#vax could get away with being annoying to vex because he was her brother

[ravendruid]

Be In My Eyes - Chapter 6

You can read the previous chapters here or on AO3. I'm sorry it took me a while to upload a new chapter. I hope you like it.

As someone who gets overwhelmed quickly in extensive social contexts, sharing a house with six other people can be exhausting, so Vax'ildan tries to enjoy the moments of solitude as much as he can. 

Vax enjoyed being alone in the darkness of his room, with music as his only company and a dagger in his hands, which is what he was doing when his bedroom door opened. At first, he thought it was Vex since Percy had already left, but then he saw a hint of red hair from the corner of his eyes. When he looked to the door, Keyleth’s head was peeking through, one hand in front of her eyes. Vax could see her lips moving but couldn’t hear anything she was saying. It took him a couple of seconds to realize the music was too loud, so he paused the song and took off his earbuds.

“Hi, Keyleth. Sorry. I couldn’t hear you. Did you need anything?” He asked, sitting up and looking at her.

Keyleth let herself in, closing the door behind her. She had a faint blush on her cheek and was thrumming nervously with her fingers.

“I–I was wondering if you wanted to study with me?” She spoke in a sweet soft voice that made Vax’s toes curl.

“Yeah, of course,” Vax set the blade on his nightstand under Keyleth’s confused gaze. He waited for her to say something, but when she didn’t, he got up from the bed and walked towards her. “I did offer to study with you.”  

They sat on the living room rug, their backs leaning against the couch, with their books opened on the coffee table in front of them all morning. Keyleth was amazed at how patient Vax was with her, answering all her questions and explaining the topics. When he didn’t know the answer right away, she would watch him comb the books for answers until he looked at her with the grin of someone who had found the meaning of life.

Keyleth knew should be paying attention to what he was telling her, but instead, she couldn’t stop staring at his dark eyes, so full of mystery but so calm and kind at the same time. She realized that Vax spent a lot of time by himself or with Vex, only joining the rest of the group when Vex annoyed him to death. Keyleth couldn’t blame him. She found it hard to be around people as well. She was always concerned about what they would think or say or about her saying something ridiculous and being mocked, and that was why she was always quiet.

She hadn’t been alone with Vax that often, but whenever they happened to be alone, she didn’t feel like that. She somehow knew that Vax would not mock her for saying anything stupid or that he would think badly of her, and she felt comfortable with him enough to be herself and make jokes. She didn’t see him smile often – and had never heard him laugh – but she could swear that every time she tripped, spilled something, or said anything remotely funny, she could see the corner of his mouth curl into a smile – not in ridicule, but in amusement –, and that was enough of a win for her.

—

Later that night, Keyleth cooked one of her favorite vegetarian meals for the twins. They ate it together in the living room since the kitchen table was too large for just three people while drinking beer and chatting. Vex was surprised her brother had joined them, but he seemed light and carefree for once, chatting with a smile on his face. 

“You two should totally cook tomorrow, and I’ll take care of the decorations.” She said, pointing at Keyleth and Vax with her bottle and then at herself. She stifled a laugh as they looked at each other in embarrassment. “Just because it’s only the three of us, it doesn’t mean that we don’t get to celebrate Harvest’s Close.”

“Oh. That sounds fun.” Keyleth clapped her hands excitedly, looking at Vax with a begging expression.

“Come on, brother,” Vex teased him. “You can make your amazing pumpkin pie.”

“I don’t know, Vex’ahlia.” Vax’s smile fell, and he started looking around nervously. Shit. He was doing so well.

“You don’t have to, Vax,” Keyleth spoke softly, placing a hand on his arm. Vex noticed how her brother blushed and avoided her gaze, but most importantly, she also caught how Keyleth blushed too. Oh no, this is going to be a problem. “Although, I do love pumpkin pie,” Keyleth added, hooking a finger under her chin contemplative.

“So do I,” Vex pointed out. “And your pumpkin pie is the best in the world. You cannot deprive us of that delicacy, brother.”

“Alright, I’ll do it.” Vax surrendered when Vex looked at him with pleading eyes, but deep down, she knew it hadn’t been her to convince him, but Keyleth. This is going to be a problem indeed.

They spent the rest of the night making plans for the next day. Vex gathered a few coins from the twins’ shared savings for decorations, and Keyleth offered to pay for the food by herself – including the pie ingredients – refusing to take any of the twins’ money. By the end of the night, all three were exhausted but excited. 

Vex couldn’t remember the last time she had seen her brother smile the way he did when he and Keyleth started making plans for the next day. Not the ear-to-ear grin he had as they planned what time they would get groceries together, nor the shine in his eyes when he asked Keyleth what time they should start cooking together. But the cherry on top of the cake for Vex was hearing her brother ask Keyleth – when he thought Vex wasn’t listening – if she would be okay if he helped her with the main dish.

Vex knew she should be happy about her brother, but she also knew he loved so effortlessly and got hurt even easier. She decided not to say anything yet but would keep an eye on them. Vax had done so much to keep Vex safe that she would not let Keyleth break his heart. 

#critical role #cr fic #vox machina #vaxleth #modern au #college au #vox machina au #vaxleth au #critical role au #be in my eyes

[maddyscrsideblog]

Obsessed with how Liam will manage to lovingly annoy his friends (mainly Laura) while maintaining Orym being a lovely, polite person in the context of the game

#no orym is not trying to throw off laura/imogen's counting #he's counting in his head! but liam absolutely is saying random numbers out loud to throw off laura #liam's no longer playing a prick (affectionate) but by god will he find ways to do the same shit he did as caleb #vax could get away with being annoying to vex because he was her brother #but with orym he's been getting creative #orym #critical role #liam o'brien #cr spoilers #like not really but also he was doing it in last night's episode

[peach-the-owl]

Tainted Innocence Pt. 2

Percy & Younger Sibling!Vampire!Reader

At long last part 2 has arrived! If anyone needs a refresh of part 1, click here. I’m really sorry this one took me so long, but after finishing the show I’ve regained the motivation to finish this. This follows the timeline a bit more from the Campaign but I sorta switched to follow with the show, it all still works narratively so I’m not complaining. Anyways, I really hope the wait was worth it. Enjoy! 😁

You skillfully weave your way around the tunnels heading to a different exit then the one you normally use seeing as you now had new friends with you and that wouldn’t look too good to the guards patrolling the area. As you traveled you learned more about what’s all happened, who your brothers friends all were and what you had become. While this was all explained carefully and very simply to you, it was still defiantly a lot of new information to take in at once. As you continue forward the strange sensation you’d get from time to time was starting to act up again, you lightly clutch your stomach in hopes of calming the feeling down to no avail.

"(Y/n), are you alright? You’re not looking too well." Percy furrows his brow, slight concern on his face. You give a nod and turn away from him slightly only to feel him grip your shoulder and stop you in your tracks. "You’re not lying to me are you?" He asks more firmly, you shrink in on yourself a little and give a small whine. "(Y/n)." He sounded very stern, you felt embarrassed for not knowing how to answer properly and if you were able to blush your face would’ve been beet red from the embarrassment.

"I-I don’t know." You mange to stutter out.

"You don’t know." He repeats, you shake you head in confirmation.

"Can you explain to us what your feeling right now darling, maybe that’ll help." Vex suggests. You think about it for a second, you knew the feeling would go away by itself eventually but with everything else you’ve been learning maybe it would be better to tell them.

"Okay," you take in a breath. "I have this, ummm, weird feeling that pops up sometimes and it’s really annoying until it goes away by itself." You fiddle with your fingers as you speak to try and distract yourself from the slowly growing sensation.

"What about this feeling is weird, like how would you describe it?" Keyleth asks.

"It’s uhhh, it’s kinda like feeling hungry, but not hungry at the same time."

"We're going to need a little more of a description then that." Vex presses.

"I don’t know what else to say, it just feels like I’m hungry but when I eat food it still doesn’t go away." You shrug, why did they have to ask such hard questions, it’s not like you could magically make an answer appear.

"Alright then." Vex lets out a sigh and is about to speak again but Pike beats her to it.

"So you say this feeling goes away by itself. Does it just disappear randomly, does something have to happen first, what do you do to make it go away?" This was starting to feel ridiculous to you, it wasn’t easy to just tell them what was wrong because you didn’t know either, it was something you just dealt with feeling and moved on once it went away. You shake those thoughts away, you'd been living a lie this whole time and they wanted to help make things better so you had to do your best to help them too.

"Well I was told to just ignore it, so I do but then I pass out from how bad it gets, and then I wake up and the feeling's gone."

"Sounds reasonable to me." Grog says before being slapped in the gut by Vax.

"Yeah, I don’t think it’s that simple big guy, is there anything else you might be forgetting to tell us." You really didn’t want to say anything more, afraid you’d just sound stupid, but you had to at least try.

"Well, when I wake up I always have this funny, metal-y taste in my mouth." You started off strong, only to deflate and talk more in a murmur as you finish.

"Sorry, what was that last bit?" Scanlan looks at you confused. You pout not wanting to repeat yourself but with a stern look and raised eyebrow from your brother you cave and repeat yourself, louder this time so everyone could hear you.

"I see… I think I know what the problem is." Percy speaks up again.

"You do?!" You perk up a bit. "Do you know how to make it go away?" There’s a moment of pause as he hesitates before answering.

"In a sense of the word, yes." He takes in a heavy breath. "Come with me for a moment."

"Percy, are you sure about this?" Vex quickly jumps in, concern written on her face. Did they know something you didn’t?

"It should be fine, hopefully. Just give us a few minutes, I’ll even yell Jenga if something goes wrong." You stare at them confused, what was Jenga supposed to mean? Before you could dwell more on your thoughts your ushered a ways away from the group by Percy and take a seat against the tunnel wall. It’s quiet for a second before he speaks up again.

"You’re now well aware of what’s become of yourself, correct?" You nod at this, not sure where he was going with this. "Right, and you still remember those old tales about what they do to survive, do you not?" You nod again, still a little confused. "I believe what’s happening here is a natural instinct to well…" He trails off, but you were able to start connecting the dots.

"But wouldn’t that hurt? I don’t want to hurt anyone." You say with a small whine.

"I know, and believe me I’m no fan of the idea either, but it’d be better if you’re aware of what you’re doing rather then letting these instincts take over and you possibly doing something worse. Do you understand?" He spoke slowly and as simply as he could to help you get the idea.

"Yeah, I think so." You say with a small nod, after taking a second to let his words sink in. This already felt so weird and you hadn’t even done anything yet, so with a deep breath you hold your hand out to him and he slowly places his own in yours, a slight raise to his eyebrow. "You’re sure it’s okay?" You ask uncertain, wanting to know if this was really okay to him, he lets out a sigh and gives a hesitant nod.

"The sooner we do this, the less we have to worry or think about it." He quickly comments. You stare off into space for a second, only to be drawn back by the growing sensation but pause when you see he’s still staring at you.

"Don’t look! It feels weird with you staring!" You blurt out, puffing out your cheeks and flailing your hand in front of his face to get him to turn around.

"Alright, alright! Jeez." Percy puts his free arm up in surrender and shifts so he’s facing away from you. "There I’m not look, better?" He almost sounded like he was playfully mocking you with the way he dragged out the "better", but true to his word he was now looking away from you.

"A little." You say with a small pout. Taking in another breath and closing your eyes you go about this as carefully and calmly as possible, trying not to think too much on the matter but also wanting to be done with it so you wouldn’t hold up the group any longer. Soon enough the nagging sensation disappeared, once it did you reopen your eyes and let go maybe a little too fast for your liking when Percy suddenly tenses at the action. "I’m sorry, I’m sorry! I didn’t mean to hurt you! I was trying to be careful." You say a little panicked as you search for a piece of cloth to cover where two pinpricks of blood were showing.

"That was it?" He mumbled more to himself, pulling out a handkerchief to clean and cover the small area on his arm, tying it so he wouldn’t have to hold it in place the entire time. You let out another quiet sorry, deflating a bit but he stops you. "No no, you’re fine. I barely felt a thing actually." He seemed surprised by this revelation, you just let out a sigh of relief knowing you didn’t do something bad after all.

