#thinking about the m9 meeting each other on the train

[saphirered]

i just wanted to say i love your writing so much! also i wanted to request a little something where the rest of the m9 tease caleb for being a smitten fool?

Thank you! Hope this turned out to your liking! 😘

Caleb sits at a table as removed from the crowded tavern as can be reading through his latest acquisition. Every so often his eyes move from his book to another table more central to the space. Seated around that table are some random travellers and tavern regulars, drinks next to them and cards in hand, in the centre of the table a pile of coin. Though, it’s not the game Caleb that draws Caleb’s attention. He couldn’t care less about the gamblings of the night. What drew his attention to the game is the figure playing. There’s just something so alluring about them he knows quite well how to identify and place. It’s not been a secret. Okay, it’s been a huge secret for to literally everyone else.

Eyes meet his, holding for a second as you wink, place some cards from your hand on the table face up. Caleb can visibly see some of the other players slump when you smirk satisfied with the result. He’s glad he took this spot when he could because he’s got perfect sight of you, watching every thoughtful and considerate look, as you calculate your next steps and chances in the game, and the so called ‘tells’ you practice to throw off the other players. The tap on your chin as you bite your lip is nothing more than a facade, he’s realised. He loves to watch you play and could do so for hours on end but those little moments of endearment whenever you send him a wink when others don’t notice, or acknowledge his attention, those are the moments he loves most out of all.

The sound of a chair being pulled across the wooden floorboards and your pursing of your lips at him that could be read as disappointment for the other players but to him it reflected as a joking pout right before you go back to the game makes him realise he might have stared just a little too long. He knows he has when Beauregard plops down gracelessly in the seat, drink in one hand leaning her chin on her fist as she grins at Caleb. He’s already dreading whatever is coming when the monk points her tankard in his direction.

“You gonna keep this going because you better go find a room. This eye sex is getting steamy between you two.” Beau says with a grin nudging her head in your direction making clear he knows who she’s talking about. Caleb looks completely indifferent, the playfulness of your stares before gone from his features as he flips to the next page and pretends to continue reading.

“I have no idea what you’re talking about, Beauregard.” Caleb denies so Beau leans over the table hooking her fingers over the pages and pulling the book down, forcing Caleb’s attention to fall to her.

“The little glances are one thing, the touch of a hand and leaning into each other whenever you’re standing next to one another, something else. You haven’t turned a page in minutes. Don’t think I haven’t noticed.” Okay so maybe you haven’t exactly been too inconspicuous when it comes to avoiding the monk’s trained gaze. Lucky for Caleb the others join his table, taking the conversation away from going into his infatuation with you, much to Beau’s disappointment but that quickly sated by the barbarian sitting down next to her. Caleb would call her a hypocrite but then again, Beau’s never tried to hide her interests in Yasha, if anything she’s been quite upfront about them.

Swallowed up in conversation Caleb meets your eyes a few times throughout your game, and he knows you’re playing that game as much as you’re playing a different one with him, you lean on your elbows into the table chest forward, expose your neck, brushing your hair to the side and tapping your finger to your lips, winking at him, name it. Nevermind the looks you give him. What Beauregard might have stated before, might actually hold some truth. Caleb hadn’t noticed the conversation around him had fallen quiet and it wasn’t just your eyes on him anymore.

“Oh. my. gosh. Caleb, you’re totally in love.” Jester gushes excitedly and Caleb goes to come up with an excuse, any type of defence but a harsh kick to his shin from Beau catches the words in his throat.

“See, I told you, so star struck he’s even at loss for words.” Beau laughs as the wizard sends her a glare.

“Leave him alone.” Caleb breathes in relief when Nott stands up for him but that relief is short lived. “It’s not our business who he’s hopelessly in love with.” The goblin takes a big swig from her flask and Beau and Jester grin at her at this alliance. Out of instinct he looks to you, while from the corner of your eye you notice his pleading look save him from the oncoming storm, you can’t just up and leave… yet. Caleb picks up his book again in an attempt to get back to reading in the hopes the others will leave him be. No such mercy will be granted.

“No, no, Nott’s right. Leave the poor man alone. Let him pine after our friend all he pleases. Maybe it’ll get his nose out of his books more often.” Fjord takes the book from the wizard, closes it on the marked page and puts it on the table.

“Just like you’re pining after Jester, ja?” Caleb mutters and those who can hear nearly spit out their drinks leaving the others wondering why asking for elaboration. Caleb offers none but the expression on Fjord’s face is enough. In this Caleb had lost brief track of you. A bag of coin lands on the table with a heavy thud. A hand grasp Caleb’s shoulder. The wizard doesn’t need to turn around to know who it belongs to. The table falls silent, some smirks landing in the direction of the both of you.

“That’ll cover the costs of our stay. What’s up with you lot?” You ask looking at them suspiciously.

“Nothing. Nothing at all. Everything is fine.” Jester gulps. Terrible liar. You shake your head in amusement. You know exactly what went on so you decide to humour them. Leaning down, close enough to whisper to Caleb, deliberately loud enough for the others to hear.

“Are they teasing you, Caleb?” You ask as the wizard freezes. You hear a snort from Beau, point proven for her apparently.

“You look a bit flustered, Mr. Caleb. Perhaps a breath of fresh air will do you well?” Bless Caduceus’s keen eye, he indeed looks flustered.

“Come on, Caleb’s got no game. He’d fail talking a prostitute into bed. Too much of a stuck up. I doubt he even knows how to have a good time.” Beau says a little too loud when a moment of silence falls. You to raise an eyebrow and Caleb rolls his eyes but when the hand on his shoulder brushes along his arm he turns all deer in the firelight once more.

“Caleb could charm anyone he wants. He’s very smart and sweet and anyone would be lucky to have him.” Nott defends putting her fist down in a mamma bear-like manner. It’s quite adorable but perhaps might read a bit more intimidating given the bared sharp teeth in defence of ‘her boy’. It does little to intimidate the monk though.

“Oh I can assure you he knows how to have a good time. Isn’t that right Caleb?” You brush your fingers along his cheek feeling the heat rising to them as he turns brighter than his hair. You’re satisfied. Especially when all eyes shoot to the two of you. The wizard sighs and brushes your fingers away as he leans his head on his clasped hands to hide his face.

“Can we please not discuss this?” The man groans. His fingers entwine with yours over his shoulder, to him an intimate gesture when in company of others, but mundane enough, intended to tell you he’s alright. The small gesture of affection brings a smile to your face.

“Cad mentioned getting some fresh air. I could go for some. Join me?” You gently pull on your entwined hands and Caleb nods, slowly rising to his feet, the red beginning to drain from his cheek with a brief thankful smile as you begin guiding him towards the exit.

“Wait. No no. You don’t get to walk out of this after dropping a bomb like that! Get your asses back over here!” Beau calls after you but you ignore her, laughing to yourselves.

“Give them a moment to themselves.” Caduceus speaks. It’s not like he hadn’t been catching onto the signs of your involvement with Caleb being a little more than friendly but he wasn’t the kind of person to spill those beans. It’s none of his business. That doesn’t mean he couldn’t enjoy the dynamic between the two of you and you spilling the beans now, certainly has caused some enjoyable responses from the others.

“They’ll have to return at some point anyway. You’d think you’d take this opportunity to work out your interrogation.” Fjord suggests and Beauregard couldn’t agree more. She’s just been given the most dangerous thing; time to prepare and she will not let you go free that easy. Time for the chaos crew to band together again.

Outside, fresh air does exactly what Caleb had hoped but he still keeps an eye out just to make sure the others aren’t following in an attempt to spy on you. You’re sure bets are being placed right now. Once you reach a crossroads Caleb halts. You do too, turning to face him fully with the most innocent expression you can muster, batting your eyes.

“You know you’ll pay for that right?” The wizard says giving you an amused look. You take a step closer until you’re toe to toe with him fingers brushing against his cheek playfully like you did before with an equally amused expression.

“I’m counting on it.” You lean in, looking him in the eye as you speak. Right before Caleb leans in to close the distance you step back. Caleb chuckles, shaking his head. You really are in a teasing mood. That never bodes well.

“Tease.” He says as a hand wraps around your wrist and a gentle tug draws you back to him in the same position you were before. Tracing his jaw with your nail you grin.

“Don’t you forget it.” With that Caleb closes the distance between your lips.

#critical role x reader #mighty nein x reader #caleb widogast x reader #caleb x reader #critrole x reader

[haikyuuwaifu]

Trip

Genre: Drama, Angst, Humor, Crack

Warnings: Swearing, Fighting, Name calling, Mentions of Blood, Violence

MASTERLIST

WELCOME TO THE NEIGHBORHOOD| GIRLS NIGHT OUT

WELCOME TO THE NEIGHBORHOOD

Y/N stretched her arms over her head, her eyes shutting as she felt the kinks in her back pop. Looking over, she noticed Momo scanning through the books vaguely. “You should have gone with everyone else.” Y/N muttered, cleaning up her station. Momo merely scoffed, waving her hand in her friends direction. “It’s not going that well if the GC is anything to go by. They’ve been making sneering faces at Jirou and Toga since they arrived...besides, I didn’t want to go if you weren’t going to be there to keep me in check.” Y/N snickered, shaking her head softly. “We both know you’d have been the one to keep me in check.” she answered, continuing her clean up. Silence passed for a few minutes, before Momo spoke hesitantly. “You like them don’t you?...that’s why you don’t want to go?” Y/N peered up at Momo, an unreadable expression on her face. “I don’t...not like them, I just...I don’t know enough about them to t-” Momo cut her off with a snort. “You can’t lie to me, I’m your best friend. It’s okay if you like them. We all know that things that are meant to be will happen in it’s own time...now let’s go get some food so I can stare at Rumi for a while.” Y/N could only laugh as she packed up her station, and the two women made their way to the back of the shop, and out the building.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Everything at the BBQ was tense. Jirou and Toga were sitting in one corner of the setup talking to Rumi and Mina. Both women apologizing profusely for their bosses girlfriends. Kiri was trying to have a conversation with Bakugo, but Ochaco was trying to pester him to talk to her. It seemed the two still haven’t made up since the whole mall fiasco. Camie was perched on Keigo’s lap talking his ear off about some expensive jewelry he wanted her to by. Kendo and Shoto weren’t even talking to each other. He couldn’t figure out what she was mad at him for this time, so he chose to leave her be. Shinsou and Nejire were inside arguing yet again, about the 

The creaking of the fence, told everyone that someone else had arrived. Toga jumped up her hands clapping at the sight of her boss. Y/N smiled, waving her offering above her head. “I didn’t know what I needed, so I just brought some b-” Before she could finish her sentence, Camie let out a shriek as she recognized the woman from the grocery store. “What the hell are you doing here?!” Ochaco snarled, standing up to get in Y/N’s face. Nejire stepped out of the shop to see the commotion, and sneered at the sight of Y/N. It seemed that all four women have had a run-in with Y/N, and they had decided she needed to go. Camie snatched the drinks out of Y/N’s hands, and threw them on the ground smirking when the glass shattered. “We don’t need any fucking hand outs from you skank.” she huffed out, crossing her arms over her chest. “Don’t be a fucking skank Camie, she didn’t fucking do anything to you!” Izuku snarled, ready to snatch her by her hair. Dabi held his boyfriend back, shaking his head. “No one invited you here anyway.” Kendo snickered, flipping her hair behind her back. Rumi stood up, and stepped into Kendo’s space, causing the shorter woman to move back. “She’s the owner of the shop across the way. This was planned as a welcome to the neighborhood gathering; instead she has to meet the best paid hookers in the city.” Rumi snarked, ignoring the reprimand Shoto sent her way. 

