cost him another groan, “Because I left. I saw my own death coming...for the second time, I mean...and…”

“And?” Shaun prompted, his vision starting to swim.

“And all I wanted was to be with you. If I was going to die and it was gonna stick this time then...all I wanted was to see you. And I guess the random magic kicking around in me took that as a request.”

Shaun felt his throat tighten and all he could do for a moment was press Vax’s hand to his lips, his turn to tremble.

“Can you send a message to them?” Vax mumbled, “Stubby, she’ll be out of her mind. We were so close...”

“I will,” Shaun nodded, clearing his throat, “Of course. I’ll bring them here once I’m strong enough, Pike at least, so she can heal you. And then...then you’ll be back out there before you know it.”

He made the words leave his mouth, when everything else in him wanted to beg him to stay. To never leave the safety of Shaun’s arms, to leave the rest of the world to its dragons and it’s apocalypses, let the gods have their games, and just be his. As selfish as it was, Shaun would have given so much just to have the chance to say it and thus make it true.

Eventually the adrenaline leeched out of Vax and he slipped into sleep, no sign of it other than his breathing levelling out and his hands going slack in Shaun’s grip. He didn’t want to leave him sleeping in dirty sheets, still in his mud splattered boots and trousers, but the rest was what he needed now. There would be time in the morning.

He didn’t move from Vax’s side until he was sure he was fully asleep and wouldn’t miss him. Only then did he stand to send the message, over by the window. Before he summoned the strength from his frayed nerves, he looked out over Whitestone, at the shimmering transparent barrier that crowned the city, only visible when you looked through it and noticed the stars were swimming slightly. Or perhaps it was the tears in his eyes.

He’d built that barrier, he and Allura, to protect the city and every soul within it.

It seemed that Shaun Gilmore could protect everyone but the person he loved the most.

#vaxilmore #angst prompts #cr #cr: campaign one #vox machina #cr: vax #cr: gilmore #shaun gilmore #cw: blood and injury

20 notes · View notes

kimabutch · 5 years

Text

Shaun Gilmore seems larger-than-life and over the top, but in the glimpses we get of him, he’s also just so complex and amazing and god I love him so much that it was inevitable I’d eventually write 1000+ words of meta about him and why he’s such a cool character.

So here it goes: Shaun Geddmore is a boy from a tiny town in the desert. His parents are sweet and loving, but perhaps don’t understand him the way he’d like — they know him as “brave” but don’t believe that he would singlehandedly protect a city. Shaun cryptically suggests that it’s “taken a while” for them to be proud of him. At some point in his young adulthood, he has a boyfriend (as shown by the letters under his bed), but this does nothing to deter him from leaving as “soon as [he] had the opportunity to leave,” called to the big cities of Tal’dorei.

At some point, before or after he leaves, he discovers his strange powers, finding runes appearing on his skin and fantastic power running through his veins. We have no idea where he learns what this rare condition means, or how he learns to keep it carefully hidden even while making his livelihood from his arcane powers. Presumably, it’s around the same time where he learned the basics of his craft, including how to fight.

Regardless, though, Shaun leaves for a different continent. A big city, with different languages spoken on the streets, with people of much lighter skin than him, and so much colder than his homeland. He changes his name to fit in, and opens up his shop. And he loves it — seems to love flirting with his clients and making money. Single items probably sell for more than his parents made in their entire lives. And maybe he forgets his parents a little; we know that he barely comes to visit, despite the ease at which he could teleport there. Maybe it’s hard to find the time or the energy when he works so hard. Maybe he finds the difference between his life in Emon and his life back in Shandal too jolting; they wouldn’t understand what he does or why it makes him so happy. Maybe he wants to live in the moment and visiting home feels like returning to his past.

Because if nothing else, Shaun takes life as it comes. He sees Emon destroyed — this beautiful town where he’s started a life he couldn’t have imagined as a child — and he immediately fights, taking on a one-on-one dragon just to rescue people, stumbling back to his shop, his beautiful shop reduced to rubble, with Salda and her children in tow. He spends months in Whitestone single-handedly maintaining the barrier in a state of half-exhaustion, and still fights alongside Vox Machina to defeat Thordak.

All this time, he watches Vax, the man with whom he’s flirted, who kissed him once, who said they couldn’t be together, struggle with mortality and fear and the uncertainty of his new love. And Shaun supports him and loves him and helps him discover his wings so that he might fly away from him. He does it all with a smile and a laugh because “the heart wants what it wants,” because of his endless belief that life will be okay. Vox Machina will kill the dragons, they’ll come back, he’ll set up shop again, and they’ll keep "pimping out [his] name.” He refuses to let Vax leave his side before the Thordak fight without a “til next time” and even at the campaign’s end, when we see him in 113, he’s still reassuring Vax that “it’ll be an honour knowing you still.”