You rejoin the group and continue on your way, they conversed with each other while you let your mind wander a little. Had so many years really passed without your knowledge? You try to recall as much as you could, days having bled together when you’re locked inside all the time and kept as far from any view of the outdoors as possible. You frown at this, for so long you just obeyed the rules set before you because the grownups knew what was best yet everything they told you was a lie, it was still so confusing to wrap your head around. The sound of an iron door scraping open reels you back to reality and you’re surprised to see miss Ripley exit the cell, missing her right hand no less. She takes a look at her surroundings stopping when she catches sight of you.

"So, the little monster's still alive after all." She says with an unamused tone, you shrink a little into your self at the comment only for Percy to step in front of you and raise his weapon at her, you shuffle closer to him for comfort.

"You watch your tongue." He hisses.

"Why should I? You can see for yourself that they are." She says nonchalantly, this only makes Percy press his weapon closer to her.

"The only monster I can see at this moment, is the one standing in front of me." He says with a low, dangerous voice. You grip at his leg a bit pulling his attention away from her, looking up at him with worried eyes. He stares at you a second before letting out a sigh, lowering his weapon and looking back to Ripley. "You are now, at the moment, the luckiest person in Whitestone, do you know why?" He pauses and she hums in slight interest. "Cause you’re at the bottom of my list." He finishes, ominously. What list was he talking about you weren’t sure but at least you were moving again.

Moving your way through the castle really solidified just how long you’d been away from certain areas, having a harder time figuring out which hall went where and some areas looked completely different then what you remember. Soon enough you’re stopped a little ways in a hall, Percy kneels down to your height, a look of minor panic on his face that he tries to hide.

"I hate to do this, but I need you to keep an eye on Ripley for me, make sure she doesn’t go anywhere alright? I need to take care of something." He tells you. "If she tries anything you have my permission to bite her." He adds with a small smirk, you nod and he gets up, rounding the corner in the hall where a commotion can be heard. You turn your attention to Ripley and do as Percy said, keeping a close eye on her.

"Quit staring, your making me uncomfortable." She sneers.

"Too bad, I trust my brother way more then you and he said I have to watch you and if you’re bad I’ll bite you." You puff up your chest to make yourself look as intimidating as possible.

"Typical…" She trails off quietly, but you still heard her. Speaking of hearing, the commotion in the other room seemed to have stopped, you take a quick glance over your shoulder to see if anyone was coming back. When no one does you start to feel worried, but you couldn’t leave Ripley alone either, turning back to her you see she’s already trying to sneak away.

"Hey." You whisper yell and easily catch up to her standing in front of her you look her dead in the eyes and glare. "Stop trying to run away and just sit down will you." You huff angrily, to your shock your eyes feel like they tingle for a second at the same time her eyes flash a (f/c) and she obeys what you told her to do. "Whoa…" You shake your head, now wasn’t the time to be amazed by whatever just happened, you needed to see if everything was okay with Percy and his friends. Taking one more look over your shoulder at Ripley she was still sitting where you told her to, satisfied with this you round the corner and carefully crack open a door you’re sure you heard the commotion from. When you get a good enough view you gasp at the sight you see, feeling tears of joy well up in your eyes.

"Cass!!" You shout, hurrying into the room without a care and tackling your sister to the ground in a hug. It’s been forever since you’ve seen her, well since you’ve seen anyone but first Percy now Cass, this was great!

"Wait… (y/n)? Is it really you?" She looks at you stunned by your sudden appearance but happy nonetheless.

"So, even you weren’t aware of their presents or situation?" Percy looks at Cassandra with a mix of curiosity and concern.

"No, I-I didn’t know." She says softly, finally wrapping an arm around you to return the embrace. You snuggle into her more, she also looked different like Percy but it was still her and you were more then happy to relish in this reunion.

"Not to be that person or anything, but wasn’t (y/n) supposed to keep an eye on Ripley?" Pike mentions.

"Oh yeah! I told her to go sit down in the hall and she listened to me." You beam happily. Vex and Vax exit the room, coming back not too long after with a very unhappy Ripley in their grip.

"So they hypnotize me and you still think they’re not some monster." She hisses. Percy looks to you shocked but quickly recovers from it.

"Well originally I said they were allowed to bite you, so honestly you have no room to complain about this alternative." He replies stoically, causing Ripley to huff.

"Let just get this over with." She mumbles to herself. With that you get up off the floor and help Cassandra stand up too, she offers you her hand which you happily accept and you all file out of the room, continuing the journey with a newfound spring to your step. When you finally make it to the residuum refinement room you see that it’s a lot bigger then you thought, but then again you never thought much of it before, you have a look around the large room while the others converse until you’re pulled aside by Cassandra.

"Hey." You whine, she quickly shushes you.

"Don’t worry (y/n), our family will take good care of us." She says, you look at her confused, Percy was your family what was she talking about?

"Cassandra!" You hear Percy shout with alarm, confusing your further. She pulls a lever on the wall closing off any exits, you quickly try to switch it back, wonder what she was doing, but you’re stopped by her grasping onto the collar of your shirt and pulling you away.

"Cass, what are you doing?" You ask as you wriggle to break free from her grip, she doesn’t answer you just giving a glare towards Percy as he tries to make his way over to you both, Vax doing the same just faster. Before the room's completely sealed Vax manages to slip his way under the barrier, him and Cassandra pull their weapons and point them at each other. With her distracted by Vax you manage to break free of her grip and try for the lever again but something makes you pause when you hear a voice coming from the shadows.

"Excellent work dear." You recognize Lord Sylas' voice anywhere, turning to see him and Delilah approach. Vax tries to strike at them but you see Sylas' eyes glow for a second before Vax stops in his movements and straightens out more stiffly. You quickly turn to reach for the lever but Delilah holds you in place with her magic.

"Now now, my dear child, not so fast." She tuts you in almost a sickly sweet voice. You struggle to free yourself of the spell but it’s no use.

"Delilah, let them go!" Percy yells slamming a fist against the thick glass, before looking back to Cassandra. "Why are you doing this?"

"You did this to yourself, Percy. The day you left me lying in the snow, choking on blood like a hunted animal." She seethes in response. "My brother abandoned me. Abandoned us." She says looking directly at you. You pause in your struggling as you look at your siblings concerned

"What-what's she talking about?" You ask, clueless. You’re pulled back by the spell and brought over to Delilah's side.

"You need not worry yourself on such trivial things, my child. All will be made better before you know it." She whispers to you, this just furthers your confusion. She redirects her attention towards the others. "You know, I’m quite disappointed Percival." She says smoothly, pulling in his attention. "Because of you our sweet, innocent child was exposed to your harsh reality." She places a hand under your chin to make you look at her, before you quickly pull away. "You see? Now they’re scared and confused because of you. Not to worry though a few memory spells should fix that problem easily." She taunts.

"No! I don’t wanna! You can’t make me!" You cry out, struggling harder against her spell holding you in place. Tears trail down your face as your fruitless efforts to free yourself continue, to make matters worse you’re now being dragged away from everyone. "No! No, it’s not fair! I don’t want to go with you! I want my brother! Percy!" You cry out for him, even if you knew he couldn’t reach you, you still beg for him to somehow break through the barrier and save you.

Percy can only watch helplessly as the last of his family is pulled away from him, one seemingly by their own choice, the other kicking and screaming for help…

To be continued…

That’s right I’m making this a three parter because there was just too much to add for only two parts (hopefully part 3 will come out sooner then this one did)

#critical role #critical role & reader #vox machina #vox machina & reader #percy de rolo #percy & reader #nothing romantic here

[saphirered]

Hi there, I love your blog! Your writing is so good and feels so in line with the characters, if your request are still open I was wondering if you can do general hcs for vax? Nothing in particular just romantic dates or hanging around the keep or in battle etc. Bonus points for how the rest of vox machina treats vax x reader :) lots of love 💜

I hope this one’s to your liking 😘

Your first date was less of a date and more of a mission that turned into a date. Vox Machina had been employed to shadow some noble possibly involved with some kind of possibly dangerous cult. You had to blend into high society and couldn’t simply rely on the shadows Vax felt most comfortable around. Even though he may have been raised among respectable society in Syngorn, high society like the one you had to blend into was more your specialty. You were their ticket to the circles they needed to meddle with. Dressed to the nines you were quite the sight to behold managing to take the poor man’s breath away, among others. Vax made it a point to entwine his arm with yours whenever he had the chance and stick to your side for the whole event. After you proved the noble you were sent to watch innocent you stayed to enjoy the part. Such an invitation shouldn’t go to waste after all… At least that’s what Vax claimed. You’re pretty sure he appreciated the time away from the others.

More lowkey invitations found their way to you from Vax. An invitation to take you on a walk around town, some fun out in a less restricted setting than the high society parties, dinner and dancing, and even a night under the stars, made its way to you. You were more than happy to accept. Just as promised each and every date was perfect in its own way purely because you got to spend more time together. 

You had to find out the hard way Vax had been making excuses to the rest of Vox Machina why he was going out or didn’t come back to the keep some nights. You understood but would have preferred a heads up so you could get your stories straight before you were caught by Grog and Pike one night in the tavern. It took a Modify Memory spell to make Grog think he only saw the two of you together in some kind of drunken stupor. Pike was a bit easier to persuade to keep your ‘thing’ a secret and knowing her well enough, the both of you trusted her to keep the secret until the two of you were ready to figure out where this ‘thing’ was going. 

Defining what you were to each other was easy. You had feelings for each other. Love even and you could see yourselves spending your days together, however long that may be. Vax has a tendency to get stuck in his own head when it comes to planning a distant future but you put no pressure on him. No need for talks of getting married, having children or even grandchildren. You take it day by day acknowledging that every relationship has his ups and downs but as long as you have each other’s backs through it all and are supportive of each other you’re more than satisfied with what you have going. You bring each other happiness. 

You’re each other’s support system knowing you can trust on one another when the world looks bleak and the odds hopeless. You acknowledge that yes sometimes space and time is what the other needs to process, but you’re never far and know how to read each other’s tells when you do need support, be that a heartfelt conversation, a reality check, or a shoulder to cry on. You’re there for each other no matter what. 

Vax would often come back from far travels with a little gift he brought back for you wherever he went. A beautiful feather from a bird, a jewelled necklace, an odd trinket would be presented to you upon his return. Each one with a meaning, and every single one of them as valuable as the next. They held a special place in your heart as much as in your home. 

The siege of Emon happened. It was a terrifying experience but you knew how to handle yourself. Capable and resilient, your magic helped you bring several people to safety. You lost Vox Machina in the fray but knew they could take care of themselves. You had others to protect and get out of the city before it was too late. Gathering who you could you made your way to Greyskull Keep. You got there when the gates opened, people flooding in.

Seeing Vax among the crowd trying to organise the crowd you were relieved he was alive and well. Rushing over he kissed you the moment he saw you, caught up in the moment not caring who saw. Your reunion was cut short by the arrival of an ancient white dragon. Vax initially dragged you along behind a tree but you come in hot and the moment the dragon comes within range hit it with a Disintegrate spell. Your next actions show Vax very clearly you know exactly how to handle yourself. Though, from the corner of your eye you can see him cringe when you do get slammed into a wall and to the ground. You avoided getting frozen and get back up into the fight.

The aftermath Vax looks you over to make sure you’re alright. It took a lot to assure him you were fine. Even after getting thrown into a wall slightly bloody and bruised, you’d live. He helped clean up the blood and got Pike to heal your heavier injuries. He spent as much time at your side as he could and after he deemed you well enough let you come with him and help carrying heavier things for the people seeking refuge at the Keep. He got quite worried you might be overexerting yourself which gave you a good glimpse into his protective side. 

After some dragon hunting and things eventually calmed down you finally had more time to spend together, going back to your usual habits. Slowly but surely the two of you found you were ready to fully let the other’s know about your relationship, though some may have had suspicions before. You didn’t necessarily tell them directly. It started with you showing up for your little ‘date night’ with Vax and neither of you sneaking around or making up excuses anymore. Gradually the others caught on to what this meant. You’d be staying over at their place more often and while the two of you had managed to avoid the awkward conversations for the longest of times 

Sitting at the breakfast table one morning, Vax sitting down next to you and pressing a kiss to your temple with an ‘I love you’ may just have been a little too much for some of them. 

Pike of course was happy for you that you finally felt secure enough to share this news and made a little comment that how as a cleric of Sarenrae she legally would be able to officiate a wedding, with an all too innocent smile. 