Momo merely scoffed, sliding her glasses further up her nose. “If this is what the neighborhood has to offer, then I don’t think we’re interested.” She mused, eyes raking over the four women in front of her. Y/N had yet to say anything, her eyes still trained on the broken glass on the ground. “Can’t speak for yourself bitch?” Ochaco hissed, reaching out to grab Y/N’s arm. Before she could wrap her hand around the other woman’s wrist, Y/N snatched it. Tugging Ochaco forward, she connected her knee with the short haired woman's face, and smiled at the crunch the contact made with her nose. Shoving Ochaco aside, she reached for Nejire, wrapping both hands in her hair, Y/N pulled her head back and slammed it forward. Nejire screamed as the pain coursed through her face. Kendo and Camie went to grab for her, but Y/N was faster; decking Kendo, Y/N grabbed Camie’s arm, and threw her over her shoulder and into the trash behind her. 

Dusting her hands off, Y/N turned toward Mina and Rumi, a smile on her face. “We’re going out tonight, girls and gays are welcome. You can meet us outside the shop in about two hours?” Y/N questioned, waiting for confirmation. “Don’t worry about finding a D.D. That’s going to be Shiggy’s job.” And Y/N and Momo left, no apology on their lips as the four women cried and screamed, bleeding all over themselves. 

-The four men were stunned, and sat for a good ten minutes unable to comprehend what exactly happened. Y/N’s employees left, along with Mina and Rumi, which left Dabi, Izuku, and Denki to deal with Ochaco, Camie, Kendo, and Nejire.

-The four women wanted to press charges, but Keigo put his foot down. Y/N was provoked first, and he went off on Camie. It was the first time he’s yelled at her in their long relationship, but he was so disappointed. He just wanted to welcome someone to the neighborhood and it was shot to shit because they couldn’t even be nice. 

-Trouble in Paradise bby’s. 

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#trip #bnha scenarios #bnha imagines #bnha fanfiction #bnha #bnha smau #smau #bnha keigo #keigo takami #keigo x reader #mha keigo takami #takami keigo x reader #katsuki bakugo x reader #katsuki bakugō #bakugou katsuki #bnha bakugou #bakugo katuski #hitoshi shinso x reader #shinsou hitoshi #shinsou x reader #bnha shinsou #shinsou imagine #shoto todoroki #todoroki shoto x reader #bnha shoto todoroki #bnha shoto x reader

[peach-the-owl]

How about a scenario with each of the M9 where the child calls them Mom or Dad.

Yes… just yes 😊

You call them Mom/Dad

Child of the Nein (Mighty Nein & Child!Reader)

Jester

You and Jester were shopping and causing some mischief around Zadash, nothing crazy of course. Something caught the corner of your eye, a doll dressed up like a warrior was sitting proud in the window display of a toy shop making your eyes sparkle with excitment. You run over to Jester and tug at her dress while bouncing in you feet.

"Mommy! Mommy look! Can I get that doll please?" You say without a second thought, pointing towards the shop. Jester looks at you astonished for a moment, this was the first time you’d called her mom. You give her a confused look when she doesn’t respond right away and watch her press her hands together as if she were about to pray and a large smile stretch across her face.

"You think of me as your momma?" Despite the smile Jester sounded like she was about to cry. You tilt your head to the side confused, had you said something wrong?

"I’m sorry, should I not-"

"No no, don’t be sorry." Jester quickly cuts you off. "I’ll happily be you momma!" She picks you up and places a few kisses on your cheek and forehead before placing you back down and taking your hands in hers. "Now let’s go get you that doll." With that you both practically skip over to the toy store. You were really glad you got to meet Jester, she was everything you wanted in a mom, especially compared to your old caretaker, whatever happened to them? You didn’t know and you didn’t care anymore because now you had someone who actually loved and cared about you.

Nott

You’d accidentally called mom once before but Nott had easily accepted the roll, having already seen you as her own child. Afterwards it came a little easier to refer to her as such but only when you’re in towns or cities on a small break between adventures. It was kinda funny in a way how it was easy to call her mom in such domestic places but once you were on the road again you'd go back to calling her by name. Nott didn’t mind of course, adventures were intense with little time to think about names and/or titles so it wasn’t much of a surprise that you would do this.

Caleb

Caleb has always tried to distance himself from others, scared to let people into the shell that is his life and yet you had still managed to find a way in. At first he’d brush it all off finding an excuse for why you were just tagging along with him, but over the years he began to warm up to you, seeing as you were his only loyal company besides Frumpkin before you’d met the rest of the Nein.

"Hey, Caleb?" Your little voice pulls him away from his daydreaming. "I want to show you something, I’ve been practicing really hard." He shifts a bit so his full attention is on you. You take a deep breath and pull a cocoon from your bag, Caleb’s taught you a lot now it was time to put it to the test. There’s a slight glow and flash Caleb watches as you body shifts and turns into the form of a cat, your cat form pads over to him and hops up for a closer look. With a quick gesture of his hands the spell wears off and you quickly change back to yourself, you stare up at him with a large smile as he gives you a proud look.

"If that was your first time successfully casting Polymorph you did wonderfully, I’m proud of you." He kneels down and places a hand on your shoulder, a small smile placed on his features.

"Thanks!" You beam at him, giggling a little. "But that’s because I’ve got you as my teacher papa." The word sorta slipped out without your knowledge, effectively shocking him. You happily skip off to tell everyone what you just accomplished, leaving Caleb still kneeling down in deep thought.

You’d called him papa, you saw him as a father figure, someone to look up to and depend on. You looked at him the opposite of how he saw himself, and had done so without a second thought or regret. "I don’t deserve this." He mutters to himself as he watches you skip over to Jester and Nott to tell them of your accomplishments.

Caduceus

You let out a huff, confused and conflicted on what your thoughts were doing, was this supposed to be a good thing or a bad one. Caduceus walks into the little inn room seeing you huff around a little.

"You alright? You’ve been huffing around a lot." He stares at you concerned. You look up at him and he could now see the slight gloss that glazed over your eyes, he kneels down and you instinctively walk into his waiting arms. "Would you like to talk about it?" He asks calmly, you nod after a moment.

"It’s been so long since the last time I saw my family and…" You hold back a small sob, "and I can’t remember what they look like anymore. Is that bad? I’m I a bad kid for forgetting my own family?" A few tears spill over but Caduceus catches them.

"Tell me, do you still know their names?" You nod your head. "Can you still remember the lessons they taught you, or maybe the games they played with you?" Again you nod. "Then you haven’t forgotten them, so long as you still have memories with them you haven’t forgotten them. You’re not a bad kid, far from it."

"Thank you papa." You pause, having caught your own words and look up at Caduceus. He looks surprised at first, but that quickly turns to a gentle smile and he places a soft kiss to the top of your head. You didn’t think much on it before but you had to admit every time you tried to picture your father in your head all you could see was Caduceus, and honestly that wasn’t so bad.

Fjord

Being back in Port Damali always left a nice yet uncomfortable feeling to you, it was where you were raised with the beautiful open sea but the conditions you were raised in weren’t exactly ideal. Which is why you were always greatful when Fjord had agreed to take you with him all that time ago. You find yourself walking along the beach, old habits die hard I guess, not that you minded. You hear someone come walking up from behind and look over at Fjord as he approches.

"Brings back memories doesn’t it." He says, taking a seat on the sand, you join him.

"Yeah, it felt like so long ago… time's weird when adventuring." This earns you a chuckle.

"It sure can be. You know we could recreate that scenario, I could pretend to be unconscious and you aggressively poke me with a stick." He jokes, now getting a chuckle out of you.

"That’s stupid," you playfully push his shoulder. "Don’t be ridiculous dad." You quickly place a hand over your mouth once you’d caught what you just said. Slowly you turn to look at Fjord who’s staring right back, a look of astonishment on his face.

"Did you just call me dad?" You didn’t notice the smile that started to form on his face.

"I’m sorry, I just sorta slipped out, I didn’t mean t-"

"You see me as your father?" He cuts you off a bit, his voice filled with joy. You turn to face him again, seeing him giving you such a caring and joyful smile.

"Well, yeah… I-I guess. You were the first person who treated me so nicely and you took me along with you, it just… felt right to say." You admit a little sheepishly.

"Then by all means, don’t let me stop you." Fjord then pulls you closer to him and stands up with you in his arms, as he places a gentle kiss to you temple. You were glad you had decided to take that beach walk all that time ago, meeting Fjord was by far the best thing to ever happen to you. As for Fjord he was happy to give you something he never had as a child, a father to look up to and depend on.

Beau

Another day another training session, kicks and punches being thrown every which way, thankfully you had the stamina to keep up with Beau. It could be a little tiring but it was necessary to keep your reflexes sharp, then you get punched in the jaw, not too hard that it'd break but enough to leave a bruise later.

"Don’t go drifting off into Lala land. Keep your eyes on the enemy or else that’s going to happen again." You give her a thumbs up and make sure you dodge the next attack she throws at you. When your training is finally over you take a seat and rub at your jaw a bit, feeling where the bruise was forming. "Here, this’ll help." Beau sits down next to you and hands you a healing potion and a cup of water.

"Thanks mom." You say nonchalantly.

"What did you just call me?" Beau asks in surprise. It takes you a second to actually register what you just said, you go stiff when realization sets in.

"Ummm, n-nothing I just said thanks." You look away to try and hide your embarrassment.

"I’m falling for that (y/n). Do you seriously see me as a mother or something?" Beau asks, genuinely curious to your responce. You let out a sigh.

"Yeah, kinda." You finally admit. "It’s just that even though I know you don’t care much for stuff like this, you treat me better then my real parents ever have… guess I just started projecting a little." You scratch at the back of your head and look away from her a little, feeling embarrassed to finally admit to all this. Beau places an arm around your shoulder and pulls you in closer to her side.

"I’ve never claimed to be good at this, but that doesn’t mean I don’t care. I like you kid, you got a good spirit to you. So if you want to see me as a sort of mother figure then sure I’ll take it, and if your parents somehow found out and don’t like it that’s just too bad for them." She puts on a goofy smile and ruffles at your hair, making you relax and laugh a little at her antics.

Yasha

One of the few things you liked when it was just you and Yasha traveling alone was the number of flower fields you managed to come across, Yasha’s love and collection of flowers had passed over to you. You spend hours looking through the wildflowers until you found a good handful of them that you and Yasha would then braid into each other’s hair (if your hair is long enough), or sometimes you’d just roll around in the grass. It wasn’t much but these little moments were nice temporary distractions from the troubles that weighed you both down. After putting in the last flower to Yasha’s braid she stands and looks at you.

"How do I look?"

"You look like and angel mama." She body stiffens and her breath hitches a little at your words.

"You-you called me mama." Hearing her say it out loud made you realize your mistake.

"I’m sorry, it just slipped out." You apologize, now feeling bad for the slip of your tounge.

"No, i-it’s ok. Just surprising." She kneels down and gently pulls you in for a hug which you return. "You know…" Yasha starts but let’s her words drift a bit before continuing. "Zuala and I had always wanted a child."

"You have?" You look up at her with big, curious eyes at the mention of her deceased wife.

"Yeah… and I always thought if we did, they would be a lot like you." You smile and cuddle into her more as she tightens her grip on you a bit, as if the second she lets go you’d disappear from her. You stayed like that in the field for who knows how long, just savouring each others presents.

Molly

Taverns, where you can get all the latest gossip, at least decent meals and loads of entertainment from drunken idiots thinking they're some big hotshot, and music one can never forget the music. Taverns were also a place where sketchy individuals would prey on poor unsuspecting souls, which is why you were always super careful and alert to the people you would interact with. Some said sketchy individuals had just asked you "innocently" to join them and see something cool in the alleyway, you had to hold back a laugh at these armatures, did they really think you for an idiot just because you were young? Well that wasn’t going to stop you from having a little fun of your own.

"Before we go, I should really ask if it’s ok." You say faking your own innocence, except yours was much more convincing as you make your way over to the bar where Molly was flirting with one of the locals. You tug on his coat to get his attention, he gives you a quick side glance. "Hey papa," now you had his full attention as he whips around to look at you with a shocked expression. "Those men over there say they want to show me something cool in the alleyway, can I go?" You ask still playing your little game as you point to the now nervous men. It still took Molly a second to register your words but once it clicked into his head what was happening he gives you a sly smile.