And certainly, some of this optimism is a mask, a refusal to acknowledge or admit his own feelings. Shaun values his appearance, both physically in his dress and makeup, and emotionally in his semblance of optimism, control, and happiness. He doesn’t let many people close to him; Matt jokes, when we first see Gilmore on-stream, that “no one’s on a first-name basis with Gilmore,” and, true to this, it takes dozens of episodes for Vox Machina to start calling him Shaun. Within minutes of Pike bringing him back from the brink of death after he fights Thordak, he attempts to cast Prestidigitation to clean himself up; he does the same after learning of Vax’s death in the Search for Grog. Throughout the Chroma Conclave arc, he adamantly denies his exhaustion, despite the worries of his friends. He only jokes that he wants the "dragon business” to end so that he can return to his shop, that he’s been keeping a tab for how much Vox Machina owes him.

This is another mask he seems to put on, that of a hardnosed shopkeeper who puts money over sentimentality. But a shopkeeper like that wouldn’t sponsor a "bunch of bumblefucks” who constantly forget their promise to advertise his brand, or let them haggle him down in prices just because he finds Vax pretty.

I’d go so far to say that in the background of Vox Machina’s adventures is a small character arc in which Shaun acknowledges that he loves helping people. Despite his bravery in the initial dragon attack, he doesn’t admit how altruistic he was; in response to Vax’s praise, he responds only “I could have saved more.” It takes his service towards Whitestone to acknowledge that it “feels nice to be helping others”; he explains: “it’s been a long time since I put my energy and talents towards anything beyond making shiny things.” His appearance in the Search for Grog provides a sort of conclusion of this arc. Vox Machina find Shaun using his magic to provide entertainment for children, to help people who “have lost far more” than him. And even if he still hides his grief (he has “an audience to perform for,” after all), his open desire to help others, to travel even further than Tal’dorei to take care of people who are suffering, to use his endless charm for unabashed good — that shows real growth in character.

Anyways, that’s why I love him. Because in addition to being fabulous, funny, and powerful, he’s a dynamic, flawed, and interesting character. He gets to grow, to change, to deny his emotions, to resent his parents, to love, to be sad, and to learn. He gets to have traits that come into conflict with each other: his love for Vax and his belief that love takes its own course; his pride in his powers and the necessity of hiding their origins; his money-making ambitions and his desire to help others. And he gets to do all of this while being a “camp” gay man who wears eyeshadow and who flirts unashamedly.

And that’s why they call him glorious.

#critical role #meta #my stuff #search for grog #WHEW I'm sorry this was so long #I wrote this instead of finishing the search for grog #cause I was so overwhelmed by gilmore emotions #this has been a long time coming though

2K notes · View notes

crithaus · 4 years

Text

Gilmore deserved better. I like keyleth and Vax well enough both but my big old jolly runechild man Shaun Geddmore comes first and foremost damnit

#spencer talks

11 notes · View notes

zaliaslapasz · 3 years

Text

unfortunately im entirely predictable

#critical role #critical role fanart #cr #critical role art #art #critical role campaign 1 #shaun geddmore #shaun gilmore #gilmore critical role #Gilmore #vax x gilmore #vax’ildan #Vax’ildan Vessar #vax critical role

1K notes · View notes

vaxxy-the-raven · 11 months

Text

He could still get it.

#gilmore bby i am so sorry what have i done #i love tumblr's filters so much oh my fucking matron of ravens #ommor is my new omg #critical role #cr #the legend of vox machina #tlovm #shaun gilmore #shaun geddmore #lynny what the fuck #lynias shut up challenge

7 notes · View notes

lv20wiz · 5 years

Text

Regarding LoVM and “the Gilmore issue” (and a couple of other concerns because I got carried away writing this)

Matt has stated that he’d like to play Gilmore in the upcoming animated special, but realizes that it might cause an issue if a POC character is voiced by a white actor.

Do note that Matt isn’t saying this lightly. When he says that “I’d like to voice Gilmore,” what he’s really saying is probably something along the lines of “if I were to pick one character that I’ve put my heart and soul into to the point where I’d consider him my character, it would be Shaun Geddmore Gilmore of Gilmore’s Glorious Goods.” Some have likened re-casting Gilmore to re-casting Beauregard from the second campaign, and I do see their point. Gilmore has been one of few NPCs to evolve alongside the party called Vox Machina throughout the entire campaign, and I think that “Exclusive sponsor of Vox Machina” represents Matt very well.