Keyleth was very happy for the both of you gushing how you made the perfect couple and asking you if you had noticed all the ‘annoying little things’ Vax does and what you thought of them. She bombarded you with questions about how your relationship stared, how romantic it was until you told her you would gladly tell her in moderation or you might just run out of your ability to speak.

Grog didn’t get what was going on until Vax spelled it out for him. Grog came to the realisation that the time you used Modify Memory on him, a spell that had since faded, wasn’t a drunken vision after all and really did happen. He told you you could entrust him with all secrets, is an expert ‘silencer’ (his words) and wouldn’t have to use magic to get him to keep quiet anymore. 

Percy congratulated the two of you on not conforming to the norms of society and actually having a healthy happy relationship not based on the merits of politics and encouraged you to no longer try and bribe the Castle Whitestone staff when sneaking around because they’ll tell him all your dirty little secrets no matter how much you offer them, all jokingly of course. 

Scanlan, oh, Scanlan. How the both of you wished the earth would swallow you whole. Scanlan was being typical Scanlan congratulating for you pulling the stick out of Vax’s ass and loosen him up a bit, complimenting the wonders you must have showed him and speculating the things you must have done to get Vax much more at ease, not without ludicrous and inappropriate innuendoes and hand motions. 

Vex, throughout all of that breakfast hadn’t said a single thing and instead stared at you coldly, arms crossed. When Vax asked her to stop regardless of her opinions towards you or your relationship with her brother you stepped in saying that whatever she felt was valid but that you had no intend on replacing her place in his heart nor getting between them. She’d remain at his side and you from now on would just be on the other side. After that, a death threat followed, telling you you better not break Vax’s heart or a broken heart would be the least of your worries. You made sure that would never be your intention and you really did love her brother as much as he loved you. This seemed to ease her up with it. Over time she grew more accepting towards you to the point where you could call her a close friend, sister even. 

#critical role x reader #vox machina x reader #vax’ildan x reader #vax x reader #critrole x reader

[minky-for-short]

An Unexpected Bond

A Perc’ahlia fic feat Fae!Percy <33

Special thanks to my betas @mollymauk-teafleak and @spiky-lesbian <33

-----

Vex pulls her cloak tightly around her as she keeps her pace into the deepest parts of the woods, Trinket following closely, letting out small groans of unease as the trees grow denser. Vex smiles assuringly as she pats his head.

“It’s alright, Trinket” she soothes, looking ahead as her dark vision allows her to catch sight of a clearing surrounded by tall, ominous looking trees, “Remember, we’re doing this for Vax..” Trinket responds with his ears flattening sadly against his head, and Vex can’t blame him..

Between the two of them, Vax had always been the one who was stuck in bed more often with a cold or fever when they were children. She remembers spending warm, sunny days inside, sitting beside her brother’s bed, entertaining him with stories and feeding him soup when their mother was in town buying more medicine, because the thought of playing in the woods without her brother was just unthinkable to her younger self. Even when they were taken to Syngorn to live with their father, she would sneer at the clerics who would try and get her to leave his room so they could treat his fever. By the time they were traveling on their own, Vex always made sure to have enough money set aside to buy medicine, just to be safe. And even when money was tight, a wink and showing off the right amount of cleavage was always enough to make sure her brother had enough medicine to last through whatever sickness had come over him in the colder weather.

One thing she could always count on though was that no matter how ill he became, her brother would bounce back from it with determination and good humor.

Until now..

Even Pike, one of their closest friends and the best cleric within the entirety of Tal’Dorei, was puzzled when he had just collapsed. Burning to the touch when he had no sign of any ailment beforehand, and even as he tried to wave off her concern and that of their friends, he could barely walk with her assistance. In the end, he ended up having to be carried back into bed by Grog. And that’s where he’s been confined for the past two weeks. 

Vex had done her damndest to share her brother’s optimism that this was a seasonal fever that would pass, but days of seeing the same furrowed expression on Pike’s face as her magic does nothing more than provide a brief reprieve from this ailment, the worry on Keyleth’s when none of the herbs she’d mixed into a medicine seem to take...it was becoming increasingly difficult to remain hopeful. 

Two days ago, when Vax fell into a coma, Vex finally became desperate. All that Pike and Keyleth have been able to do is keep him stable, and while she will never be grateful enough for all their efforts, “stable” wasn’t good enough for her. 

She wanted her twin. Awake and alive as he’s always been.

And she was prepared to sell her own soul to do it.

While her friends convinced her that selling her soul would not go over well with her brother, they did share in her determination to find any other means to save their rogue.

And that’s when Scanlan shared a story he had heard while he was traveling with his old performance group.

A forest, far north in the continent, that was said to be home to a rift in a clearing in the middle of the forest, where the plane between the Material Plane and the Feywilds was the weakest. Scanlan had never bore witness to it himself, but he had heard tales from those who lived close to those woods about a figure who would appear there every so often, only exposing themselves to those who caught their interest.

What the being looked like, however, seemed to vary on whoever told the tale. Some would say they took the shape of a shadowy creature, others would say it took the appearance of a man in a bird-shaped mask. Regardless, one thing remained consistent: this figure would make a deal with whoever caught their interest. The price of the deal would vary, depending on what was being asked.

So Vex had no idea what to expect if she came across this figure, she may end up selling her soul after all.

But it didn’t matter. She would do whatever it took to save her brother. 

--

Keyleth accompanied her and Trinket while the others stayed behind to look after Vax, her Tree Stride turned what would be a week long trip into mere seconds, but that was the easy part. Vex made her agree to stay put while she and Trinket travelled into the thick of the woods alone.

And that’s where they were now.

Vex stepped into the clearing with the briefest moment of hesitation, not sure what to expect. But she holds onto her resolve as she moves further in until she’s standing in the center.

“Hello?” she calls hesitantly. Nothing. “Hello?” She calls again, her voice stronger, more determined. She received no response besides the wind blowing through her hair. Had she been paying closer attention, she would’ve realized that there was no sway to the trees surrounding her. 

Instead she felt herself growing annoyed by the thought of being ignored. “Now you listen, whatever you are, I don’t give a damn if you think I’m worthy or not. I came here for a reason, and I am not leaving until I get what I need!”

“Stubborn little thing, aren’t you?” A warm voice chuckles near her ear causes her to quickly jump away and draw her bow and arrow, “I like that.”

Vex’s dark vision allows her to see the figure that wasn’t there a moment ago, wrapped in shadows, a bird-shaped mask obscuring their face, making both versions of the stories true, but she doesn’t lower her weapon. “Who are you? Are you the creature that makes deals?”

“I see you don’t have much experience in dealing with the fae” the figure converses, clearly not phased by an arrow being aimed right at him, “We don’t give our names to anyone; far too much power to give to a stranger.”

“You’re fae?” Vex confirms, her eyebrows furrowing curiously before remembering, “Right...I heard rumors that the veil between the Feywild and this plane was weak in these woods.”

“Not the entire woods, my dear,” The fae corrects politely, “Just this particular clearing. Why that is, I’m not entirely sure. It probably existed for years before I happened upon it, and as a naturally curious being, I decided to see where it led. And now here we are, having a nice conversation under the moonlight.”

Vex tilts her head at the fae, an eyebrow raised curiously as she slowly lowers her bow, “Do you give this spiel to everyone who finds their way to your clearing? Or do you just like the sound of your own voice?” 

She is answered by an amused chuckle. “You might be the first mortal who didn’t bow before me like I was some type of deity.” He takes a step closer to her, the mask hiding a smile, “I think I might like you.”

“Enough to help me with my problem?” she asks intently, and for the first time since the fae approached, she can see flashes of blue from within the eye sockets of the mask.

“For the right price.”

Vex takes a deep breath, steeling her resolve, “Before I ask you of anything, I refuse to deal with a person who hides their face, fae or not.”

The fae tilts his head curiously, impressed by her wording, “Very good, my dear lady,” he nods in approval, “I can’t tell you how many mortals have made the mistake of asking to see my face.”

Vex eyes him suspiciously, “and why is that?”

“Because then I can say ‘No’.” He answers simply, “You must choose your words carefully when dealing with the fae...and since you have…” he trails off as he lifts a pale hand to his face, and Vex watches with fascination as the shadows dissipate as he pulls the mask away, and Vex is struck speechless by what stands before her now.

At first glance, Vex would think he’s an elf, but as she studies him more carefully, she can see his features are more exaggerated. His ears for instance; longer and more pointed than that of a full-blood elf. His skin was pale as moonlight and seemed to have the same serene glow, and his short white hair seemed to flow in a breeze that didn’t exist. But what Vex found herself most drawn to were his eyes, crystal clear and a shade of blue that she’s never seen before. She could sense a warmth hiding behind the steely gaze.

He was without a doubt the most beautiful man she’s ever seen.

“Now then, my dear..” The fae brings her back into focus, conjuring two chairs into existence as he looks at her with intent interest, “what can I help you with?”

Vex hopes that the dark cover of night can hide her blush as she takes a seat in the chair across from him, setting her weapons down beside her, “You seem to be quite powerful, Mr. Fae, tell me...are you powerful enough to cure someone who is ill?”

The fae hums as he folds his arm, his eyes closing as he contemplates, “It depends...this ‘someone’, are they dear to you?”

“Yes.” Vex answers immediately, “He’s...he’s my brother. My twin. He’s had many illnesses before, and he’s always recovered from them, but this…” She clenches her nails into her palms, “..this is different. We’ve tried everything: clerics, medicines, herbs, spells...nothing is working. I’m afraid this might be my only option left.”

“I see..” the fae hums, his blue eyes softening as he looks up at her. “Well, I truly hope your brother knows how fortunate he is to have a sister who will go such great lengths for him…” he pauses, thinking, “Very well. I will heal him.” 

Vex’s eyes light up, “You will?” She lets out a shuddering sigh of relief,, “thank the Gods…”

“Don’t..” the fae interrupts her, “thank me just yet. We still need to discuss your price.”

Vex rolls her eyes slightly as she sits back against her chair, “Of course we do..” she puts on what her friends call her ‘business’ face, when she’s getting ready to haggle with a merchant, “so what is it that you want?”

The fae grins at her as he thinks, “well, let us see...you are asking me to save the life of one of your loved ones...so I believe the only fair price would be to give me one of them. Perhaps, ah yes…” his eyes gleam in the moonlight, “...your firstborn child.”

Vex blinks at him, and she can’t suppress the breath of laughter that leaves her, “Seriously? You’re going the “firstborn child” route?”

The fae shrugs, “The classics are classics for a reason. A life that is nearly ending for a life that has just begun; a fair trade if you ask me?”

“But I’m not even pregnant.” Vex points out, “and what if I never am? The life I lead isn’t exactly ideal for raising a child.”

“An interesting point..” the fae hums, “Well, let us consider it a wager then..” Vex narrows her eyes at him, “..let us say you have...three years to give me your child. Otherwise our deal will become null, and your brother will go back to being on death’s door.”

Vex is ready to snarl at him, to jam one of her arrows in his throat for trying to force her hand by threatening her brother. But something stops her, and she realizes what it was: his wording. He says she has three years to give him her child...yet he doesn’t seem to realize he just gave her the power to choose who the father will be.

And as she glances him over, she decides that while he might present himself as a pretentious asshole...she can’t pretend she isn’t attracted to him.

So she smiles and folds her hands on her lap, “Sounds like an interesting wager. I agree to this deal: you save my brother, and in exchange, I will give you my first child.”

She sees the slight shift in his expression, and she can tell that this isn’t the way these types of deals usually go with him. Perhaps he was expecting her to fall to her knees and beg that she gives him anything but her hypothetical child. But she is also certain that no one has ever tried to twist a fae’s words before.

But his questioning look quickly fades as he smiles at her, holding out his hand, “then we have an accord. By the time you return home, you will be greeted by the sight of your brother: healthier than he’s ever been.”

Vex looks down at his waiting hand for the briefest of moments, and then takes it, and she can feel the magic swirl around their joined hands as their contract manifests into existence. When she pulls back, she looks over her hand; no physical mark, but she knows that the magic is there, and somehow, she knows that her brother is waking up from his illness-induced coma.