"No no, you stay here while your papa has a chat with them." He say loud enough for the men to hear, he stands and the men dash out of the tavern. "Armatures." He mutters, sitting down again.

"Aww, are they really your child? They’re such a cutie." The woman Molly had been talking to coos at you. You give her a smile.

"Well it was-"

"Yes they are." Molly cuts you off, picking you up and placing you on his lap. You look at him a little confused and he pokes your nose, then he goes off making up a story of how he found you and took you into his care. You playfully roll your eyes at his tall tale that the woman and now a few others were eating up unaware of all the contradictions in the story. Behind all the exaggerations and using you as a chick magnet there was genuine affection Molly had towards you, a part of him liking the thought of you being his kid, even if it wasn’t by blood.

#critical role #critical role & reader #mighty nein #the mighty nein #mighty nein & reader #jester lavorre #jester & reader #nott the brave #nott & reader #caleb widogast #caleb & reader #caduceus clay #caduceus & reader #fjord #fjord stone #fjord & reader #beauregard lionett #beauregard & reader #yasha nydoorin #yasha & reader #mollymauk tealeaf #mollymauk & reader #nothing romantic here

[laerrynseelie]

shadowgast in "cowboy like me"

hello and welcome to another episode of Coco projects all of her issues onto Caleb Widogast and also cries about the Other Gay Purple Wizard™. this episode is sponsored by severe sleep deprivation and being in the airport at 6am, which is where I wrote most of this. but this is also something I've been yelling about for weeks, primarily at @theravenkingscourt and @dinah-lance, sponsored by taylor swift and emotions.

I will begin this dissertation with the song "cowboy like me" by Taylor Swift, from the album "evermore." those overlapping in the taylor swift and critical role fandoms have spent a long while yelling about how cowboy like me was MADE for shadowgast, and it is. here is my most recent annotation of the song lyrics (spoilers, obvs):

cowboy like me has many lines that have a direct, literal line to shadowgast, such as "the old men that I've swindled" == Ikithon, etc. but the things I want to highlight here are the themes it presents, and why I hold these boys so near and dear to my heart, and maybe why you do too. (also cc: @shadowgastweek)

many lines repeat but can have various, literal and metaphorical meanings. "eyes full of stars" can be about Rosohna, the dumancy floor of the tower, or ambition and power and desire. the fun thing about this is that they all connect together into a wonderful constellation of pain :) without Essek's ambition, the beacons wouldn't have gotten to the Cerberus Assembly, and they may have never met. without Caleb's ambition, he may have never been at the Solstryce Academy, ended up with a beacon, in Rosohna, or met Essek, or learned dunamancy, or have the floor of endless possibility. and much of this is put aside for the Nein and each other. "never thought I'd meet you here" indeed.

the bridge and third stanza of this song go SO. HARD. I have spent MONTHS yelling about the hanging gardens of babylon and no I will not stop. first of all, it's just a great fucking line. "now you hang from my lips / like the gardens of babylon" bitch are you FUCKING kidding me. the story of the gardens is that the queen missed her homeland, which had sprawling greenery, and so the king made her a garden that went around the palace and over roofs. (hey hey hey, gravity, xhorhaus, tower, you get it.) and I want to focus on the question on if the gardens actually exist. there are no surviving babylonian texts that mention the gardens, and no archaeological evidence that it ever existed. so it is a story that no one can confirm, or something completely obliterated by time and society. (or misattributed and was actually a different garden but shh it doesn't fit as well) for me, that's a strong allegory for the queer experience, and looking back at history and relationships. moreover, let's think about Caleb and Essek's interactions, and the fear of showing affection == being outed. studying together, talking close, forehead kisses. something that is not confirmed, or will be obliterated by their circumstances.

a theme that stands out from "cowboy like me" is this idea of wanting love. as a queer asian immigrant kid and a sociology student, the conditions of unconditional love is a concept that fascinates me. societally, unconditional love is talked about a lot, especially in relation to families, which we know if not always the case, and we fear it constantly. it’s hiding bad grades from your parents, or feeling like you need to prove yourself to earn love. it’s going to a pride parade and removing the stickers and face paint on the train home. it’s the fear of abandonment, of what if this is what makes it too much to love me. there was a post floating around (hehe, floating) about how both caleb and essek skirted around the ACTUAL worst things that they've done when asked about it. throughout the campaign, something that Caleb and Essek have gone through, not just with each other but the rest of the Nein, is hiding the unforgiveable things they’ve done because they think that will make them leave. and they take every unforgiveable thing, and they love them anyway. these things still happened, and that’s not okay, and they don’t dismiss it, and maybe, just maybe, if people can love them despite every unforgiveable thing, maybe they can let themselves be loved. maybe they can love themselves. and maybe, they can love, too.

the fear of love not being enough is also threaded through the song. in the case of shadowgast, it's the question of country, of war, political positions, familial desires, friends, location. (it's the question of if matthew mercer will let shadowgast be endgame goddammit.) in caleb's words, it's complicated. the Nein have defeated a lot "with the power of friendship," but what if it's not enough? what if they don't get Molly back, or they're corrupted by the eyes, or they can't get Veth back to her family? what if Trent gets Essek, or Caleb, or the Dynasty finds out, or Astrid and Eadwulf betray them, or they find their way back to old paths of power and ambition. what if love isn't enough?

"and the skeletons in both our closets / plotted hard to fuck this up" hurts me. taylor swift's bridges never miss. first of all, in closets, gay, obligatory pun, yada yada yada. it's also all the unforgiveable things they've done, war and Caleb's family, "important" but "not good" intentions, and all the people who threaten them now, ex. cerberus assembly, bisexual maelstrom, and the fact that Essek worked with the very people who abused and manipulated Caleb. all these previous fears are present in this line.

and when we see someone who is healing, who is loved, doesn't that give us hope? and isn't that present throughout critical role's history? we get to see full grown adults still enjoy a hobby, with a solid group of friends, tell us stories about growth. tell us healing is possible. Liam is Caleb and the Nein, showing this to us, Essek.

I will leave you with this. there is a theory that every relationship we have is a reflection of our relationship with our parents. every relationship is us trying to get that first relationship right, this time. this is fascinating to look at for each of the M9 (Beau and her aggression and strength and standing up against authority; Jester and her positivity and kindness and acceptance; Fjord needing to be strong and taking control), but of course I'm going to talk about Caleb. think of Caleb and Ikithon. think of Caleb and Veth. think of Caleb's need to prove he is good enough, not just in power and intelligence and ambition, but that he is good. that he is good enough. think of how his intelligence is his armor and his weapons, both literally and figuratively. at making sure Veth gets back to her family. of showing off for Essek, believing in Essek and in Essek's goodness. Essek being Caleb's foil is beautiful, but what if this is Caleb, making sure that this time, they survive.

#shadowgast #essek thelyss #caleb widogast #critical role spoilers #critical role #cr spoilers #cr #shadowgast week #i just have a lot of feelings about them and i project all my issues onto caleb #am i caleb or do i just want to date essek #both. both is good #maybe one day i'll talk about why 'tis the damn season is about the blumentrio #I have 7 songs currently in my shadowgast playlist

[cranesofibycus]

a collection of CR headcanons

A week ago I asked for 29 Critical Role headcanons for my 29th birthday. I got 33. Thank you all so much for sending them in, they made that day such a good one. I thought I’d share the joy, so here they are! 

Jester

At some point, for funsies, Artagan tied Sprinkle's life force to Jester's, so the weasel has her hitpoints (@iisuikyouii)

Jester's Spiritual Guardians make tiny rainbow poops. (@kaarchin)

Post-campaign, Jester writes her own wildly successful smutty romance novel. (@the-littlest-goblin)

Sprinkle is just the tiniest bit magical. I don’t know how or what kind of magic, but he is. (@the-littlest-goblin)

Jester is much older than we all think. (anonymous)

Beau

Years in the future, teenage TJ runs away from home to visit Beau at the Zadash Cobalt Soul. He ends up going back eventually but they have a very nice bonding weekend where she teaches him how to throw a proper punch and tells him he doesn’t have to take over the family business if he doesn’t want to. (@the-littlest-goblin)

At some point when she’s much older Beau will need reading glasses but she will refuse to wear them, much to Caleb’s annoyance. She will place books on the other side of the table in the library and squint really hard “SEE, I DON’T NEED GLASSES. THIS IS FINE” (anonymous)

Veth

Veth loves being back in her halfling body but sometimes she misses the freedom of being seen as a feral goblin and getting away with all kinds of “nasty” behavior. (anonymous)

Luc has a level in rogue by the time he’s ten. (@the-littlest-goblin)

Veth taught Caleb how to braid her hair so now it has become their morning ritual. (anonymous)

Caleb

Caleb's mom had a difficult pregnancy and birth, which is why he's an only child in a farming community (@iisuikyouii)

Caleb is like 5'4" and the only people in the group shorter than him is Veth and somehow miraculously Jester by like half an inch (@ishti-ishti)

When the blumendrei were at school, whenever Astrid and Caleb went on dates Eodwulf would end up going with them and it was just a thing, because they didn’t realize they were in a polycule. (anonymous)

There is a librarian at the Soltryce Academy who often wonders what happened to the kind, blue-eyed, red-haired boy who ran about the stacks, piled books high on his table like The Candles of the Shimmerward. A stronghold of a mind sat in their shadows, but awe, wonder, and ambition showed on his face. He'd leave, often in the company of 2 of his classmates. That made the librarian happiest. A mind like that belonged in the light. (@swagsolidarity)

Caduceus

Caduceus cooking for people to bring them closer together is something he picked up from his Aunt, and is one of those "third kid" gifts - something for him to stand after Colton and Calliope. (@iisuikyouii)

Caduceus Clay is aro ace!! (anonymous)

Caduceus has secret therapy sessions with Sprinkle. (anonymous)

Fjord

Sabien is Fjord’s former lover and that’s part of the reason he’s desperate to find him. (anonymous)

If Fjord had made it to the Soltryce Academy he would’ve become Trent’s newest pet-experiment, possibly training with Eodwulf (anonymous)

Fjord is not from Wildemount (but he’s not an alien either lol) (anonymous)

Yasha

Yasha actually has a lovely singing voice and a knack for music and her low performance score is because she sings too quietly for anyone to hear and she makes really weird and off-putting faces when she's focusing on an instrument. (anonymous)

Zuala made the first move with Yasha, because Yasha was as horribly awkward with her as she is now with Beau. (@the-littlest-goblin)

Molly

Lucien/Molly has at least some recollection of his time as Molly, and the Tomb Takers have hired the Bad-Luck Bandits to aid them at this time. (@cattatra)

Vox Machina

After c1, Percy and Keyleth get a set of mirrors enchanted so they can have fantasy facetime chats whenever. His hangs above his desk so she can see him and out to the grounds through the window. She takes hers on walks while they chat and shows him the gardens or her sun tree, or sometimes they just kinda virtually hang out while they work. (@a-case-for-wonder)

I can imagine Keyleth and Caduceus hitting it off and becoming nature-loving buddies that meet up for tea (taking my wholesome headcanon and making it kinda sad: they're both much more long-lived than their parties so they can take solace in each other) (@flowersforvex)

Misc

The big bad end boss is Tharizdun; we are SO not done with that guy yet and since two the shackles are in Rexxentrum and Whitestone it actually makes sense that VM might be occupied elsewhere while we see the MN's point of view. (@flowersforvex)

Yussa is a client of Marion's, but he also has agoraphobia so they're erotic pen pals. That bathtub was his gift to her. (@swordshapedleaves)

The gods walk among Exandria. (@alan713ch) 

If Essek ever gets the option to be consecuted he refuses since he never wants to live without the M9 and he knows already he'll be doing that for at least 1000 years and he doesn’t vibe with it. (@adira-trek)

Essek is ace (@the-littlest-goblin)

Reani and Fen do eventually get married.  (@the-littlest-goblin)

The housekeeper that the m9 hired basically moved into the Xhorhaus and has been living it up there rent-free. One time Essek went by and found her chilling on the rooftop garden. (@the-littlest-goblin)