At the same time, Matt’s role is not that of a PC. His role is literally everything except the main characters. And with this animated special, he’ll have to delegate some of this power away, which will be a strange experience either way. I really do hope that Matt will regain enough creative control to not let anyone else make any really impactful worldbuilding decisions. We’re throwing our money at this kickstarter because we want to see this world come to life, after all, not because we want some professional writer to create an entirely new, original story inside the Critical Role sandbox.

This special will flop if they can’t keep the soul of Critical Role. If that includes hours of improvised conversations between the cast to extrapolate the player dialogue, then please, do that. I’m happy that they got a writer to polish the story for animation, but I want Sam to create Scanlan’s dirty jokes, I want Laura and Liam to hug it out on a sofa while talking about their issues as the twins, I want Vax’s bad decisions, and I sure as hell want Liam and Matt to flirt as their characters. Casting another voice actor to play Gilmore in an animated special shouldn’t diminish Matt’s influence on the character in any other way. It’s one thing to voice a character, another entirely to completely embody the character in an improvised setting.

Critical Role is a magical series, and not just in the sense that some people cast spells. With that come sky-high expectations. If they do decide to cast another voice actor as Gilmore, the fandom fully expects the character to be believable. And in that case, it would be a recast of the character. The fandom already has a clear picture of Gilmore, and making the fandom accept another actor is a difficult job. For that to happen, the new actor must, perhaps, play a better Gilmore than Matt himself. It’s not an unreasonable request, and if anyone can do it, it’s a bunch of nerdy-ass professional voice actors (and some voice directors) and their professional voice actor colleagues. If that can’t be done, I hope they keep their integrity and keep Matt as Gilmore.

Matt is fully within his rights to pick any of his characters to voice, and Shaun Gilmore is probably the most important secondary character of the special. The Gilmore issue has no one 100% correct answer. Please do not give the cast, Matt especially, any grief for making this difficult choice. No matter what they choose, they clearly can’t please everyone. I put my trust in them to make this animated special glorious either way.

#critical role #vox machina #the legend of vox machina #shaun gilmore #gilmore #critical role kickstarter

197 notes · View notes

gloriouslygood · 5 years

Text

repost, don’t reblog !

BASICS.

full name. Shaun Geddmore / Shaun Amadeus Gilmore pronunciation. shawn ged-mor / shawn ah-mah-deh-us gill-mor nicknames. Gilmore, Glorious Gilmore height. 6′2″ age. Campaign 1- 38 years || Campaign 2- 58 years zodiac. Gemini-Cancer cusp languages. common, marquessian

PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS.

hair colour. black / salt + pepper / grey eye colour. blue skin tone. darker tan body type. dad bod accent. dominant hand. perfectly ambidextrous posture. tall, confident tattoos. dragon silhouette on chest, raven feather on his right shoulder, in some erses deer antlers encompassing the feather most noticeable features. Dazzling smile, well-groomed beard with jewelry. Also has major scarring on his chest.

CHILDHOOD.

place of birth. Shandal, Marquet hometown. Shandal, Marquet birth weight / height. unknown first words. ??? siblings. none parents. Opessa and Sorren Geddmore parental involvement. quite involved, but not smothery. They do not know he is a sorcerer.

ADULT LIFE

occupation. entrepreneur, sorcerer, enchanter, appraiser current residence. flagship Emon location of Gilmore’s Glorious Goods close friends. Vox Machina relationship status. verse dependent; when in doubt, single and not looking. financial status. lives within his means; tends to give generously to his employees and to charity driver’s license. (modern verse) yes. criminal record. not publicly; off-the-record? he has killed someone

SEX & ROMANCE.

sexual orientation. homosexual. romantic orientation. demiromantic. preferred emotional role. submissive | dominant | switch | unsure. preferred sexual role. submissive | dominant | switch | sex repulsed. libido. flirty generally, but only a few people really get him turned on. turn on’s. he doesn’t even know turn off’s. lack of confidence, no desire to take initiative love language. words of affirmation & touch relationship tendencies. celibate and not looking after Campaign 1

MISCELLANEOUS.

character’s theme song. [pending] hobbies to pass the time. experimenting with enchanting in his workshop mental illnesses. PTSD physical illnesses. - left or right brained. right fears. �� losing another person close to his heart; people discovering his sorcerous origin self confidence level. seems high; “fake it ‘til you make it” is his motto. vulnerabilities. has a hard time letting the past go

tagged by: @sapphiretrickster, @tex-blades

tagging: @mychampion @greyhunted @neutrcls (emberly or penny), @tempestvoice

3 notes · View notes