“Thank you.” she smiles, sincerely, looking up at the fae, “Well, seeing as I have three years to fulfill my end of the bargain..when would you like to start trying?”

For the first time since he manifested in front of her, the fae looks confused, “I...admit, my dear, I’m not entirely sure what you mean?”

Vex blinks at him, feigning innocent obliviousness, “Well, I promised that I would give you my first child, correct?”

“Y-yes?”

“But you never specified who I had the child with..”

A minute passes. Another one passes, and Vex will forever relish the look of flustered realization that fills the fae’s expression as he realizes exactly how he messed up.

But she will also remember the bright laughter that comes out of him once his shock passes.

“You clever, tricky woman.” the fae breathes between fits of laughter, “Serves me right for underestimating you.”

Once Vex realizes that she wasn’t going to be subjected to archfey-level fury, she begins to relax, and laughs with him. “You’d be surprised how many do.”

“Well,” the fae chuckles, looking at her with what was probably the first sincere smile he’s given her, “a mistake I will not make again, I assure you. And seeing as it is too late to change the terms of our deal, we will need to make certain I am able to help you fulfill your end of the agreement.”

“Oh?” Vex raises her eyebrow, smiling curiously, feeling much more confident that she was at least on equal footing with the fae now, “and how do we do that?”

“Two steps, actually” he answers, “First: I will bestow my mark upon you. Not only will it allow me to find you, it will also serve as a protective sigil for you. I can’t have the mother of my future child in mortal peril after all.”

“Fair enough” Vex nods, “and the second step?”

“We introduce ourselves to each other” he responds, standing to move closer to her, and Vex can’t help but stand with him, “by giving each other our names, we create a bond. It is normally used in the feywild as a way to take ownership of others, that is why giving your real name to a fae is normally advised against.”

“But if you give me your name as well, then I own you, as much as you own me..” Vex finishes.

The fae smiles, taking her hand in his, “that is one way to look at it. And to prove this is no trick..” he leans in close, and Vex can feel her heart pounding against her ribcage at how close he is now, how warm his breath is against her ear as he whispers a name:

Percival

She pulls back to look at him, and she sees in the fae’s eyes, in Percival’s eyes, a fear that hadn’t been there before, and she realizes the amount of power, and trust, he’s just handed to her.

And the thought of taking advantage of it absolutely repels her.

“Vex’ahlia.” is the only thing she responds with. “Or Vex...as my friends like to call me.”

Relief fills his face as Percival lets out a small chuckle, “then this the beginning of quite the friendship, Vex.”

Vex can’t fight the heart that fills her cheeks, something about the way he says her name just causes something in her that she’s never quite experienced. “Well then, Percival. Now what?”

The familiar, devilish smile crosses his face as he covers her hand with his, “Now…” he starts as a warm, tingling sensation fills the back of her hand, “you go tend to your brother. And we’ll talk later.” 

Before Vex can ask what he means, he presses a brief, warm kiss to her lips, and before she can properly respond, his warmth is gone, and she, and Trinket, are back in the entrance of the woods.

“What the-”

“Vex!” Vex turns at the sound of Keyleth’s voice, and she sees the red-haired druid running towards her, out of breath, but smiling brightly. “Wow, you literally just appeared out of nowhere, but that doesn’t matter. I just got a message from Pike. Vax woke up! And it sounds like he’s even healthier than before he was sick!”

Vex can only stare blankly at her before her words catch up and she’s laughing as tears of relief fill her eyes. “Well he certainly works fast..” she murmurs under her breath”

Keyleth tilts her head at him, “what was that?” Vex just shakes her head in response.

“Don’t worry about it. I’m just happy it worked.”

The smile fades slightly from Keyleth’s face as she looks at her with concern, “so, there really was a fae...they didn’t ask too much from you, did they?”

Vex brings her hand up to wipe the tears from her eyes before she notices it: a faint, glowing symbol of a six-sided star on the back of her hand, and she just smiles.

“Honestly Kiki, I actually think I got a pretty good deal out of it.”

Keyleth looks confused, but she shrugs as she begins moving towards the tree they arrived out of, “Well, you’ll have to tell me more about it later, I’m sure you’ll want to see Vax now.”

Trinket nudged Vex happily and she smiles as they move towards the tree. “Yes, I really do.”

Keyleth and Trinket step through the portal first, and just as Vex begins stepping back into the familiar grounds of their home, she feels a warm breeze surround her as the portal closes behind her.

#perc'ahlia #vex'ahlia #percy de rolo #critical role #cr1 #fae!percy au #mywriting

[mollymauk-teafleak]

Black Coffee (final part)

Chapters: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5

And just like that, it’s over...

I’m genuinely quite sad. I’ve enjoyed writing this so much and I’ve enjoyed hearing what you guys think and I’ve really appreciated all the love and support, particularly from my beta readers @minky-for-short and @spiky-lesbian

If you’ve enjoyed this fic, please let me know! Leave a comment on Ao3, reblog this post or even donate to my ko-fi if you can!

------------

When the twins were much younger and their world hadn’t yet grown beyond the garden of their mother’s tiny house, they had a ploy whenever they got sick. If one of them were struck down by a cold or a stomach ache or a sore throat- usually the smaller, skinnier, sicklier Vax- the other would insist they were sick too. They would crawl into the bed of the other, scooting up under the blankets to hug their sibling close, and swear blind that they’d caught the germs and had to stay home from school as well.

Their mother would never fall for this, they realised later, she was much too wise to their antics. She just never had the heart to split them up, to come between the love that compelled them to stay home only to hug and comfort and protect their other half. She would just smile and nod and tuck them in tighter, promising to bring her two little elflings water and soup.

Once the door was closed, stories would be whispered under the blankets with shadows up the wall accompanying their words, building fantastical worlds where germs didn’t exist and things didn’t hurt. They’d play games, pretending to be badgers in a den or baby owls in a nest, thinking about the animals they’d see in the forests around their little village. One would read to the other, whatever story book was their favourite. And if things were just too much, they would hold each other and just know that they weren’t alone.

And then that world was taken away from them, picked up in unfamiliar hands that looked a lot like their own and shaken until they were tossed out into somewhere cold and scary. And while around them everything grew, their circle of people they could trust and depend on shrank to just two.

What got them through that time were those times when one of them wouldn’t be able to find the strength to face the day, Vax as he lost sight of who he was and had his own body turn on him or Vex as she felt the walls grow tighter and tighter around her until there was barely room to breathe, and the other would crawl under their blankets and wrap their arms around them. Suddenly, it would all be gone, Syldor, Syngorn, everything.

And they would be small again, staying home from school on a rainy, sniffly day, knowing everything was okay because they had each other.

Just for a moment.

Vex had been at work when Vax had come home in tears but she’d heard it from behind his bedroom door as soon as she walked into the apartment.

Trinket was sat in front of his door, whining and worried, looking at her pleadingly like she could fix this. And Vex realised immediately that she couldn’t.

She’d really wanted it to work out for him. Of course she’d worried, she worried about her brother all the time, but the way he and Percy had looked at each other… she’d hoped.

Anger made her hands shake as she dropped her rucksack on the floor and hurried to the door that was muffling her brother’s sobs. She’d trusted Percy with her brother’s heart. She easily could have pinned him to the wall the multiple, equally awkward times she’d woken up to find him sat drinking coffee on their sofa in one of her brother’s t-shirts and his boxers, she could have got in his face and snarled that if he ever hurt her brother in any way, she’d feather him like a duck.

But she hadn’t, because he’d looked at Vax like he’d hung the moon in the sky and that was exactly what Vax deserved. She’d wanted to believe life was finally going to give him a break.

If she ever saw de Rolo again, she’d break those fusty little glasses under the heel of her boot. And maybe his teeth, depending on how much remorse he showed. There was, after all, every chance that Vax had his own part to play in this all going up in flames.

But for now, her brother needed her. And, come hell or high water, she was always on his team.

The door wasn’t locked, if it had been she would have given him more time. But she took the unbroken click of the handle under her grip as a cry for help and fully intended to answer it.

The curtains were drawn tight, choking off any light in the room at all. It took her a moment of adjustment to make out any movement, to finally see the tremulous shuddering of her brother’s shoulders as he cried into his pillow.

Vex didn’t try and say anything. She just picked her way through the haphazard obstacle course that was her brother’s bedroom floor in the dark, ears picked up high to avoid breaking anything or falling flat on her face. Fortunately, she made it to the bed and, not even hesitating, she crawled under the tangled blankets, bakery uniform, clunky kitchen boots and all.

Vax only seemed to cry harder when he realised what she was doing but he flung himself into her arms, clinging on bitterly. Vex returned the embrace with equal strength, closing her eyes and burying her nose in her brother’s dark hair.

“He…” Vax rasped after a while, “He just…”

“Shh,” Vex murmured, unable to hear her brother struggle for the words and contextualise how he felt, like listening to someone try and walk across broken glass, “It’s okay, don’t worry about it right now. I’m here.”

Vax sounded relieved, dissolving back into soft little hitching breaths, the only things he had at his disposal to explain the storm inside him. Vex racked her brain for stories, songs, anything from when they were kids.

But she got the sense that could wait. The best thing she could be right now was a pair of arms, a stiff polo shirt to cry into and a beating heart against his ear.

The best thing she could be right now was a sister.

Vax’ildan? Percy thought immediately when he heard his phone ring.

Desperate, he snatched it up, heart hammering out a tattoo that was hopeful and terrified in equal measures.

But no, the title that came up was Antler Girl. Trying so hard not to be disappointed that his best friend was calling him, telling himself he needed to hear another person’s voice, Percy accepted the call and held the phone to his ear.

“Perce, what on earth are you doing?”

“Pardon?” Percy asked, his voice very obviously rusty. He hadn’t spoken aloud since Vax had left yesterday afternoon but he’d been doing a lot of crying and it had left him sounding like he’d gargled nails.  

“In the nicest way possible, have you lost your mind?”

Percy frowned, eyes burning too much and chest aching too much to puzzle this out, “Keyleth, what…”

“Vax’ildan, Percy. What happened?”

His chest gave a painful twist, “How do you know about that?”

“Vex’ahlia messaged me. Percy, he’s heartbroken, what happened between you two? I thought you were going to tell him?”

“Do you...do you talk to Vex often?”

“Is that really the best you can do to change the topic?”

Percy scowled, “Keyleth, I can’t do this right now, not over the phone.”

“Oh, good. I’m outside your door. Let me in, please?”

Now feeling he was fully justified in being annoyed, Percy staggered out of bed and through the living room that was, after nearly a solid week of neglect, now starting to gather some real dirt and decay, food cartons left to fester on the coffee table and the kitchen counters, dirty clothes thrown over ever piece of furniture.

And a case of the cheapest, nastiest beer he could think of, bought in a moment of weakness but left unopened in the epicentre of his filthy kitchen. He tried to let his eyes slide off that, tried to pretend it wasn’t there.

He unlocked the door, the door that had stayed barred to everyone except the food delivery people. Keyleth was dressed like the kindest, most helpful kind of school librarian, as she always was, with her startlingly red hair piled up on top of her head where it could get snagged in her antlers and face set in a worried frown that Percy suspected she kept on the shelf exclusively for him.

“How can I help you?” he asked in an exasperated exhale.

“Percy, just tell me what happened. We can fix this.”

“Look, we broke up. Is that what you wanted? You wanted to hear me say it? Whatever we were, it’s done now. It’s shit but it happens.”

Keyleth’s frown deepened, moving past Percy into the apartment without an invitation. Not that they were at a point in their friendship where they needed invitations but still, Percy glowered. It was just a day for glowering.

He was glad to have her back to him when she saw the place, so he didn’t have to see the disappointment cross her face, the pity, the panic. But he did get to see her shoulders tense at the sight of the beer, saw her head snap to the recycling bin to scan for empty bottles. She didn’t relax when there was none to be found, it wasn’t like Percy hadn’t gotten good at hiding them from her. He had years of experience in that.

Percy looked down. How many times had they acted out this scene before after he lost his family? How many times had Kiki come to pick him up off the lowest depths of rock bottom?

How many times would she do it before she got sick of him letting her down again and again?

Almost immediately, she moved to the sunken section of his living room and busied herself picking up trash and tossing clothes into just one pile rather than twenty, her magic dissipating a fog of pine scent to chase out the cloying stink of general unwashedness.