Everyone in the m9 is either autistic or has ADHD or both. (@rwbypro)

#critical role #cr headcanons

[preciouslandmermaid]

i probably wont be able to articulate all my thoughts here but im gonna try - because im still VERY behind on critical role but i still want to think/mull over the fjorjester / widojest discourse b/c here’s where im confused

Jester started doubting her feelings back in the Pirate/Avantika Arc - because she wasn’t seeing fjord the same or rather wasn’t seeing him as this “idolized” version in her head and therefore was doubting her romantic feelings overall. totally fine. we do that with crushes and laura talked about it in a Talks episode. 

caleb / jester have a really beautiful, supportive friendship and that’s not to say that caleb and jester don’t have beautiful friendships with other members of the nein - but there’s something different about jester and caleb’s interactions. maybe it’s colored by the fact that we (viewers) know for a  canon fact that caleb is completely in love with jester. but even if liam didn’t confirm it, caleb is pretty fcking obvious. 

so - okay - looking at fjord and caleb as individuals --- here’s what I think: 

fjord is uncomplicated. this isn’t to say he isn’t complex, or interesting, or doesn’t have depth or anything like that. i mean that his overall ambitions and goals are rather uncomplicated. we assume that when travel with the M9 ends, that he’ll just want to go and be a sailor again b/c he loves the ocean. 

now, looking at caleb, the entire campaign he’s had his own ambitions and goals and they’ve been a lot. It took him - what - a 100 episodes to tell Jester about his past? i often think about what each character might do when the story ends and with Caleb? revenge for his family? change time itself? destroy the Cerberus academy? i’ve always read caleb as a character who has these larger-than-life ambitions mixed in with some doubt and loathing. now - i love widojest. i love it so much. i will still put on my clown makeup and say that its not over till its over. but part of me DOES wonder -- what does life look like for caleb post-M9? 

yes, i think widojest could be a happily ever after (HEA) scenario, of course i do cuz im biased. HOWEVER. let me tell you something, i’ve read a lot of romance novels. do you want to know the formula to a romance novel?

Heroine meets Hero. There’s an internal/external conflict. Heroine leaves Hero or he leaves her - there’s always some kind of separation involved. during that separation, feelings are understood & grappled with often with a character (or both) realizing that they were *gasp* in love the whole time. Hero and Heroine both change, resolving conflicts, and eventually return together and get their happily ever after. 

if I think of that formula, then it’s fair to assume that Caleb has unfinished business and still his own character growth to develop. he knows he loves jester and i hope someday he tells her - even if it’s not in a romantic sense - because jester deserves to hear “i love you” cuz she’s fucking amazing. 

anyway.........i lost my train of thought. moral of the story - fjord is uncomplicated/i think his personal goals are less “world-shattering” as caleb’s. lol.  

I have no clue where i went with this meta LMAO.

#widojest #this is NOT anti ship in ANYWAY #im just thinking my thoughts #critical role spoilers #cr spoilers

[hikarikaishi-blog]

Why Caleb did what he did in ep127 – my theory.

This is my theory it can be super wrong, maybe I am right at some points, I just want to put it out there, maybe some of  you will like it. Here we go:

Caleb is my fav character the whole campaign so far and what he did in that episode shocked me, it was so not like him. We did see him when cornered he would go rampage but was he cornered here? So I was shocked.

I was shocked he didnt discuss the problem that might come from this with the M9, they didnt talk about it might be a trap they just went for it. They didnt think twice and that was alarming for me and the second they interacted with the guards it all went south and Caleb ignored Astrids tip of being stealthy to avoid Trent. And in the end he did appear and I was like „that is what you get when you just go full rage and dont think a second about it and Caleb you were the thinker in this campaign why did you do all of that?! Next episode I want an explanation for this or I am out!“

Caleb knew what he was doing all the time, he knew if he would do all of this Trent would show up.

There is no way he did forget that because Astrid told him super clear that Trent isnt there so they should be STEALTHY.  But he didnt. He ignored the warnings and put Astrid in danger with that as well, a soon as Trent sees the maps he knows who helped and Astrid will be punished. He said he cares for her and puts her in this danger! It was all a lie? Astrid deserves so much better than this! Boo Caleb for treating a girl that was obviusly in pain so she cried because of you like that! I was at least a bit happy that Matt clearly said Trent did appear because of the rucus, not because of Astrid. She didnt sent Trent. She didnt do it.

Caleb ignoring Astrid and her advice and destroying the bit of Trust that was building up between them – shatterd. „Caleb thats so stupid why are you that stupid.“

I was all that. I was so disappointed.

I woke up next morning and was still disappointed and a bit angry that Caleb went this route with all the murder. He knew Trent will maybe show up and catch them while stealing his stuff and he did it anyway. It was like Caleb wanted Trent to show up. To show him how much he hates him and to show him what he is capable off. Because Trent knows that now because he sees the display of raw power he might want to get Caleb back under his thumb and make him work for him again. There is no way out of this situation for them, than to bargain with Trent and he imo will let them got when they will do him a favor later. Caleb must have known that and still did this.

He is just playing into Trents hand where everyone wanted him to escape from. Because Trent is so bad.

And I was: Wait a minute.

Let that sink in for a secong.

He is playing …

playing Trents game. Do you get where I am going with this?

What if all of this, the killing and blood everywhere, is an act made up by Caleb? What if he is playing Trents mind game back at him?

He is giving Trent a view on him like Trents want to think of Caleb: Powerful, full of hate against the Volstruker and Trents experiments, full on revenge and wants to kill him, Trent, but also is no match for him with getting so easily caught in the middle of his home. He has power but he isnt clever enough. What if Caleb wanted to get caught by Trent? Pretend he is not clever so Trent thinks he isnt clever and can be a puppet for him again?

While  pretendign being a puppet again, Caleb can get closer to him/the Assembly to learn more about him and his connections in the Assembly. To learn how to root out all the corruption in the assembly wich is his main goal this whole campaign! He wanted to learn about all that from Ves, we know that, but that didnt work out so he has to do it another way and now he doing it on his own.

He knows, he can not fight the Assembly heads up. He knows he has to get inside first and root out evil from within. He has to earn some trust to get the info he wants to have. He cannot trust anyone so he goes on his own and wants to plays Trents game and maybe be better this time and beat Trent. What better way to beat someone than in his own game right?

And do you remember who talked about beating someone at their own game? Do you? It was Astrid during the dance scene. She said „...either we walk into their trap or beat them in their own game.“

In that scene i thougt she was talking about the TT because she touched his spots with the red eyes a second before and it bothered me that she said „we“. Was she planning on going with them to Eiselcross? That wont happen anyway (she would need trents permission/it would be to obvious and Trent would not let them go so they can come up with a plan to kill him) this is stupid. So now I get she was talking about „we either beat Trent and whomever we are fighting here or we walk into their trap.“

So what I proclaim is: Astrid and Caleb in general know they are dancing the „can-i-trust-you-tango“ but they know they have one common enemy: Trent.

So they were discussing during the dance without saying it, if they want to work together in bringing him down. Caleb wasnt sure if he wants/can work on the „Trent-problem“. He has more importand stuff to do right now and he doesnt want to face all that stuff from the past that will come up during this working against Trent.

He cares for Astrid as he said. He isnt against helping her but maybe not right now.

What made him change his mind was Astrid crying in a spot where nobody would have seen her crying all on her own. He knows her, he know how much is to interpret in her crying. I think she is rarely crying. She has doen the same training as Caleb did, she is used to be cruel and to murder and be a bad human. But she wont cry because of that. She said so herself in their first meeting. Her crying is super special and Caleb gets that. And because he cares so much for her, maybe you can relate when you know a person you care for is crying in the mud. You want to help so they dont cry anymore. That is why he decides he wants to help her,/wants to start working on the problem now and not later. He knows she is using him, but he is using her as well. He doesnt care. He wants to help, to help her, help his country. He made this decision over night and Astrid gave him the time to think about it, but she needed a signal from Caleb. Ans anwer to her question if he wants to do this now or not. She said „I will see what I can do for you“ aka says „i want to work on this now, how about you?“

He sent a red firey bloody signal back. A signal as bright as the fire Warning beacons of Gondor

in „The return of the kings“ when Gondor sent signal to Rohan asking for help. The fun part is nobody gets it beside Matt and that is exactly the kidn of pranks the people on the table like to play. Remember Sam/Scanlan? I do. it was stuff he planned for weeks and nobody was expecting it and it was a big suprise for everyone.)

He could have been stealthy and just get the stuff he wanted during the heist. It would have send the signal to Astrid „thanks for the help, I cant work on this now. Maybe later. See you“.

But Caleb did not do that. He send a signal like: „I am full in, I want to play this game, starting it right now and either we win this game or loose and run into his trap. Lets do it.“

Its amazing how they comunicate without saying a single word about it.

The three different papers you ask? For me its the answer to his „for the love that we three shared I need to ask a favor“. She answeres with the box „Here is what i can do for you and yeah we three are in this together“ the paper are symbols for the three of them. The three people from Blumenthal. Its brialliant.

Why she is thankful in the message: Because he comes back and contacts her. He is her only hope.

Why she is sorry the day after: Because she thinks she is guilty to drag him into this. She knows this will be hard for him and will cause a lot of pain. That is why she says she is sorry.

(Is she for real? We dont know. They are still dancing the „can-i-trust-you-tango“)

They are playing Trents game of saying the truth and show whats obvious. Matt and Liam are playing this game so good they fool the other players and me and other fans. Its brilliant.

To let everyone think its a Trap set up by Astrid? - Its fine because people will focus on her (and its legit because she is shady and in this game as well) while Caleb is the one whom they should be worried about.

Let everyone think he does all the stuff he did here because of the Drama, Trauma and the pain etc – Yes it is exactly that to a percentage and that is the truth he is showing here, but underneath that is the other truth that he just wants to get closer to Trent. Caleb knows how he has to behave to get what he wants. He does it all the time because he learnid it from Trent! (remember the scene he wanted to work Essek as he needed him to work in that moment on the ship, because Caleb wanted the peace talk to happen? Because Caleb didnt want Essek to run away but to stay and get done what he Caleb wants?) He does not like those methods but he has to use them to get what he wants.

This is a brilliant plan from Caleb and Astrid and you know, they worked together before. They know each other so well when it comes to work (and probably more). They were a team for a long time and its like: watching a movie where old action heroes that worked together for a time suddenly have to work again. They just work together like they always did. Its like one comes visit the other one after 10 years of both of them living their lives, and they just look at each other and the person stands up goes to a shelf, gets his old gun out that was hidden there all the time and only asks: how is the weather? And the other says „its clear blue sky“ and they dotn talk anymore and just to their thing like in old times and know exactly what to do. Caleb and Astrid are Assassins in this but you know the dynamic is there.

Another way to put it:

With the dinner invitation trent put up a chess board. And invited Caleb to play. Caleb doesnt answer. Astrid asks him at the door in private: „you said you want to play this game last time you visited me. Do you still want to play? „He says „yes“ and she answers „race you to the top“ wich was clever. It seemed like she wanted to play the game herself, and that is again one half of the  truth here: she wants to play this game, but not on her own because she knows she cannot win this alone. She needs help and playful/tricky invites Caleb to play this together against Trent. Like she would say: „I want to play the game and I would want to know who is more clever/better here, you or me“. This is the dynamic I think they had as teens: always challenge each other who is more clever and gets the solution to a riddle first etc. but always playful never hating and i think that is how they connected in the beginning and fell in love at some point. We will see that maybe in the comic in summer.

During the dance she said: „You have to decide soon if you want to play this chessgame because Trent is a bit distracted anyway right now. Also time is of the essence. You have eyes on your back?“ this mental chessgame wont be a game that will finish soon, or in 2-5 episodes. It might go on for half a year because its a chess game where you have to think a lot and think a lot up in front. With the „i will help you with the necklaces“ she holds out the first pawn to Caleb, and with his rampage he takes it and sets it on the board and the game is on.