“Oh, Keyleth, don’t…” Percy groaned, wondering if it was possible to feel so much guilt that it would actually crush him, “You don’t have to.”

“Then help me,” she shrugged, going into the kitchen to find some trash bags.

Percy stood there awkwardly for a moment, just in a pair of too big sweatpants and nothing else, before sighing and moving to help her.

Neither of them said anything as they slowly but surely got the place into something slightly more habitable, the sofas and counters at least clear of garbage and the curtains open to let some thin light in.

“There,” Kiki eventually declared, dusting her hands off and taking a seat on the leather she’d just magicked to be much less dusty.

Percy came and sank down beside her, having to admit he did feel a little more human now. He’d even found a t-shirt that didn’t reek to cover his top half. “There,” he echoed listlessly.

“Seriously, Perce,” her voice softened and he could feel her eyes on him even though he couldn’t answer her gaze, “What happened? You seemed so excited to tell him…”

“He… he canceled on me,” Percy eventually admitted, getting the strong sense that he wasn’t going to get through this conversation without crying, “He had a date, just like that, clearly it didn’t even cross his mind to think about me. Keyleth, I don’t know what I’d done to blind myself but he’s just… he’s not into me. He’s never going to feel that way about me. And I can’t keep doing the pretending thing knowing that.”

Kiki crossed her legs neatly under herself, tilting her head knowingly, “And I’m guessing you talked about this with him openly and calmly like adults?”

Percy reddened and he sank further down into the expensively plush sofa, “No. I said something stupid. We shouted at each other.”

“I thought so.”

He felt his throat close, “Look, I was always going to fuck this up. It was always going to happen... “

“Percival, do not do this,” her reply was sharper than he’d expected and he jumped a little, “Life is not closing doors on you, you are.”

“Keyleth, it’s pretty fucking loud and clear…”

“Did it ever occur to you in your infinite genius and complete lack of common sense, that maybe Vax went on a date because he has no clue that you are in love with him? And if he was aware, he’d have been going on a date with you? And that you can’t be angry at him for not knowing things that you didn’t tell him?”

“I know that!” Percy’s voice cracked at just the wrong moment as his volume surged and he winced, “Why do you think I’ve been lying in bed hating myself for the past week?”

“Then quit doing that, you know it doesn’t solve anything!” Keyleth threw her hands up, “Go fix your problem! Go talk to Vax!”

“Fine!” Percy yelled, “I’ll do that!”

He suddenly blinked, realising what he’d just agreed to do.

Keyleth smiled sweetly, expectantly, “Want me to help you pick out an outfit?”

“Kiki, I don’t like you.”

“And you love me.”

“Yes, that too.”

It took most of the day but Vex finally coaxed Vax into the shower and was making him a cup of coffee when she heard the knock at the door. Trinket sat up and gave a warning rumble which she always found funny, given that he was the biggest wuss she’d ever had the pleasure of knowing and would never hurt a fly.

Dusting sugar from her fingers, she went and opened the door, a smile lighting up her face when she saw the beautiful, red haired lady who had been occupying a lot of her thoughts and texts since Vax had introduced them. She’d messaged her to tell her about the disaster their mutual brothers had created but she hadn’t expected her to come over. Not until their date next Saturday at least.

“Keyleth! What a lovely surprise-”

That was when she saw Percy awkwardly shuffling his feet next to her. And her face dropped into something resembling a storm cloud.

“Fuck you, de Rolo,” she said flatly.

To his credit, Percy nodded and bit his lip, “Yeah, I deserve that.”

“You sure as hell do,” Vex scanned him up and down, calculating a way to knock him to the floor and take his glasses, “Glad we agree.”

“Vex’ahlia,” Keyleth stepped smartly between them, clearly sensing the thoughts behind her dark eyes, “Do you think the boys could have a conversation? Maybe sort this out?”

Vex shifted, trying not to let how bright the druid’s eyes were and how those freckles dusted her nose so perfectly distract her from her righteous sibling anger, “I don’t know if that’s what Vax wants right now…”

“Could you ask him? Please? I promise, if he says no, we’ll leave.”

Percy has to leave, Vex thought to herself, you can stay as long as you want, my dear.

Was she fraternising with the enemy here? She couldn’t decide. Damn, this was confusing.

Trinket chose that moment to somehow turn to liquid and slide around his mama’s legs, bounding up to Percy and whining happily. To Vex’s surprise, Percy found a smile and hugged her dog earnestly, cooing to him and ruffling his ears in just the right way, suddenly so different from his usual, stiff, formal self.

Vex hesitated, her anger suddenly having nowhere to go, it’s clear, connected path from her fist to Percy’s face swept away in an instant. Keyleth caught her eyes for a second, reading her expression in an instant and smiling softly. A smile that said there was still hope.

And, as angry as she’d been, Vex still wanted to believe the chance for her brother to be happy was still there.

“I’ll ask him,” she murmured eventually, disappearing back into the apartment.

Vax was sitting at the kitchen table, holding his mug of coffee in both hands, looking small and young in an oversized dark t-shirt and shorts, his hair wet and straggly.

“He’s here isn’t he?” he asked quietly, not looking up from his mug.

“Just say the word, Scrawny, and I’ll throw him out,” Vex murmured, moving to stand behind him, putting her hands on his shoulders.

Vax exhaled softly, “Is it insane that I want to see him? I mean… half of me does.”

“It’s not insane,” Vex bent and kissed the top of his head, “It sounds about right for what you’re going through.”

Vax exhaled for a very long time, still not raising his eyes. He always took his coffee without milk, black as night, bitter enough to scorch the taste buds of anyone normal. She’d always found that funny, in much the same way Trinket trying to growl like a guard dog was. Vax always seemed so harsh and bitter on the outside, an affect he’d cultivated carefully, turning it into armour over the course of his life. But inside, all he’d ever wanted was to be loved, to be liked, to just be able to be himself.

And, fuck, he deserved that.

“I’ll talk to him,” he eventually said, “What have I got to lose, right?”

Vex smiled gently, “Lots. But you’re just that brave.”

“Thanks, Stubby,” that dredged a smile from him.

“I won’t be far,” she promised, “Keyleth and I will be just outside the building and I’ll have my phone on me the whole time.”

Vax tilted his head back then, looking up at her with something like his old spark, “You’re totally into Kiki, aren’t you?”

“Gods, above,” Vex rolled her eyes, though she couldn’t help the relieved smile that flickered to life on her face, “Don’t make me regret all this being nice to you.”

“Can’t have us getting along too much, it feels weird,” Vax shrugged, motioning her towards the door, like he needed her to go before he lost his nerve.

Vex took the hint, squeezing his shoulder one last time before she moved away.

The next person to come through the door was Percy.

Vax was put in mind of the first time he’d ever set eyes on Percy. When he’d walked in looking so poised and calm, tired and lost but taking pains to hide it behind a neat haircut and prim accent, with his red carnation and polished glasses. Vax remembered the first thoughts that had entered his head along with the chiming bell of the cafe door. How he’d thought him a little stiff, a little strange, someone he could grow a fondness for in time.

Now, nearly a full year later, he was openly showing his hurts. He wore them on his face, in the dark circles under his eyes, in the way his hands anxiously, unconsciously wrung each other. There was no more hiding, not after everything they'd been through. Vax took some comfort from that.

And he wondered what Percy was thinking about him.  

There was a very long pause, neither of them sure what to say, just looking at each other helplessly like they each wanted the other to save them.

In the same instant, Vax awkwardly began with “Hey…” and Percy blurted out, “I’m so sorry.”

Then suddenly they were smiling, hesitant and shy, but smiling.

“Try again?” Vax hummed.

Percy nodded gratefully, repeating it again with as much sincerity as he could muster, “I’m sorry. I’m so, so sorry, Vax’ildan.”

Vax swallowed, nudging the chair across from him back with one foot, an invitation to sit. Percy did, sinking down into it.

“You really hurt me, Percy,” Vax rasped, pressing against the wound inside him by thinking about it, “The things you said…they’re not true, I was never using you… ”

Percy’s face crumpled, “I know. I know that, Vax, I swear. I was just… I was angry at myself. I was jealous. I was bitter. None of that is an excuse, I know, it’s all my problem. But I will never forgive myself for lashing out at you, that was the stupidest thing I’ve ever done.”

Vax bit his lip, “You were jealous?”

Percy looked down at his hands, “It’s so stupid… I acted like a child. But yes, I… I was jealous. And instead of talking to you about it, I just made things worse. But I’m not just coming here with an apology, I’m coming to you with a promise never to do it again.”

“You were...jealous? That I went on a date?”

Percy seemed caught off guard, “Uh...yeah?”

“Shit,” Vax croaked, “Shaun was right.”

“I’m sorry?”

Vax summoned up all of his courage, everything that had made him brave enough to still want to be happy, and leaned forward, “Percy, do you love me?”

Percy’s eyes brimmed until they shone and in that moment, they looked so fucking beautiful, “Yes. I have for a while and...honestly, it scared me. I didn’t know what to do with it at first. I didn’t see myself as someone who deserved to feel like that, I guess, I just felt like such an idiot…”

“I think I know what you mean,” Vax whispered, starting to smile, “But I love you too. And I trust you. And I want to try this. So what does that make me?”

The tears that had been lingering there finally spilled over and Percy’s eyes became miniature seas, churning and rolling with their own waves, “It makes you the best thing that’s ever happened to me. And I’m never going to stop being amazed that I’m allowed to have you in my life.”

They came together like the movement of the Earth itself, inevitable and with a sense of everything returning to how it was meant to be. They had spent months kissing, holding each other, exploring every part of their bodies together but now, as they did nothing more than slide their arms around each other, it felt so precious and new and exhilarating. It felt like a first time.

All Vax had been looking for was someone who would be nice to him. All Percy had been looking for was a friend.

What they’d found was a future together.

Two years later…

The Blooming Grove was always busy on rainy days. Something about the sweet, honey coloured warmth it’s windows spilled out into the street just beckoned people in, making it seem like the most perfect shelter from any kind of bad weather.

But almost as if fate- or, more likely, Caduceus Clay- had intended it, their table was free. The black, wrought iron table with the delicate glass mosaic pressed into the top, sat right in the window so they could look out and see the sheets of rain coming down and making the grey world even greyer and feel even warmer from the fact that they weren’t out in it.

Percy took a deep breath and straightened the two mugs, one in front of him, one in front of the empty chair across from him, both of them full of coffee that was so thick and black, it looked like ink. Vax’s favourite. Feeling the same, utterly identical stab of panic he’d felt a hundred times since he’d left the house, his hand shot into his pocket.

Yes, it was still there, just as it had been since he placed it there. The circlet of niello engraved silver, a small but perfect diamond held within a set of tiny, intricately engraved wings. He’d made it himself.

It wasn’t a throwing knife. But he hoped it would do the job.

Percy’s eyes snapped to the clock. Vax was late getting back from rehearsal but then, he’d expected that. This was the company’s first production since he’d earned the role of principal dancer and he was giving it everything, working all hours, humming the songs under his breath even in the shower.

And he really had earned it. Percy might have set up the production company but Vax had refused to just be handed the top spot. Finally given the space to do so, he’d simply worked hard and shone. Just as Percy knew he would.

So he’d accounted for lateness. He’d accounted for everything in fact. He wanted this to be perfect.

It had to be perfect…

The sound of the wind and rain suddenly grew stronger as the door opened, just for a moment before it was firmly shut. Percy looked up to see his half elf walking in, shaking rain from his dark hair, brushing it from his jacket.

Vax looked different these days but in very small ways. He stood taller, he smiled wider. He had little creases at the corners of his eyes from smiling so much.

Percy hoped the same changes, the little signs of a life well lived, could be seen on his own face. But he doubted they looked as beautiful as they did on Vax’ildan.  

He kept the ring in his grip as he smiled and waved and watched the man he loved light up upon seeing him there.

And Percy realised it didn’t have to be perfect. They had never needed perfect.

They’d only needed each other.

#percildan #perc'ildan #Percy de rolo #vax'ildan #critical role #sugar daddy au #critical role fic #vexleth #cr: percy #cr: vax #cr: trinket #trinket the dog

[vexing-imogen]

what you see

Vax asks Keyleth for a favor while they wait for the rest of Vox Machina to complete their Slayer’s Take trial. She should have known it would be more trouble than it was worth...