And its all covered up in half truth and some scheming but never blunt lies because that would be to easy to find out and could be the end of the game.

So Astrid and Caleb are workign together against Trent while behaving like nothing happend. She does her stuff, he does his.

They will meet sometimes because they both have the working connetction to Trent and who knows how this will end? Trent I think is aware that the game is on and I think he will play (move his figures in the next episode. With the maybe task they have to do for him so he lets them go.)

He set the board on the table in the first place.

Tldr:

Caleb wanted to face Trent. He was aware of what he did, he knew their actions did lead to Trent appearing. He wanted to seem to be the scholar that breaks into his old teachers house to get stuff so he can get closer to Trent again, to gather information from inside the assembly so he can take the system down from inside. Astrid might have gibt him the idea, and maybe there is some planing going on between Astrid and Caleb that we can’t see.

#Cr2e127 #critical role #critical role spoilers #critical role speculation #caleb widowgast #astrid beck #critical role caleb #critical role astrid #c2e127 #mytheorie #Cr Astrid #cr caleb #my theory

[night-filled-mountain]

So I was thinking about how I’ve intended for like a thousand years to make a post about each member of the M9 and their relationships with touch.

And then I started thinking about love languages (like, how different people show affection), and what those might look like for the M9, and how that relates to their different relationships with touch.

...And then I realized something straight-up devastating, which is that prior to the formation of the Mighty Nein, Beau might be the only member who had never been loved.

Fjord, I think, is the other member who comes closest to meeting that description. Travis has said that his relationship with Vandren wasn’t necessarily about kindness, per se--more like showing him respect and giving him a place in the world. Nonetheless, it’s been made clear that Vandren was a father figure for him, and while I think his issues with acceptance vs. rejection are very similar to Beau’s in many ways (though handled very differently!), at least he had that one significant bond in his life.

Jester, of course, was and is loved dearly by her mother.

Caleb (as Bren) was loved by his parents, and quite possibly by Astrid. While all of those relationships ended at once in the most devastating way possible, his trauma doesn’t erase the fact that for seventeen years of his life, at least he got to experience the feeling of being lovable, of being cherished.

Nott (as Veth) was clearly loved by her husband and son, and Yasha by her wife.

Molly was loved by the other members of the carnival. They were, as Taliesin has expressed, a “dysfunctional family,” but they were a family nonetheless. In fact, Molly was largely the opposite of Jester, in that (as Tal stated multiple times) he had never been alone in his whole remembered life (other than when he first crawled out of a grave), and he was panicked by the thought of what that would be like. He was never without a sense of belonging and mutual affection.

And Caduceus has made it quite clear that he loved and was loved by his family.

But Beau? As far as I can recall, we’ve had zero indications that either of her parents ever felt or expressed affection for her, or made her feel wanted or valued. She’s never met her only sibling. Both Beau and Marisha have indicated that she never had any friends (only casual criminal compatriots) or a real romantic relationship (only one-night stands/meaningless flings). Zeenoth and the other people she lived among at the Cobalt Soul were so cold and disapproving that she ran away from them. And while she obviously cares for Dairon and seeks her approval, they’ve met only twice, and both meetings involved some harsh training methods on Dairon’s side and a lot of distrust and lying/misdirection on Beau’s. Their relationship definitely hasn’t reached a point that either of them would refer to as “love.”

And, like...it’s easy to feel as if Beau’s being melodramatic when she talks about what an “asshole” she is...as if anything she’s done is on par with, say, torturing and executing multiple people, including your own parents. It’s also easy to feel like her loneliness and neglect and subsequent rebellion are minor struggles in comparison to the abuse, torture, and murder that make up several of her teammates’ backstories. But if you take a moment to imagine the impact of never, in your entire life, being loved or wanted? Never being granted any approval, by anyone? If you consider what that would do to your personality, the way you relate to others, and to your own self-image?

I think it’s entirely possible that when Beau said “Love you” to Jester, it was the first time she’d ever said those words in her life. I think it’s almost certain that when Jester said them back, it was the first time Beau had ever heard them. And that (1.) breaks my heart, and (2.) makes me absolutely marvel at how far Beau has come. She’s evolved into a goddamn beacon of strength and support and reliability and genuine affection, and I physically can’t handle how remarkable that is and how passionately loved, honored, and defended I want her to be.

#critical role #beauregard #beau #the mighty nein #i can't wait for them to meet her parents and verbally flay them alive #i cannot. fucking. wait. #...also i still need to make that post about touch 😛

[yfere]

Shipping Calculus! Live Updates from C2E62

Downtime (n): a word which here means “bust a drug ring and spy on war meetings,” with some home improvement on the side.

*wheezes* Anyway, we do math no matter how stressed we are, yes? A mathematician must never be daunted by mere….madness. Masterpost here.

+23 to Fjord/Jester Outside experts were necessary for this. On the one hand, Shipping Calculus Law states that you lose points for facilitating a relationship to another person….but if you do that while also clearly getting “heart eyes” for the whole affair? Those rules no longer apply. We have, here, Fjord’s Over The Top “I Am So Cool Pls Notice” at Jester referencing his bravery at rooming next to her, and mutual, uh, attempts to comfort that are Deflected By This Deflecting Pair! You Would Earn More Points For Not Deflecting! Oh no, Jester, are you worried about your mom I’m sure she’s oka—NAH, FJORD, HOW ARE YOU. Are you feeling uncomfortable latel—NAH, I’M FINE I’M HAVING ZERO ISSUES WITH THE WATER EXCEPT THAT IT’S IN MY EARS AND I CAN’T HEAR YOU. Lots and lots of banter, and Jester asking Fjord about whether this is his first home, and offering him a mural because she’s a sweetheart. Point loss because Fjord did not accept the mural invitation which makes Jester, deprived of this gesture of affection from her artistic soul, very sad. Also, Jester’s hair was gross and that’s a tragedy for all Jester ships this week.

+8 to Beau/Jester Speaking of gross hair. These two—still roomates! Beau looking for the Best Room, as always! And for some reason, they very much don’t mind in each other all the things that would make them awful roomates to everyone else? Jester happily deals with Beau’s horrific snoring (if they ever have to split, Beau and Cads need to room as the resident snorers), and Beau handles Jester’s Hair Fiasco with nary a complaint, only a surreptitious request for some incense from Caduceus. That’s love. Point loss for Beau complaining about Nugget’s drooling—you need to love pets to love Jester, and that is law

-30 to Jester/Pets. But pets….they may not love Jester. My darling….forcing your beaten and world weary weasel (a ground dweller) into a tree dwelling against its will, forgetting your weasel’s name….I mean, you would think that someone would have sat you down by now to talk about consent (and that you never call someone you love by another name).

+20 to Beau/Gaydar And she foooooooooooools Caleb into thinking it’s a faulty Straightdar that has her saying he and Nott have tension. Don’t worry, Caleb, Beau understands you a little too well. And as we all know, ejecting a man from your room is a Special Lesbian Power bequeathed from the gods.

+2 to Caleb/Fjord/Jester because Frumpkin also got to hang out and gape at Fjord’s tremendously awkward honeypot display at the apothecary. Those three made a stellar Team A to the two-team investigation, with Jester and Fjord distracting like champs while Frumpkin learned of the invisible guard! Also, +2 to Frumpkin/Detective Work!

+18 to Jester/Yasha for Jester’s incredibly thoughtful and sweet wildflower mural for Yasha, and Yasha’s equally sweet surprise and thankfulness. A perfect combination of the ancient and venerable practices of  Seduction Through Art and Seduction Through Flower Arrangements—Jester is on top of her game. Point loss for sticking even a lovingly drawn dick anywhere in Yasha’s vicinity, that should be illegal

+2 to Beau/Yasha for partnering up to go to the library, yeah! A training pit, which is Ripe for Physical Contact Opportunities! Yasha being inspired by Beau’s bracers to get a set of her own, and you know how wlw love sharing clothing? I’m just saying.

+15 to Caleb/Caduceus A bit of an understated week, in the absence of Intense Conversation, but with a lot going on. Beginning, of course, with Caduceus making Caleb’s Special Gift the Literal Symbol of him “putting down roots” and spending a full week making it the centerpiece of the Xhorhaus and such an ostentatious landmark no one in the city will ever forget it. Caleb helps out with construction of the garden using cat-shaped spellwork,  and also invites everyone he meets to Come To the Krynn’s First Treehouse the man is proud. Frumpkin, too, climbing the tree, and it’s only a matter of time before Caleb does the same. Speaking of, Caleb once more pulling the “O, Large and Attractive Man, Please Shield Me From the Haters” card in a Cramped Alley, which Caduceus himself sort of initiated by aggressively campaigning for Frumpkin Spying. Nott gets +5 to Cockblocking for pulling Caduceus away to Detect Magic. Caduceus making windchimes to help make feel Caleb safe—though Caleb is sadly dismissive at the time No point gain for Caduceus’ very sweet and genuine and incredibly unsuccessful attempt to prevent the wizard from choking to death on his grand plans. Point loss for Caleb preferring to use residuum to craft a protective ring, possibly over trying to fix the sword that Caduceus is fixated on. Can Caleb’s Sword make him forget about it?

+30 to the M9/Winning the Local Dick Measuring Contest. You take a tower, you add a 60 foot tree as an elaborate penis metaphor, spread your seed all over the rooftop garden, and put permanent daylight in a region that is permanently dark and worships the Light. All right. Okay.

+20 to Caleb/Essik oh gods, and now we have evidence that a cleaned up fashionable Caleb is perhaps also a little bit catnip for the NPCs. Caleb’s silver tongue and flirtatious finger-wiggling with his special Cat Spell? Bowing and opening the door with magic like A Flirt? The favor exchange convo which is how Every Male Character Woos Caleb Apparently? Essik, for his part, giving up his schedule for the moment, strutting his stuff with his fancy spellbook and chuckling and asking for Caleb’s permission and no one else’s to enter the home???? These boys move faaaaast. We’ll see how this develops with time. Also, between the spellwork Giving Caleb Game and Frumpkin detectiving, +50 to Caleb/Cat-Shaped Creatures, +30 to Caleb/Plot Relevant Magic Gott-damn

+35 to Fjord/Caleb So here in Shipping Calculus, Intense Conversations earn lots of points and uh, there was so much steam from this one it got sound effects. Clasping of hands, promises, declarations, in a callback to Every Major Widofjord Moment Ever. Not to mention, the ambushing-in-the-room maneuver straight (?) out of a romance novel. Caleb taking a gentle pry bar to the locked door of Fjord’s past and insecurities, as all Fjord shippers ultimately hope to see revealed on screen. The mention of Mighty Nein being family? Admiration and resentment? We can remake ourselves into something better? Admitting to worrying about everyone? Saying Caleb is not crazy (but he may be, crazy for someone?) Point loss for Fjord not…..getting the caring thing up until the end, probably. Oh dear. Oh my.

+55 to The Cast/Ashley Johnson. Yasha never fucking says anything, but Sam and Liam both love Ashley. Laura wants everyone to fuck off except Ashley, she’s an angel and we’re glad she’s here.

-100 to Caleb/Astrid/Eodwulf as Caleb says at one point Astrid was “The One” for him. But Caleb. Why could it not have been “The Two?” Throw me us a bone here.

+1000 to Nott/Yeza KISS! THEY KISS! And Nott goes on about not needing to kiss for some things. Spending time in the hot tub together, and in the Lab together (thanks, Caleb!) and being Dangerous Together. Yeza offering to be a house husband and clean up the place while they adventure! Nott being too protective of Yeza to send him without protection to the Coast or the Empire!