“No.”

Vax’s face doesn’t just fall. It’s like his entire body crumples. “What? Kiki, why not?”

Keyleth sighs. “Because it’s a complete invasion of your sister’s privacy?” she tries.

Vax slumps even lower in his chair. “It’s not like I’m asking you to read her diary or anything. I just...I’ve never been apart from her for this long before, and I need to know that she’s alright.”

She bites her lip, conflicted. Because she gets it. Kind of. She’s worried for her friends’ safety, anxious to see them again, and she can’t say the idea of a quick scry, just to make sure they’re okay, isn’t super tempting.

And she isn’t even Vax. She isn’t the one who’s never been separated from his twin for more than twelve hours before this. If Keyleth is twitchy with anxiety, Vax is practically vibrating with it. Hunting the rakshasa had helped, had given him focus. But, of course, the thing just had to threaten Vex. And then they just had to be the first group back. (Honestly? She’s kind of shocked it’s taken him this long to ask.) So it’s not like she doesn’t understand.

But it still feels wrong. Vex is one of the few members of Vox Machina that’s super intense about their privacy (what little they’re afforded, anyway). She’s positive that Grog and Scanlan wouldn’t care, and Percy would be, at worst, slightly annoyed. But Vex? She’s pretty sure that Vex would have a problem with being spied on (and it is spying, no matter what Scanlan says). And Keyleth’s already dreading the “hey, we killed the flying carpet” conversation. She really doesn’t want to add “I spied on you because your brother asked me to” to that.

She turns to Tiberius for back up; she can usually rely on him to be a voice of reason. “Help me out here, Tibs?”

He hesitates though, and she has to resist the urge to growl, because really? “I would normally take your side, your Highness,” he starts, “but well, dragons are buttholes, and our friends have been gone for an awfully long time.”

“But Murtin said that it’s normal for contracts to take a while,” she protests. “We were, like, freakishly fast. He and Vanessa both said it’s too soon to worry. We should trust them, right?”

“Keyleth, please,” Vax says, and the desperation in his voice gives her pause. “All I need to know is that Vex’ahlia is alive, nothing more. Please.”

He’s giving her sad bear eyes, and gods, he looks like he’s about to cry. “Okay, okay, fine,” she relents (and she’s probably going to regret this, but she can’t say no to the sad bear eyes).

Vax brightens almost immediately. “Really? You’ll do it?”

She sighs. “Yes, okay, so you can stop with the Trinket eyes.” That gets a genuine, if slightly watery, smile. “Give me a few minutes to get the stuff I need, alright?”

They retreat to one of the rooms that they’ve been provided, and Keyleth prepares for the ritual, gathering her components and meditating on the space. She takes a deep breath and lets it out. “Okay, let’s see if this works.”

“Wait,” Vax says. “If?”

Keyleth nods. “If Vex notices that someone is trying to scry on her, which she could because your sister is insanely perceptive, she could just...shut me out?” She shrugs. “But it is pretty late so...fingers crossed that she’s asleep?”

Vax mimics her shrug. “Alright. Do your thing.”

She closes her eyes and starts the incantation, reaching out with her mind, trying to connect to Vex, wherever she might be. At first there’s only darkness, and she’s afraid for a moment that the spell failed.

Suddenly, there’s a flash of white, and she catches a glimpse of a mountain before her vision is pulled into a forest. There’s another flash, and, when her eyes focus, she can see Percy and Vex taking watch together, huddled close by the campfire.

She can just see Scanlan’s tiny form on the edge of her vision, can hear Grog’s thunderous snores, and there are two unfamiliar bundles that must be their companions from the Slayer’s Take. She’s satisfied, is about to end the spell, when Vex’s voice catches her attention.

“So, darling,” she says, nudging Percy, “you said in the dragon’s lair that you wanted to talk. So let’s talk.”

Percy sighs, stammers out a response. “Um, yes,” he says. “Well, mostly I just wanted to say that I’m very glad you didn’t die back there.”

Keyleth shouldn’t be watching this. Mostly because Percy is looking at Vex the way he normally looks at Vex when she isn’t paying attention. But Vex is paying attention, and Keyleth can’t bring herself to look away.

“I’m glad you didn’t die in there either,” Vex says, and her voice is softer, less casually confident than normal. “But, I’m not the only one who almost died, and I can’t help but notice you’re not having a late night heart-to-heart with Scanlan or Lyra.”

He sighs again, and he gets that look that means he’s about to do something really brave or really stupid. Or both. “That’s because I don’t want to do this with Scanlan or Lyra,” he says, and then he leans over and kisses her.

He pulls away after just a moment, watching Vex nervously for a reaction. She looks stunned, but there’s a small smile playing at the corners of her mouth. “Oh. Okay,” she says before pouncing, knocking Percy flat on his back and leaning down to kiss him.

Keyleth ends the scry abruptly, her cheeks burning, eyes wide. “They’re fine,” she says, her voice higher than normal. She clears her throat. “Everyone’s fine. Everyone’s alive. Nothing out of the ordinary happening at all.”

Vax raises an eyebrow, frowning slightly. “You alright, Kiki?” he asks. “You’re acting a little...weird.”

“I’m fine,” she says brightly. “Just fine. But I am never scrying on your sister ever again.”

#critical role #critical role fic #keyleth #vax'ildan #vex'ahlia #percival frederickstein von musel klossowski de rolo iii #also i totally checked the phb to make sure keyleth would have had this spell at this point in the story #critfic

[critrolesketch]

Right Kiddies, the De Rolo interaction continued

Here is the thing real quick about the people in the party going forward

Val was kidnapped at 7 and has a scar in her hand where the kidnapper stabbed it when she got annoying. She and her 3 Aasimar Brothers were also targeted when she was 12 by three necromancers. She made a pact with the Raven Queen in that moment to stall them long enough for help to arrive. Now Val is on a mission to serve her patron, become a hero, and return to teach her brothers to do the same. Except she is 16 and is in way over her head and has a lot of growing left to do.

Calladyne is a half elf bard who looks fab and sings like Beyoncé, but spent her life in a bad Fey court and has just returned from the Feywild and it’s only been, like, 3 months since she was technically born. Gal is 20

Dixie is a revenant out to kill the dragon that killed her home and family.

Aavar was tricked into wearing cursed armor that had a good ac, but the dude who gave it to her could make her do whatever he wanted her to do (and he was a dick) and she couldn’t take it off. He died and we recently got her armor off , which was a big in game victory.

Veir really likes guns. He thinks Dwarves should use guns as their main form of weaponry. He is butt-hurt that Percy doesn’t agree.

The player who controls Dixie had to leave early, so we were without a tank who...actually can’t really die. It was bad.

We find out that multiple people took the baby. We track some footprints back into Whitestone and to a warehouse. I break our stealth with a nat 1 and try to remedy it by going in first. 4 Rogues with sneak attack = pincushion Val.

We fight them off and eventually tie up two and interrogate the gal behind the whole thing, who happens to be the lady we met at dinner on the council who is in charge of the business and economy in Whitestone. She is Myriad. They handed the baby off to cultists.

We head back out again after some...intense interrogations. Percy pulls our Gunslinger aside to interrogate the woman and he nearly pulls an No Mercy Percy, smoke and all. It’s just a test tho to see if Veir was a good person or something and Veir is left along to interrogate this gal. Something awoke inside that dude because hell man, we was not very kind to that woman.

Percy gives Veir Animus as a loaner so he can better kill the f-ers that took the youngest De Rolo.

We head out, find an old hideout at the end of the tracks we are following in the woods, and make it through the hallway of spinning blades and smashing pillars set up as a death trap. Fun thing about that was if we got to the end, a rune on the door caused a fear effect and you ran back into the death trap.

We find the cultist and her crew with the baby. It’s a tough battle. Calladyne our Bard goes down a lot, and Aavar our arcane archer ends up getting hit by a spell that makes her see her worst fear. It wasn’t pleasant. Eventually the cultist lady takes a knife to the baby’s throat and Val is freaking out. She doesn’t know how healthy this woman is or if she will kill the baby as soon as anyone attacks. She risks it and gets the HDYWTDT with eldritch blast.

I catch the baby, Veir finishes off the remaining foe, and we questions her and her companions using my Tome ability my class provides (I can ask the dead 1 question). They were gonna use the baby for fuel apparently. We find that they are cultists if the Chained Oblivion, and a letter on the lady says

“We found another in Whitestone. Have it delivered to the Whithered.” Signed Thola.

Both names are from Val’s backstory. Both were two of the three necromancers that attempted to kidnap her.

So I’m cradling baby Vax, who has snuggled into my shoulder, staring in shock at this letter.

We end by returning baby Vax to a very grateful mother and father.

NEXT SESSION!

We all meet the next morning to De Breif the De Rolos (that is legit the session title. My DM was pretty proud)

Val basically info dumps her backstory to convey how dangerous the people are who took baby Vax. She gets really upset during this too and Vex reaches out to put her hand in mine and Val lets her know that she will do everything in her power to protect Vax from the necromancers. She accepts Val’s vow but says that they’ve got it handled for now and gives me the classic Vex smirk.

Also, turns out Baby Vax just has black wings that appeared recently, so Val is now for sure certain the RQ blessed them with the child instead of any other God.

So the De Rolos decide to help and Percy gets really excited. Like super excited.

Also Aavar snoops around for info in the evil council members house after being told not to and took a bunch of papers. Don’t know if she kept them or left them for the De Rolos but she and the councilwoman had relations through the Myriad, as Aavar was forced to work with them.

The next morning we are awoken by Percy, who is practically vibrating with excitement. He has a speedy way for getting us to Lyrengorn.

He made himself an airship.

Dude let us take it out on its maiden voyage.

The ship is pretty small, but the cabin is bigger in the inside and is heated. Dude just...got everything he wanted.

So we sail off to Bigby’s tower! With the eldest De Rolo kid Shaun as our captain.

Speed round

We discover that Dixie is basically Deadpool after she fails with a Nat one to climb down a rope in Lyrengorn. She has, in canon, a Canadian accent, duel wields swords, and reassembles herself like something out of a horror movie, with shit just snapping into place.

We find the tower and it’s like...super Trippy. Each door leads to another room, every step takes you to a different place with different gravity, one door took us to a giant mimic in a giant glass container that imitated sand. That was fun.

Also the steam Gollum we faced did 65 max damage in a round to level 6 players. That was stressful.

We finally find the study and the artifact we came to recover called Cepheus, the shroud of tears.

Funny thing is though, our dm made these items before we even sent our characters in and I just so happened to be a Raven Queen fangirl. He tells us that the list of coincidences and parallel story beats we somehow miraculously stumbled upon in our party is absolutely mind boggling.

Here is the item made the THE RAVEN QUEEN HERSELF BEFORE SHE ASCENDED.

Val takes the item in her hand and immediately feels a rush of power. She channels the energy apprehensively into her focus and suddenty sees the Raven Queen’s face. “Put it on.”

Val: “Yep ok im putting it on”

Val’s wings extend 15 ft in either direction, a cape made of shadow extends out from the clasp, and her hair goes all Eris from Sinbad.

So I got wings all the time now y’all (but just for the aesthetics, I still can’t fly unless I use my racial feat or turn into a raven)

We read Bigby’s journal and other artifacts we are looking for get mentioned. One of them is a bow (great for Aavar) that was lost in Pandamonium. Aavar makes a comment “I’m not gonna go carrying around a magical weapon that I’m going to get hunted for.”

I surprised myself with a very out of line quip from Val “I mean, you wore that armor and everything was fine” (implying that no one hunted her for that particular powerful magical item)

Everyone reacts shocked and very disturbed by the comment. Aavar walks away, stunned at the comment.

Never had Val been so powerful yet felt so powerless.

I love this game. I can’t wait for more drama. We all have plans for how to deal with that bombshell and are practically vibrating like Percy. We ended after exiting the tower. Things are gonna be real interesting as we travel to Vassilhiem. I’m so excited you guys.

If this was enjoyable for you, go ahead and let me know in the comments and I’ll set up an official tumblr where we will keep you updated about our travels through Tal’dorei.

#val ganderstim #critical role #dungeons & dragons #dungeons and dragons #critter pcs #percival fredrickstein von musel klossowski de rolo iii #vex’ahlia #my art #long post

[mrandmrsvex]

Chapters: 3/? Relationships: Percival "Percy" Fredrickstein Von Musel Klossowski de Rolo III/Vex'ahlia Additional Tags: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Fake/Pretend Relationship, Sharing a Bed, Basically all the tropes, Critmas, Christmas

Summary:

„Could you repeat that, please?“ „“You heard what I said, Percy.“ „I did. I'd still like you to repeat it, simply to make sure my mind isn't playing tricks on me. Because this sounds like something from your brother's mind, not yours.“ „All I asked was if you wanted to spend Christmas with me at my father's place, and make him think that you... that we're... that I have a boyfriend.“

Chapter 1: Driving Home for Christmas

„Could you repeat that, please?“

„“You heard what I said, Percy.“

„I did. I'd still like you to repeat it, simply to make sure my mind isn't playing tricks on me. Because this sounds like something from your brother's mind, not yours.“

Vex sighed and stirred her coffee. They were sitting in the most non-descript Starbucks she'd ever seen – oh, there were many nicer and more familiar little coffee shops dotted through town, but in any of them, they'd stand a chance to be met by someone of their surprisingly large group of friends. And having to awkwardly explain why she was having coffee alone with the newest addition to that group would be bad enough – if any of them overheard her proposition, it would be even worse.

„All I asked was if you wanted to spend Christmas with me at my father's place, and make him think that you... that we're... that I have a boyfriend.“

Percy only sipped on his coffee – he was most definitely used to better – and looked at her over the rim of his cup, one eyebrow raised high even above his glasses. At any other time, Vex would have had to admit that this pensive look of his was annoyingly attractive, especially focussed on her – right now it was only making her nervous in a bad way. She needed to make this deal. She hadn't expected him to be quite so indifferent.

„I mean, you told me that you're not doing anything for Christmas, really, with your sister staying at university with her friends. And you're pretty much the only one of our group who knows his way around an estate. And the only one sly enough to keep our story up without mistakes.“

Two little stabs against him, followed by a bit of flattery. She'd learned that it usually worked with Percy, and it seemed to work now – he leaned back in his chair, still looking at her, but far less tense than before.

„And why do you need a fake boyfriend for your christmas with Dad? From what I remember, it's usually you and your brother that team up to give him the finger at any occasion where you have to deal with him.“

„Yes. Usually.“ Vex stirred her coffee once again – her cup was twice as full as his was at this point, and getting cold. But she hadn't invited him here to drink coffee, really. „Except this year, because my brother's managed to find an actually reliable excuse with Keyleth on why he can't follow up on our father's invite.“

„I would've thought your father would want to meet this new girlfriend of Vax's. Did she not get invited?“

„Oh, she did. But her father has decided to give her her christmas gift early, and it turns out to be a double ticket for a trip all across the country, and they've suspiciously decided to cash it in right now, so they're probably going to be... somewhere, in the wilderness, during christmas.“

It was a brilliant excuse, and Vex had a hard time admitting that her brother was lucky to use it. She was more busy with being angry at him for leaving her to deal with it all alone.

„I understand that you don't want to go alone, but why fake an entire relationship? Take Zahra with you, and watch your father's head explode trying not to say anything inappropriate to your on-again off-again girlfriend.“

„I thought of that.“ She hadn't. To be fair, she hadn't thought of Zahra for quite a while. That nagging image of the beautiful white-haired lady in her head during lonely moments had been replaced by someone with equally white hair, but so far, she'd refused to think of it more clearly. „I really can't take Zahra. Not after last year's debacle with Vax and Gilmore. I mean, I do want to annoy my father, but I also kind of want to enjoy christmas for a little bit and not spend it fighting all the time.“

„Stay home, then. Make up a fake boyfriend here in town, and that you're invited to his family's this year, and tell your dad how rude it would be to decline their lovely invite in favour of his cynical one. That way you get out of the whole situation and get to enjoy christmas however you like it.“

However I like it, she thought. The way she liked it was most definitely not sitting at home with Trinket, while her brother was away with his new lady and all her friends had someone to celebrate with except for her. She'd even rather face her father alone instead of that – but she simply couldn't. She really needed this deal with Percy, but there was no apparent getting forward.

„Ok, alright, fine. I guess I'll have to be completely honest here, goddamnit. You really know how to push my buttons.“ She sighed and rubbed across her eyes, not noticing the soft smile that flashed across his face for a second.

„I can't do anything else, no matter what you or I or anyone else thinks of doing that's more reasonable. I wanted to call my father to tell him I'm not coming without Vax, but I got his wife instead. And, god, she's just so nice. So happy to have me visit for the holiday. So I panicked and couldn't think of another excuse and I thought, if I asked to bring a random guy they've never heard of, even she would say no, but she didn't. It got her even more excited to meet my new boyfriend who I made up on the spot.“

It all rushed out in an angry rant against herself, but she was still conscious enough to omit the part where she had immediately thought of him as the new boyfriend to bring – it was only, she convinced herself, because Percy was exactly the kind of guy her father would both like and hate to see as her partner. Wealthy and of a good position, able to better his delinquent daughter's status on one side. Actually wealthier and of a far better status than himself on the other side. And vindictive enough to jab back at any comment her father could make that would only make her rage. She'd seen Percy tear into strangers in the politest way possible when they were too quick to judge his new friends. She could imagine him do it just as perfectly against her father. She kind of wanted to see it, actually.

Her thoughts were interrupted by Percy's laugh. It wasn't loud, all-out laughter, more an amused giggle that slightly grew larger, but it was definitely more than what she was used to from him. She could count the moments of him laughing on one hand, and he definitely never did more than a short snort or grin if they were in larger company. She tried everything she could to make him laugh, but there was no time to cherish it now. He'd already stopped and leaned forward, a wicked smile on his face.

„Vex, if you'd just started with the truth of you getting yourself into situations you didn't assess properly because of your hotheadedness, I would've said yes right away.“ He emptied his cup and his smile turned softer, yet still wicked. „Alright, I'll come with you for christmas. It might actually be enjoyable to watch the chaos unfold.“

„Thank you for driving, as well.“

The 4 hour drive had been surprisingly pleasant. She already knew that Percy could be a decent conversational partner if only his mind was focussed on something else as well, so he couldn't constantly overthink everything he said. And focussing on driving safely through the more and more snow-filled countryside seemed to work.

„Well, I thought if you wanted to make a grand entrance for shock as I expect from you, we probably shouldn't show up in the heap of rust and ducttape that was once your VW beetle.“

He was the only one allowed to talk about her car derisively - if only because she could hear the hint of affection in his voice. Ever since they'd met a year ago, he had been working on her car at least once a month, fixing little hitches and larger problems. It was by now more of a project of his than a car of hers.

„Besides, I wouldn't want to drive in anything that unsafe through this snow.“

He shifted to slow down a bit, and Vex remembered the old newspaper clipping that Pike had quietly told her about. The one detailling the story of how the most influental business man of the area had crashed his car in a snowstorm. How the car behind him, equally filled with family, wasn't able to break quickly enough. How the only ones the Emergency Services could save hours later were a young boy and his little sister. She suddenly realised that Percy offering to drive them both was far more than just a small gesture.

A quiet rustling sound behind them snapped her back to the present. Trinket had gotten up in the backseat and was sniffing around Percy's headrest. Luckily she managed to push the large dog back before he could lick across his ear.

„Trinket, down!“ She turned to Percy, who seemed unfaced by it all. It had happened about 4 times during the drive so far, after all. „And I'm really sorry about Trinket shedding all over the backseat. I promise I'll clean it when we get back home. I just couldn't... the kennel is really expensive.“ That, and she really hoped for a calming pile of fur to cuddle at night after facing her father.

„It's fine, Vex. I've transported worse with this car.“ His mind flashed back to the one and only time he'd offered to play designated driver while on a night out with Grog and Pike and shuddered. „We should be arriving pretty soon, anyway.“

Trinket gave a short, dissatisfied snort before turning to the bag of gifts next to him. Vex reached back even further to shoo him away. She hadn't bought much – not like her father would be interested in it anyway – but showing up empty-handed had been out of the question, and even Vax had left her a small gift for their younger sister. She was far more surprised that Percy had brought his own little bag of neatly wrapped boxes.

„It's very sweet of you to get something for Velora, by the way. She'll love you for it, and so will her mum.“

„Well, I assumed that the rest of the gifts would be from 'us', so to speak.“ They hadn't really talked any further about their fabricated relationship, and Vex wondered if maybe they should've set some guidelines, but assumed that Percy would play along well enough.

„Yes, obviously. But then who's the rest of your boxes for?“ She couldn't help but grin, but he only answered it with his own smirk.

„You wouldn't expect me to forget Trinket, would you?“

„They're here! She's here! It's Vex'ahlia!“

She could hear Velora's happy shouting even through closed car doors as they parked next to her father's ridiculous top-of-the-line sportscar – Vex relished the far more polished look of Percy's well-kept Oldtimer standing out against the showboating of the modern car.

The little girl standing at the front door was excitedly jumping up and down, waving at them until Vex waved back, then ducking inside shouting again for her parents.

The whole trip was probably worth it just for Velora's big smile.

„So this is your father's estate. Quite something for an ambassador.“

Percy was politely understating and they both knew it. Syldor had not been happy with his contract until they included the most modern, painful architecture of a house as possible, and a garden to match it.

Vex remembered her teenage years in this house and thought back the beautiful, historic Whitestone mansion that Percy had brought her and their friends back to once, after a trip together, casually mentioning that he had a 'place to stay' halfway back into town when it was getting dark. Compared to her father's stark grey, minimalist house, Whitestone seemed like a fairytale castle to her.

Percy's mind seemed to work over the same thing.

„I can't really tell just from the front – is it about the size of Whitestone? It might be a bit larger, even. What a place for such a little family.“

„It's always about size with you men, isn't it.“ She snickered, especially when Percy playfully swatted at her arm.

„I was just wondering how your boyfriend's home measured up to your father's. I am here to make him feel inferior, right? That's part of the plan, even if you won't admit it.“

It was easy enough to avoid an answer by picking their luggage out of the trunk, but Vex had quietly assumed that he'd seen through all of her plan the moment she'd asked for his help anyway. Percy, meanwhile, opened the backdoor to a flurry of brown fur jumping and running down the gravel walk to the front door before Vex could say anything to stop him.

„Lord, that- DOG!“ was the first thing they heard of the deep, stoic voice of Syldor, followed by a delighted „Trinket!“ from Velora and a lot of slobbery noises and giggling. Her father stood in the door by now, looking them both up and down as they walked up to him.

„We expected you a bit sooner. I'm afraid lunch is already over.“

„There was an awful lot of snow on the roads. Better safe than sorry, right? But don't worry, we stopped at a lovely place two towns over to eat something.“

It could have been a perfectly normal chat if it weren't for the biting tone in both their voices. Vex had already pushed past him into the hallway, quickly followed by Percy, who almost stumbled over Trinket's wagging tail while Velora scratched the dog's ears. Her mother Devana had arrived right behind her by now.

She greeted Vex with a genuinely happy „Welcome home, my dear!“ and a hug before turning to Percy. „Oh, and you're the young man she told us about!“

„I don't recall the name, unfortunately.“ Syldor chimed in from the side, but before Vex could react, she saw a perfectly fake smile appear on Percy's face.

„I'm terribly sorry about that. We really should have met sooner, at any rate.“ He offered her father his hand. „Percival Fredrickstein von Musel Klossowski de Rolo the Third.“

Vex heard Velora below her quietly gasp as she stared up at the tall man, who now bent down slightly towards her after shaking Syldor and Devana's hands. „You can call me Percy, though, that's far easier to remember.“

Vex didn't take in much for the next few minutes. It was friendly chatter, basic questions about their drive and the weather and how wonderful it was to have snow for christmas, and how used to it Percy must be, coming from the North, and how nice it was to finally meet him. She was much more focussed on watching her father instead, his face shifting ever so slightly from the usually detached mask to a furrowed brow. All Percy had to do was give him his name, she thought, to make him feel bad already.

Luckily she noticed Devana turning to her and shared a quick smile with her.

„I figure you want to put your bags down and maybe rest a bit. Let me show you to the guesthouse – we had it made ready for you this morning!“ „Guesthouse.“ She echoed.