+14 to Caleb/Jester as Caleb aims the full force of his Worrywart self at Jester’s direction over the Astrid letter—all Jester ships gain points for distress over Marion Lavorre, as it should be. Jester alongside Nott immediately and frantically insisting that nothing letter-related is Caleb’s fault at all, but hey it’s not Jester’s fault either, it was Nott who told her what to write and she didn’t know anyyything. The suggestion for “The Salty Sea” that Jester and Caleb (and Fjord, hello +1 to Caleb/Fjord/Jester) are tied up with becoming the unlocking mechanism for a secret entrance to Caleb’s library. Jester unfortunately funnels many points into +20 to Jester/Foot in Mouth as she makes sad Astrid conversation but more importantly the horrific “you’ll always be an assassin to me” flirt. Jester. Jester no. Jester you know how he feels about his past right. Jester?

+3 to Beau/Hosting which was great until the cocktail racism, damn that’s a lot of point loss

+70 to Nott the Best Detective Agency/Detective Work as they uncover evidence of a SUUDE OPERATION and listen in on KING DWENDAL’S WAR PLANS. Interpretation of evidence once more provided by partner Beau and Lab Guy Caleb, who between their history and arcana checks and shady histories shed light on the puzzle before them.

-15 to Fjord/Charming the Neighbors. Caduceus is unfortunately too busy with home renovations to be his sweet Lets Bake For The Neighbors self, so Fjord ventures outside and proves why there need to be three high CHA people in this party. Because while Fjord can swing a honeypot in a crisis and intimidate like no one’s business, his inclination to dress people down and match insult for insult makes things go pretty sour with Bylan pretty quickly. The obvious solution, considering Fjord’s skill set, is to redress the issue by undressing the man.

+100000000000000000000000000000000000 to CR/Naming It The Xhorhaus because it got a SONG!!!!!!!!!

#cr spoilers #critical role #widofjord #widojest #fjorester #widofjorester #clayleb #beaujester #lavorregard #beauyasha #jestasha #shipping calculus

[utilitycaster]

various thoughts from this episode particularly The Kiln Of Heart-to-Hearts

-on the one hand I think Caleb is the first person to actually meet Nott on a level that is...kind of judging her, but less so? Like, Jester just isn’t really equipped to understand Nott’s motivations here, and Fjord and Nott are the friends who tease each other but I don’t know if they’ve ever had a serious one-on-one (they’ve had serious interactions with each other, but always in big M9 family conversations like when Nott revealed how she thought of Caleb, or when she told her backstory, or when Fjord talked about throwing the sword away). Beau is unwilling to take a hard line on Nott’s drinking and Caduceus is too judgey. But Caleb actually might have hit his mark by saying “you really don’t need this, and it’s not even really serving the purpose you think it does, but I will love you either way”.

-is Jester going to be Caduceus’s new project? I’m not sure how that will work out in that he tends to lay a lot of emphasis on faith, and that’s not really her problem. I also want to know more about what the Traveler thinks and that will honestly be my litmus test for him - if he encourages Jester to start processing stuff then that’s a sign he actually has her best interests at least somewhat in mind; if he’s like “no this is about me and being a happy trickster all the time” then that’s a bad sign. (FWIW I both hope and kind of think The Traveler does genuinely care about Jester and isn’t just using her; he’s offered some comfort to her, and it seems like he was keeping an eye on her during the Iron Shepherds arc in a way that wasn’t just watching an investment). Either way, Beau and Caduceus have made it pretty clear to Jester that it’s okay for her to not be okay, and getting into the above, Caleb has actually finally reached a point where he can be emotional support for others in the group.

-as a woman who lifts weights and who regularly has seen not particularly large guys who don’t work out often just walk in and immediately lift as much as I can after months of training, Beau punching Fjord for putting on muscle immediately is a fucking mood

-this has made it abundantly clear I really want Taliesin on Talks next week which isn’t going to happen (I think they are still having Talks though?)

-do not answer this is purely rhetorical but: it’s unclear to me if Fjord read the book and the Wildmother sped things up, or if that’s a whole separate thing, but I think the funniest possible outcome is that with the L10 level-up Nott’s ASI goes to strength so that she is equally as strong as Fjord (if the book and the seaweed wrap are separate, then this won’t work, and there are way better choices for Nott both mechanically and story-wise like sharpshooter or mage slayer or upping intelligence)

#fun fact burning man sounds like my own personal hell #i am glad the cr cast has fun and feels refreshed but i would rather die #critical role #critical role spoilers

[marchusburchens]

matryoshka doll conspiracies

Facts of this business

m9 is going to tell the bright queen about a maybe assault from the empire - the king? the cerberus assembly? and maybe trent ikithon was there?

but dairon said that members of the cerberus assembly may be working with the dynasty?

BUT trent ikithon is known to be fervently in support of the empire and would never betray it? AND the cerberus assembly was the one with the beacons/working with Yeza, which the Dynasty did not seem to have any knowledge of until they captured Yeza?

BUt the dens within the dynasty do not seem to be entirely on the same page as each other - Den Theylas seems to be very very invested in the m9, to the point of breaking the Dynasty’s confidence and handing over dunamantic magics

Theory 1: Dairon was wrong/lying-  Dairon is heavily invested (maybe to the point of bias, maybe to the point of lying) in removing the cerberus assembly from power in the empire. As I don’t believe that Dairon is working with the Dynasty, I think the concern is less blind nationalism than it is purely moralistic, i.e. the Cobalt Soul has no allegiance to Empire or Dynasty in one over the other, but is invested in seeing corruption stamped out.

Theory 2: There are colluding/traitorous factions on each side, within the CA and within the Dens. this could be boiled down to sides:

(presumably) for the empire/against the dynasty: trent ikithon, whoever set the rift devices up (bc they seem to want hell in Xhorhas), the king, most empire-dwellers, Dairon/the cobalt soul

(presumably) for the dynasty/against the empire: Den Krynn, Den Olios, most dynasty-dwellers, traitorous members of the CA

Unknown/undecided: the m9, Den Theylas or maybe just Essik (’cause it’s suspicious to give the Empire newcomers a house when even the queen didn’t -meaning they’re currying special favour w the m9 - and it’s SUPER suspicious and maybe even straight up traitorous to hand over the secret magics, and it’s Very Interesting that a powerful den would go to such lengths to procure a favour/debt from these shady people unless they themselves are also shady and anticipate needing allies)

tbh, within this theory, I’m not even sure if everyone in that room that was scried on in e62 was all on the same side - the blond/blue robe guy could well be a double agent, himself spying in that meeting. 

Theory 3: The entirety of the Cerberus Assembly is playing the long game, and is in fact and always has been, trying to gain power for themselves. Not for the Empire, not for the Dynasty, they are trying to take control of everything. It was veiled as “for the Empire” to trainee Scourgers, because it’s not smart to have treason as your selling point to people you want to groom (brainwashing first, target next), E.g. this convo about Ikithon: 

Caleb: Everything was for Empire. We were being trained to serve our Empire above all else. He was a little mad, himself. That is-- he was mad.

Beau: I’m curious as to how much was for the Empire and how much the Empire was a veil for his own personal exploits.

Caleb: He believed that the unwashed masses relied on their base instincts and the highest calling was to rise above the muck and control the cattle for the good of all.

This whole campaign began with an uptick in fiendish behaviour within the Empire - the CA may have been involved in that, as they may be with the rifts in Xhorhas. The notes in the apothecary basement make no mention of the Empire, and talk about how great all the dunamancy findings are for the Assembly. The scry from e62 mentions how the soon-to-be chaos will be a good time to release the scourgers - doing chaotic things, like assassinating both rulers of two warring countries, is best done during times of chaos.

#critical role #i've definitely missed some angles hmmmmm #i've connected the doTS

[soldier-poet-king]

Rate all of the mighty nien for friend material and how you would spend a free afternoon with them

uhhhh hailey how COULD you im SO indecisive

uhhhh

1000000/10 the BEST friend i love cad with my whole heart and i think he’d be such a good friend, at least for me, bc i need that peacefulness and stability (me, as A Caleb, dealing with lots of guilt and trauma, like that dynamic is super important). An afternoon with cad would be simple!!! picnicking and gardening and learning about plants!!! i wanna hear the soft man ramble about plants for HOURS

9/10 Jester would also be a great friend bc she’s so kind and loving of everyone she meets and honestly??? i’d just eat pastries with jester for a whole afternoon

8/10 mollymauk, much like cad, he’s got this calming, accepting, kindness to him, i mean, much more mischievious as well, but i miss him alot, idk what we would do though!! bc alot of his free times are occupied with things i dont...uh....do....

5/10 fjord - he kinda scares me, he’s responsible, but also intimidates the HECK out of me, and there’s some shady shit going on with ukatoa, but i realize im paranoid and overly suspicious probably unfairly (im sorry fjord :((( travis is still amazing and i love the way he plays fjord, i just dont TRUST fjord)

8/10 nott is a mom, i lack a good mom figure, we both like to drink unhealthy amounts, so i don’t think we’d struggle to find smthn to do (aka get sloshed)

7/10 yasha - we’re both shy so it’d be awkward to force conversation, but we both love plants so a botany afternoon would be gr8 and we can pick flowers for zuela

????/10 beau - i dont know!!! i LOVE beau so much!!! but i am a weak noodle and so idk what we’d do?? i cant train and she’s not keen on the whole cobalt soul library thing, and idk if i could be like caleb and spill my traumas to convince her to sneak me in to the library .... BUT she also cares So Much, she might struggle with showing it at times, but she’s SO GOOD and always makes sure to take care of caleb (give me the good good empire siblings!!!) so i know she’d actually be a great friend

-500/10 caleb....dont get me wrong, caleb is MY FAVE M9 member by FAR and liam is FANTASTIC in the way he acts both vocally and physically...but like....caleb is my fave character bc of shared traumas, parental issues, mental instability, like....we would absolutely just feed off each other’s problems and negativity and it would be probably unhealthy.....on the OTHER hand, he needs a long hug and cuddle, and I ALSO need a long hug and cuddle...so like....two sad touch-starved individuals allowing themselves a little kindness and a little healing...that could be nice....trying for forgiveness....AND caleb’s an academic beneath all the trauma!! so like, discussing new magical theory would be great, if we both weren’t Human Disasters

BONUS 1000/10 frumpkin - give me that good good emotional support therapy cat, allergies be damned 

Hailey i cant believe you made me think about this bc i got invested and thought it about way too much lmao

[courtneytincher]

2nd Security Forces Squadron will arm up with M9 Beretta for the final time

The U.S. Air Force has announced that the 2nd Security Forces Squadron will arm up with the legendary M9 Beretta for the final time on November 30.

Instead, they will begin carrying the M18 Modular Handgun System, a shorter, more compact weapon. The change is expected to enable defenders to complete their jobs more efficiently and effectively, according to the 2nd SFS Combat Arms team.

“It is an easier system to operate,” said Staff Sgt. Daniel Johnson, 2nd SFS Combat Arms assistant non-commissioned officer in charge. “This is because it is a striker-fired weapon which means the trigger squeeze is the same each time.”

“The M9 requires a stronger trigger squeeze at first and then gets lighter as it shoots. The M18 uses a consistent amount of pressure, taking away the anticipation and added strength needed from the M9, allowing the shooter to not have to think about the trigger squeeze every time, granting more accuracy,” Johnson added.

Among other aspects like customizable pistol grips, the M18 is known for its durability and simplified operating system.

“Four of us instructors attended the Sig Armorer course at the Sig Sauer Academy to learn more about the breakdown and maintenance portion of the weapon as well as some of the new ways they build the system,” said Senior Airman Matthew Lazo, 2nd SFS Combat Arms instructor. “There are fewer pieces that we are going to have to fix as often and the system also comes to where you are just changing out one whole part versus having to change a million different ones.”

The deadline for the switch was set for July of 2020, a year from when the team received the weapon systems on base. The team made a goal to break that deadline by seven months. Together they had to find a way to get more than 280 personnel qualified on top of their 300 personnel monthly firing schedule.

“It took us about a week, but we laid it out by figuring out how long it takes us to run everyone through the course, and we came out with the plan,” Lazo explained. “Not only getting everyone in once but two or three separate times.”

The qualifications aren’t as simple as members showing up to fire. There is a specific 90-round handgun course of fire qualification process that includes not only a hands-on portion but also a classroom instruction. Before the qualification process began, the firing range on base was shut down for updates to the safety features, causing the team to have to find another range to train.

“At the range on base, we have 21 points, which means we can have 21 people fire at a time,” Johnson explained. “At the off-base range, there were time restrictions, and we could have as many as 16 points at once to as little as eight depending on the time.”

The Combat Arms team didn’t let that set them back as they continued to adapt and overcome all the hurdles thrown their way. They are still going to be able to meet their early deadline.

Dec. 1, 2019, will mark the beginning of a new era of weapon systems within the 2nd SFS as the black M9 is replaced by the coyote-tan M18.

from Defence Blog

The U.S. Air Force has announced that the 2nd Security Forces Squadron will arm up with the legendary M9 Beretta for the final time on November 30.

Instead, they will begin carrying the M18 Modular Handgun System, a shorter, more compact weapon. The change is expected to enable defenders to complete their jobs more efficiently and effectively, according to the 2nd SFS Combat Arms team.

“It is an easier system to operate,” said Staff Sgt. Daniel Johnson, 2nd SFS Combat Arms assistant non-commissioned officer in charge. “This is because it is a striker-fired weapon which means the trigger squeeze is the same each time.”

“The M9 requires a stronger trigger squeeze at first and then gets lighter as it shoots. The M18 uses a consistent amount of pressure, taking away the anticipation and added strength needed from the M9, allowing the shooter to not have to think about the trigger squeeze every time, granting more accuracy,” Johnson added.

Among other aspects like customizable pistol grips, the M18 is known for its durability and simplified operating system.

“Four of us instructors attended the Sig Armorer course at the Sig Sauer Academy to learn more about the breakdown and maintenance portion of the weapon as well as some of the new ways they build the system,” said Senior Airman Matthew Lazo, 2nd SFS Combat Arms instructor. “There are fewer pieces that we are going to have to fix as often and the system also comes to where you are just changing out one whole part versus having to change a million different ones.”

The deadline for the switch was set for July of 2020, a year from when the team received the weapon systems on base. The team made a goal to break that deadline by seven months. Together they had to find a way to get more than 280 personnel qualified on top of their 300 personnel monthly firing schedule.

“It took us about a week, but we laid it out by figuring out how long it takes us to run everyone through the course, and we came out with the plan,” Lazo explained. “Not only getting everyone in once but two or three separate times.”

The qualifications aren’t as simple as members showing up to fire. There is a specific 90-round handgun course of fire qualification process that includes not only a hands-on portion but also a classroom instruction. Before the qualification process began, the firing range on base was shut down for updates to the safety features, causing the team to have to find another range to train.

“At the range on base, we have 21 points, which means we can have 21 people fire at a time,” Johnson explained. “At the off-base range, there were time restrictions, and we could have as many as 16 points at once to as little as eight depending on the time.”

The Combat Arms team didn’t let that set them back as they continued to adapt and overcome all the hurdles thrown their way. They are still going to be able to meet their early deadline.

Dec. 1, 2019, will mark the beginning of a new era of weapon systems within the 2nd SFS as the black M9 is replaced by the coyote-tan M18.

via IFTTT

#Defence Blog

[peach-the-owl]

Hello! Hope you are having a wonderful day! May I request for a scenario Caleb with a child!Magical!Reader (wizard/Sorcerer) where they meet Astrid & Eodwulf. Maybe the child gets lost and is found by Caleb's old school friends. All the while Caleb & the rest of the M9 are trying to find them while the child is with Astrid & Eodwulf.

Interesting. They might be a little OOC, idk, but I tried my best. I hope you still enjoy 😁

Lost in the City

Astrid & Eodwulf & Child!Magical!Reader

A bit of Caleb & Child!Reader

Rexxentrum was a huge city and very easy to get lost in if you’re not paying attention, which is exactly what happened to you. You swear you’d only looked away from the group for like 5 seconds and yet here you were alone amongst the busy streets. You remembered being told that if you ever got lost to stay where you were and they’d eventually find you, so you back up closer to a building and sit down against the wall. You didn’t know how long you’d have to wait for them to find you but you were already getting really bored, resorting to playing around with your own magic to help pass the time.

"Are you lost little one?" You hear a woman ask. You look up to see two individuals looming over you, one being a man with a stoic expression and the other being a woman, who most likely asked the question.

"I… well… ummm…" You fumble with your words shyly, what where you supposed to say to these strangers, you settle with just nodding your head.

"I see. That was some fine hand work with your magic, where did you learn to do that?" She sounded curious, but you also caught onto hints of caution and sternness in her voice as well.

"I have a really good teacher, but I wasn’t paying attention and now I lost them." You still fumble around your words a bit, trying to answer the previous question and explain your situation all at once.

"Perhaps we could help you locate them." The woman offers. You scratch at the back of your head in an unsure manner.

"I don’t know, I’m not really supposed to go with strangers."

"Well then let’s get to know each other a little, my name's Astrid. It’s a pleasure to meet you…" Astrid places a hand to her chest when introducing herself then gestures to you as her sentence trails off.

"My name's (y/n)." You finish for her with a small smile.

"(Y/n)." She repeats, she then gestures over to the man next to her. "This is my colleague…" She pauses again and stares at the man next to her.

"Eodwulf." He reply’s softly, making you strain your ears to try and hear him.

"It’s nice to meet you Ms. Astrid and Mr… Edgewolf?" You say questioningly, checking to make sure you got the names right. Astrid let’s out a cough into her fist to mask a small laugh that tried to surface while "Edgewolf" stares at you and sighs.

"It’s Eodwulf." He says more clearly this time, rubbing at the bridge of his nose. You nod and notice the fancy patterns that run up his arms making you point at them.

"What’re those designs on your arms for?" Your comment makes Eodwulf pull away his arm to stare at the line work, Astrid pulls up the sleeve of her outfit to reveal to you that she too has similar designs on her own arms.

"These tattoos help us to use powerful magic." She explains as simply as possible. You practically get stars in your eyes out of curiosity.

"Powerful magic? Can I see!? Can I see!?" You bounce a bit, with your position on the ground it wasn’t all that comfortable but you didn’t care that mush. The two look at each other a moment before Astrid gives a subtle nod and turns back to you.

"We can show a few of our tricks but not here, we'll need to go somewhere less public." She offers.

"Oh," you fidget a little nervously again. "I'm not really supposed to leave until my friends find me."

"You said you couldn’t go with strangers, but you know me and Eodwulf now, right?" You nod slowly at her. "Rexxentrum is a very large city, so it could take a long time for your friends to find you. If you travelled with us we can help you look for them or you might run into them sooner, if not we can always come back here to wait for them." You think on this a little, Astrid's reasoning sounding very convincing to you, so you look back at her with a large smile and give a nod. Astrid then offers out her hand for you to take which you happily accept, getting up off the ground and having her lead you to a different area.

After a good while of walking and searching, with no results, you’re brought to an open area that was defiantly made for training purposes. Astrid pulls you off to the side a good distance away for you to watch. You stare amazed at the display of power between the two, both very concentrated on each spell they decide to preform. When they’re done you’re left jaw dropped and clap for them amazed.

"That was so cool! You guys are like walking weapons!" You cheer for them.

"We are, aren’t we." Eodwulf straightens himself out a little, a proud smirk on his face at your compliment.

"I want to be super strong like that one day! Then I can protect everyone from the bad guys." You say with invigorated determination for the future.

"With how well you can control your spells now, I think if you keep it up you’ll surely be just as powerful, if not more so when you’re older." Astrid gives you a side smile. You giggle with delight, then stop when you hear you stomach give a loud grumbling sound.

"Ummm…" You blush a little embarrassed. "I’m hungry."

"Then it’s lucky for you we don’t have any jobs to do at the moment. Why don’t we head over to the market and buy something to eat, maybe we'll even run into the people you’re looking for there."

"That’s really nice of you Ms. Astrid, are you sure it’s okay?" You look up at her with big curious eyes and she simply nods. The three of you make your way over to the market, you skipping ahead occasionally but not too far as to not get lost again.

"Are you sure we should be watching this child?" Eodwulf leans in closer to Astrid so only she could hear him.

"They may be a mere child, but they have strong potential to them." She whispers back. "Besides, their innocent excitement is a refreshing change of pace. Don’t you agree?" She quietly adds, Eodwulf nods after a moment of processing her words. At this point you hop up to the two of them again.

"Swing me!" You blurt out to Eodwulf. He stares at you confused, unsure what to do.

"I don’t…" His words trail off as he continues to stare.

"All you have to do is hold you hands, lift me up and I can swing back and forth from the momomtime." You try to explain, not knowing how to properly say momentum. Eodwulf turns to look at Astrid, who just raises an amused eyebrow wanting to see where this goes. He sighs softly before complying to your wishes, you swing your dangling legs around a bit to build up enough momentum to fling yourself out of his grip and safely land on the ground in front of him. "Again! Again again!" You happily chirp.

"Fine, but this is the last one." He tells you… You end up convincing him to swing you around about 15 more times, though you were pretty sure he secretly liked doing it. The last few times Astrid got herself involved too, both of them taking one of your hands in there’s and lifting you up to swing as you all continued to make your way to a marketplace.

"Something smells delicious." You comment, feeling your stomach growl at you again. You sit down at a bench with Astrid while Eodwulf handles grabbing something for the three of you to eat.

"Why don’t you tell me more about your magic (y/n)." Astrid starts.

"There’s not a lot to say, I’ve been practicing a lot but I’m not very good at the big spells yet so I try to stick to the little ones." You reply, waving your hand around and casting Mage Hand making it float around in circles before dismissing the spell.

"Still, someone your age being able to cast spells this quickly, as small as they may be, is quite an accomplishment. You must have a very good teacher."

"Yeah, he’s the best, everyone is." You give a wide smile.

"I just realized, you never gave us the names of the people we should be searching for. I can’t believe I just let that information slip by." Astrid says, the last part more to herself.

"Oh! There-"

"I’m back." Eodwulf interrupts you before you can finish, holding a box of sweet buns for the three of you to share. Quickly forgetting what you were about to say you happily take one and chow down, savouring the sweet taste.

"That was really good, thank you Mr. Eodwulf." You thank once you were done the sweet buns. You all get up and start to make your way around the market when a man dashes out of a side street a few feet away from you. You recognize them instantly. "Caleb!" You call to him happy to finally see a familiar face again. He whips around in your direction and for a moment he has a look of relief on his face, his gaze shifts up a bit and the relief turns quickly into fearful shock when he sees the people you’re with.

"You know this man?" Astrid asks, sounding surprised.

"Of course I do, that’s one of the friends I was looking for." You reply, completely unaware of the tension that arose between the three.

"(Y/n)," Caleb starts slowly, regaining your attention. "Come here please." He ushers you over, not breaking eye contact with his old classmates once.

"Thanks again for everything." You quickly say to the two before walking over to Caleb, who immediately pulls you behind him once you were within arms reach of him and takes a defensive pose.

"It’s been a while Bren." Astrid speaks slowly and in a lower voice then when she interacted with you. You tilt your head confused, wondering why she just called Caleb by a different name.

"Do you three know each other?" You ask, trying to figure out what was going on.

"It’s a long story, I’ll explain later." Caleb quickly brushes you off slowly backing the two of you away from Astrid and Eodwulf.

"That child you have there," Caleb pauses slightly at her words. "There something special. I’d keep a very close eye on them from now on if I were you." She subtly advises. Caleb looks at you a moment then back at Astrid.

"I plan to." Is all he says before the two of you finally walk off, most likely to rejoin the rest of the Nein.

"It was Bren all along." Eodwulf breaths, still a bit surprised about the encounter.

"It seems so." Astrid says blankly.

"What shall we tell Trent?" Eodwulf asks cautiously, looking at Astrid. She turns so that the two are staring into each other’s eyes, a stern look on her face.

"We don’t." Is all she replies with before the two make their way back through the market.

Bonus:

Earlier/elsewhere in the city while you were having a lovely day…

"Where's (y/n)?" Caleb asks the group, already starting to panic.

"Didn’t Jester say she was taking them to the pastry shop with her?" Beau asks.

"What?! No, I was going with Nott. I thought you and Yasha were taking them around the market." Jester retorts.

"We lost our child!" Nott cry's out.

"It’s okay, all we have to do is look for them in the last place we saw them right?" Jester brings up trying to calm everyone’s nerves down.

"Jester's right," Fjord jumps in, "we just need to make a plan to search for them, what do you say Caleb?…… Caleb?" They all look over to see that Caleb had already run off to start searching.

"Oh boy, this is… this isn’t good. Do we wait for him to… should we follow?" Caduceus questions. After a short debate they all head out to now look for you and Caleb.

#critical role #critical role & reader #mighty nein #the mighty nein #mighty nein & reader #caleb widogast #caleb & reader #astrid #astrid & reader #eodwulf #eodwulf & reader #npc appreciation month #nothing romantic here

[keithcurrams]

Excirah but not Delirah at the Lyrath

9th December 2016 Another dull December day with the slightest wash of blue visible below the densest grey cloud. The same scenery passes as we head out of town; Waterford’s New Bridge skewering a low cloud and the M9 mostly clear with occasional overtaking cars throwing up a fine mist.

We exit at Junction 9, passing carpooled vehicles scattered in the hard shoulder and just a little further down the road the Lyriah Estate Hotel becomes  visible through the trees. The stately facade sitting atop a green lawn guarded by stone lions and three fluffy retrievers.

Today we’re in Kilkenny to attend an event set up by the new South East Creative Corridor. We pass through reception, down the hall and into the conference room, long and low with tables full of chatting groups.

This event is being run by The Entrepreneurs Academy who are doing a series of workshops and mentoring programmes over the next 12 months. This event is the free bootcamp designed to give an overview of the course, and a taster for what’s on offer. The speakers explained that the Audio Visual area in Ireland has been identified as an area for significant growth and their mission is to develop any existing AV industries to meet this new demand. There was a push from the opening speech for people to pony up €150 and register for the 12 month course. The hard sell promising that the coming tide will raise all our boats, and that we’d best moor to their pontoon.

The course content spans a film summit in Nov/Dec 2017, training workshops, mentoring, business planning and a pot of funding for 1 lucky entrepreneur. This was the first thing that leaped out at me; with such a strong emphasis on networking and developing each other’s business, why would you then dangle a cash prize that turns everyone in the room into a competitor?

We’re split into pairs and given an exercise to learn about the other person, and then pitch them to the room. The place erupts into a din of chatter as people take turns talking about themselves and asking questions. Time is called and the mic is passed around the room as we listen to everybody introduce the other. Sole traders, media companies, operators, photographers, props, directors.. just by being present we were rubbing shoulders with so many sectors of the industry. This was a great event if only for that, the opportunity to meet people in the industry. For example  Ross Costigan, a Kilkenny photographer whose work I am familiar with and got to spend some time talking about what we’re doing in our creative practices, and where we want to go, and if this course is really right for where we are now. Later in the day I spoke with a person running their own video production company. I picked his brain about my current plan to diversify, to split up all the different work  I do under different banners, essentially establishing 5 different businessess and he turns it on its head telling me to consolidate, bring it all together. “As long as people can see the unifying thread running through what you do it will make sense”.

The morning passed quickly and we broke for tae and pastry. Upon returning from the break, I see that flyers for one of the attendees businesses have appeared at each table. “Video worth watching” apparently. In the second half the facilitators talk about Demand and Margin, and the laser focus needed on these 2 variables. Increase demand, and increase profit margin. Is what we’re doing a business or a passion project. Well, is it?

Maybe it’s the tiredness, but I’m unable to properly engage with what is happening here today. I keep hearing echoes of the Innovation Academy (….scaaale faast  and fail faaaast… ) but it is like an empty repetition of well-worn phrases.  Everything I learned at the Innovation Academy rests on the idea being viable by providing a solid Value Proposition for the client. This however was a more visceral experience than the ergonomic corners of prototypes and elevator pitches. This course seems to be some hybrid with the head of creativity and the bloodied talons of business. The dirty world of brass tacks without the eloquent joy of the pivot, success measured solely on profit margins. This is business at the end of the day.

They spoke of the “Power of the Network”, as if by sheer numbers something amazing would happen. There is certainly power in the network, and value in the room, but the room is noisy if no one knows how to listen and small important things are passed over in favour of the brave and the loud. I felt myself buffeted about by the talk of this perfect business storm, my mind clouded and focusing inwards at the next steps I needed to make to get strong enough to compete instead of opening out to be present in the experience. I’d had enough of this and couldn’t wait to go. It was school all over again.

At the end of the day a facilitator asked ‘Any photographers here’ and hands went up. The next question was ‘How many of you have a camera with you’ and I left my hand in the air. Thinking to myself “I’m probably the only one here who brought a camera. And I was. Or at least the only one dumb enough to admit it. He announces to the room “Great so if you wouldn’t mind, we’ll get everyone together and grab a quick group photo, and you can send it on to us we’ll credit you in the papers”. So out we went through the fire exit and stood on the lawn, watched by a couple in their balcony hot-tub as I duly took an awful group photo. The same facilitator stood beside me taking the same photo on his phone.

My not so great group photo. 

One of the other attendees, a photographer of 25 years, came up to me as we filed back in “It’s not right what he did there, he shouldn’t have done that like that”. 

And he’s right. And moreso I shouldn’t have acted like a sap and gone along with it. But I did. I think he went onto have a word in the facilitator’s ear, because a moment later the facilitator was at my shoulder:

“I should not have asked you to do that like that. If we needed a photographer we should have booked one weeks in advance, it diminishes your work asking you to do that. I need to  make this right, how can I make this right” I replied something like “Well maybe just remember this for next time and don’t do it again-“ “I know” he says “ what if I give money to a charity on behalf of you.”

With that he stands up on a chair and announces to the room “I’ve done a bad thing, by asking *what’s your name again* Keith here to take this photo, I’ve undermined him and devalued his work. What I’m going to do to make up for this is donate money to a charity on his behalf”

Everyone claps, packs up their things, and on the way out a few people come up to me saying  “If he wanted to make things right he should have paid you”

 Look at the handtowels by the sinks. Posh or what! The Lyrath Hotel is a classy venue with great facilities, couldn’t fault them in the least.

This public act of attrition was more penance than apology and this encounter was a crummy end to the day. But this shouldn’t reflect on the core ethos of the Creative Corridor and Ireland’s potential for a new industry. It was great to see people from all over the South East in the same room and I got to talk to some genuinely interesting individuals over the course of the morning. And I didn’t come away empty handed, I got to think more about the businessey aspects of the industry, and at the very least it reaffirmed where I am now in terms of prototyping and customer discovery.

I’m excited to see what becomes of the creative corridor and intend to stay in that loop. Having seen the nascent film industry in Limerick with Troy studios I’d love to see the same for the South East of Ireland. To be able to look outside my own front door for work instead of the other side of the country or the globe would be a fine thing.

[courtneytincher]

2nd Security Forces Squadron will arm up with M9 Beretta for the final time

The U.S. Air Force has announced that the 2nd Security Forces Squadron will arm up with the legendary M9 Beretta for the final time on November 30.

Instead, they will begin carrying the M18 Modular Handgun System, a shorter, more compact weapon. The change is expected to enable defenders to complete their jobs more efficiently and effectively, according to the 2nd SFS Combat Arms team.

“It is an easier system to operate,” said Staff Sgt. Daniel Johnson, 2nd SFS Combat Arms assistant non-commissioned officer in charge. “This is because it is a striker-fired weapon which means the trigger squeeze is the same each time.”

“The M9 requires a stronger trigger squeeze at first and then gets lighter as it shoots. The M18 uses a consistent amount of pressure, taking away the anticipation and added strength needed from the M9, allowing the shooter to not have to think about the trigger squeeze every time, granting more accuracy,” Johnson added.

Among other aspects like customizable pistol grips, the M18 is known for its durability and simplified operating system.

“Four of us instructors attended the Sig Armorer course at the Sig Sauer Academy to learn more about the breakdown and maintenance portion of the weapon as well as some of the new ways they build the system,” said Senior Airman Matthew Lazo, 2nd SFS Combat Arms instructor. “There are fewer pieces that we are going to have to fix as often and the system also comes to where you are just changing out one whole part versus having to change a million different ones.”

The deadline for the switch was set for July of 2020, a year from when the team received the weapon systems on base. The team made a goal to break that deadline by seven months. Together they had to find a way to get more than 280 personnel qualified on top of their 300 personnel monthly firing schedule.

“It took us about a week, but we laid it out by figuring out how long it takes us to run everyone through the course, and we came out with the plan,” Lazo explained. “Not only getting everyone in once but two or three separate times.”

The qualifications aren’t as simple as members showing up to fire. There is a specific 90-round handgun course of fire qualification process that includes not only a hands-on portion but also a classroom instruction. Before the qualification process began, the firing range on base was shut down for updates to the safety features, causing the team to have to find another range to train.

“At the range on base, we have 21 points, which means we can have 21 people fire at a time,” Johnson explained. “At the off-base range, there were time restrictions, and we could have as many as 16 points at once to as little as eight depending on the time.”

The Combat Arms team didn’t let that set them back as they continued to adapt and overcome all the hurdles thrown their way. They are still going to be able to meet their early deadline.

Dec. 1, 2019, will mark the beginning of a new era of weapon systems within the 2nd SFS as the black M9 is replaced by the coyote-tan M18.

from Defence Blog

The U.S. Air Force has announced that the 2nd Security Forces Squadron will arm up with the legendary M9 Beretta for the final time on November 30.

Instead, they will begin carrying the M18 Modular Handgun System, a shorter, more compact weapon. The change is expected to enable defenders to complete their jobs more efficiently and effectively, according to the 2nd SFS Combat Arms team.

“It is an easier system to operate,” said Staff Sgt. Daniel Johnson, 2nd SFS Combat Arms assistant non-commissioned officer in charge. “This is because it is a striker-fired weapon which means the trigger squeeze is the same each time.”

“The M9 requires a stronger trigger squeeze at first and then gets lighter as it shoots. The M18 uses a consistent amount of pressure, taking away the anticipation and added strength needed from the M9, allowing the shooter to not have to think about the trigger squeeze every time, granting more accuracy,” Johnson added.

Among other aspects like customizable pistol grips, the M18 is known for its durability and simplified operating system.

“Four of us instructors attended the Sig Armorer course at the Sig Sauer Academy to learn more about the breakdown and maintenance portion of the weapon as well as some of the new ways they build the system,” said Senior Airman Matthew Lazo, 2nd SFS Combat Arms instructor. “There are fewer pieces that we are going to have to fix as often and the system also comes to where you are just changing out one whole part versus having to change a million different ones.”

The deadline for the switch was set for July of 2020, a year from when the team received the weapon systems on base. The team made a goal to break that deadline by seven months. Together they had to find a way to get more than 280 personnel qualified on top of their 300 personnel monthly firing schedule.

“It took us about a week, but we laid it out by figuring out how long it takes us to run everyone through the course, and we came out with the plan,” Lazo explained. “Not only getting everyone in once but two or three separate times.”

The qualifications aren’t as simple as members showing up to fire. There is a specific 90-round handgun course of fire qualification process that includes not only a hands-on portion but also a classroom instruction. Before the qualification process began, the firing range on base was shut down for updates to the safety features, causing the team to have to find another range to train.

“At the range on base, we have 21 points, which means we can have 21 people fire at a time,” Johnson explained. “At the off-base range, there were time restrictions, and we could have as many as 16 points at once to as little as eight depending on the time.”

The Combat Arms team didn’t let that set them back as they continued to adapt and overcome all the hurdles thrown their way. They are still going to be able to meet their early deadline.

Dec. 1, 2019, will mark the beginning of a new era of weapon systems within the 2nd SFS as the black M9 is replaced by the coyote-tan M18.

via IFTTT

#Defence Blog