„Yes. We built it only this year after far too many visitors to accomodate in the main.“ Syldor's smile was not even half as friendly as his wife's. „It's just past the patio.“

Not even ten minutes, and she was already shooed out of the house like... well, like an unwelcome relative, Vex thought, when she suddenly felt a hand in hers, squeezing ever so slightly, and looked up at Percy.

„That sounds rather nice, doesn't it, Vex? We'll have some privacy from time to time.“

She wasn't sure what she enjoyed more – her father's brow furrowing even further at the edge of her vision, Devana's short chuckle, or the strange twinkle in Percy's eyes.

„It actually is quite a nice guesthouse.“ Percy sounded as surprised as Vex was once they'd gotten inside and Devana had left them alone.

It was more of a bungalow than a house, definitely a bit further away from the mansion than 'just past the patio', not that she cared. A small living room with a kitchenette – good coffee, Percy would be happy about that – and a bathroom with an actual tub. And a cozy bedroom, she deducted as she opened the last door to carry her luggage inside and stopped still at the sight of the large bed in front of her.

„Oh. Well.“ Percy had followed right behind her, it seemed, as she heard his voice directly into her ear. „The couch looks large enough.“

„Don't be ridiculous.“ Vex turned around a bit too fast, hitting him in the chest with her shoulder before he could step back. „It's a large enough bed, and it's only for a few nights. I've shared with Vax a thousand times, and he's never complained. I'm not a bad bed partner, apparently.“

„He's your brother.“

„Well then I've shared a bed with Grog or Gilmore on some trips as well, and they haven't complained either.“

„It's really not about-“ Percy sighed. His face was hard to read at times, but Vex wondered if she wasn't detecting a hint of very strong embarassment before he shifted back to his usual demeanor. „Alright. Fine. I hope you don't hog the covers, though.“

„Don't worry. It doesn't get nearly as cold as in Whitestone around here.“

He mumbled something she couldn't really make out before setting down his own bag on a chair at the end of the room and began to unpack. She watched him for a minute, almost absent-mindedly – his movements were still so new to her, and she couldn't resist the urge to study them. She could tell all of her friends from quite a distance simply based on their moving, a habit she developed for far worse things when she and Vax were younger. It was better to notice shifty behaviour or dangerous people from a distance rather than up close. But they were in a better place now, and her talent was worth not much more than being able to order their friend's drink long before they'd even found them in the pub and surprise them with it.

Still, she wanted to put Percy's to memory as well. He was slow in a very careful way, and precise. No movement seemed unecessary, everything was calculated. Vex wondered if he ever did or said anything without thinking it through at least three times. Then again, he seemed less decided and cock-sure whenever he was faced with the wit of the twins... or her alone.

„I wonder how long it'll take before we can make your father's head implode from sheer frowning.“ He turned to her with a grin, and she was glad her eyes shifted up quickly enough to not be noticed.

„If you keep flashing your title and flirting with his daughter right in front of him, probably just a few hours.“

„You just let me know if I take it too far. Preferably with a hard kick against the shin under the table, anything else I probably won't notice. We haven't really talked about this fake relationship beforehand.“

„Don't worry, darling. I don't think you could ever take it too far.“

She'd vanished towards the kitchen before he could stammer out a reply.

Her father's christmas dinner was smaller than usual – a few select and actually polite guests, rather than the party he used to throw when the twins were younger. Vex watched Devana sitting next to Velora, who happily turned her potatoes into mashed ones with her fork while the adults held conversations above her head, and wondered just how much they both had changed her father.

He was still more than enough of a pretentious idiot, though. Percy had been introduced as simply „Percy, Vex'ahlia's boyfriend“ - and kept repeating his full name almost in defiance while Vex grinned at the guest's various reactions to it and her father's face turning more and more sour.

Other than that, neither she nor Percy had much to fight against. Her father had decidedly seated them as far away from him as possible, it seemed, to avoid any discussions. Conversation with others at their table was light, and people seemed more interested in Percy's family business than his relationships.

Except for the traditionally eccentric and loud aunt that every family seemed to have – even one as cold and distant as Syldor's.

„So, now, you lovebirds!“ Aunt Sidiah sounded as if she'd had at least 2 more glasses of wine than anyone else. „Tell me, tell me more! Tell me everything!“

„I think everything might be a bit too much.“

„Oh, don't be like that, Vex! It's just such a rare thing for you to show interest in a boy, let alone bring him home! Not like your brother.“

Percy couldn't help but grin – he'd only just become a part of their friend group when Vax had decided to bring Gilmore to easter brunch at Dad's, but he had heard the only slightly exaggerated tale at their own brunch afterwards. Apparently Gilmore's glorious attire and behaviour didn't mesh well with Syngorn's high society, which was surprising, considering how much class the man could show if he wanted to – but maybe he and Vax hadn't wanted to.

„So tell me! How did you meet? When?“

„I'm afraid it's a rather boring story.“ Percy was quicker on the draw than Vex. „We were at the same New Years party last year – shared friends, you know – and both without a date, so I guess we were sort of left alone together. I don't know how much of it was on purpose.“ He winked at Vex, who was surprisingly quick to look down at her food. „We met for coffee a week later, and it just went on from there.“

It wasn't a lie, she thought. He didn't know the part where she'd annoyed her brother for a week that she had no New Years date to kiss at midnight while Vax had two, and maybe he hadn't noticed the wide grin on Keyleth's face when she'd introduced them to each other at the party. And he was simply polite enough to omit the bit where she'd drunkenly plastered a fat smooch on him at midnight. She remembered his bright red face and his flustered stammer, and the tiny smile that crept up before Grog with his novelty glasses smashed them both together in a bear hug.

Coffee a week later was more of a group tradition, anyway. He'd kept a chair for her when she was late, with his big bright coat.

„So it's almost your anniversary, then!“ Aunt Sidiah clapped her hands together. „Are you planning anything special?“ A wink. „Maybe a ring?“

Now Vex was faster. „I'd say a year is maybe a bit too early for that. I think fun at a regular NYE party will be enough for us.“

„And a gift.“ Percy smiled, and it didn't seem as fake as it had for the rest of the evening.

„If you want, darling.“

„Oh, always."

#Perc'ahlia #Percy #Vex'ahlia #Critical Role #Crit Role #Vox Machina #Percival Fredrickstein Von Musel Klossowski de Rolo III

[awkwardspiritanimals]

a living breathing invitation to believe better things (part 4)

Critical Role– a living breathing invitation to believe better things– part 4 of Vox Machina college!au

“Percival, Pike tells us you’ve got the evening off!”

(part 4 on AO3)

“Percival, Pike tells us you’ve got the evening off!” Vax says, much too loudly to be considered polite in a library, but he either doesn’t notice or doesn’t care about the glares being directed his way as he drops into the seat across from Percy. His sister hauls over an empty chair from the next table.

“That’s true,” Percy answers cautiously, unsure why Vax seems so excited about it and a little alarmed at the show of enthusiasm. He’s worked every Friday since he and Cass arrived in Emon, but it had been a slow week at the shop and Victor had shooed him out yesterday, telling him not to come back until his tow truck shift Saturday night.

“Excellent! That means you have to come out with us tonight. We’re going to Kima’s for dinner and then to the Slayer’s Take to get properly plastered.”

“I can’t, Vax.”

“Come on, Patches, what’s your excuse? It’s Friday, you can put off your homework for one night, and the Take sure as hell isn’t going to kick you out for being underage unless you actually try to order something alcoholic. So what’s up?”

“I’ve got a fifteen year old sister I’m responsible for, and I can’t really leave her alone so I can go out not-drinking with you all.” He figures there’s little point in making anything up, since the twins and the rest of the group are well aware of the de Rolos’ situation.

Cass is perfectly capable of looking after herself and often does, but Percy still feels guilty about it, about how much time she spends in an empty apartment or stuck at the library with him while he studies or in the shop’s tiny waiting room, drinking Victor’s terrible coffee and doing her homework, and he doesn’t want to sacrifice the time he does get to spend with her. He figures if anyone would understand having a sister, the responsibility of that, it’s Vax.

The other man considers this for a few seconds before he shrugs and says, “Bring her along.”

“You want me to bring my little sister along to the dive bar with us?”

“The Slayer’s Take isn’t that bad,” Vex says, “There usually aren’t any students except for us, because it’s not very close to campus, and the regulars don’t want to be bothered or bother anyone else.  And on the off-chance someone did try to cause trouble concerning Cass, there’ll be a whole line of people waiting to smear them across the floor.”

“She’s probably more fun than you anyway,” Vax adds, which makes Vex laugh even as she elbows her brother in the side, “So what do you say?”

“I’ll have to ask Cassandra,” he answers after a few seconds, still a little stunned by the whole conversation, and is met with matching smiles from the twins.

“Perfect! We’ll see you tonight then. I’ll let you know what time we’re meeting at the restaurant,” Vax says, and then they’re up and away from the table, Vex waving at him over her shoulder, before he can protest that his answer hadn’t been a definite yes.

With a sigh, he pulls out his phone and texts Cass.

The twins have invited us out with the group this evening.

Both of us? she sends back a few minutes later.

Yes and then We don’t have to go. We can just get pizza and go home, like we’d planned.

We sound so lame when you put it like that. You don’t want to go?

I just, Percy types, and then isn’t sure what he was going to say. He genuinely does like them, this little group who seem to have claimed him and his sister as their own with somewhat startling enthusiasm, but he’s still not sure quite what to make of it all. It’s just been him and Cass for a while now, and he’s still trying to get used to the idea of having people again, after what happened and everything that came after.

I just don’t want you to feel like we have to. It’s just dinner at Kima’s and drinks at the Take.

It’s a few minutes before he gets a reply: They want me to come to the bar with them?

I think they might like you more than me.

Not hard to believe, she sends back before he can finish his next message, and he tacks Haha. on to it in front of Vex pretty much volunteered everyone to fight for your honor if necessary.

That’s flattering enough that I think we have to go, even if it didn’t sound like it would be fun.

-------------

“You’re allowed to have fun,” Cassandra says, turning in her seat to look at Percy. He tries to pick her up from school on the days he doesn’t have work or classes; sometimes it’s the only chance they actually get to talk for the entire day.

“I have fun.”

Cass scoffs, “Working at Victor’s doesn’t count. Just because you like fixing cars doesn’t mean it’s not still your job . And when’s the last time you got to work on Bad News?”

“Bad News doesn’t need any work, it’s perfect,” he says, finally able to turn right and escape from the terrible after-school traffic.

“Seriously, Percival, you’re twenty, not a hundred and twenty.”

“You just want an excuse to go out with everyone.”

“I just don’t want to be your excuse for not hanging out with our friends on your day off,” Cass says, all the teasing is suddenly gone from her voice, and Percy glances over at her. She’s leaning her head against the window, fiddling with one of the zippers on her backpack.

“Cass, you know it’s not like that.”

“If you didn’t have to worry about me, what would you be doing tonight? Hell, where would you be right now?”

Six feet under. The thought is so immediate and sharp that Percy is afraid for a second that he’d actually said it out loud, but Cass is still staring out the window. He pulls to a stop at a red light and rests his head back against his seat for a few seconds before he speaks.

“The only time I’ve ever regretted my decision is when I haven’t been the big brother you deserve. Otherwise I’ve only ever been glad you’re here, and I don’t know where I’d be if you weren’t, but I don’t think it would be anywhere good, Cassandra.”

“You’re a good big brother,” Cass says after a few minutes of silence, rubbing at her nose.

“Even if I take my sister out to the bar with our friends?” he asks, and she brightens almost immediately, “You should text Vax, ask what time we’re meeting at the restaurant.”

Even if Percy didn’t actually want to go himself, the smile on his sister’s face would be worth it.

---------

The Slayer’s Take is apparently just a few blocks from Kima’s, and Vex bumps her shoulder against his as they walk.

“Having fun yet?” she asks, grinning, and Percy can’t help but return it.

Dinner had been… well, it had been loud, mostly, but fun too, two tables shoved together with all of them crowded around and all talking at once, stealing food off each other’s plates.  Kima had fired Vax twice and threatened to kick Scanlan out at least five times, but she had said she’d see them next week as they were leaving and reminded Vax of his shift the next day, so Percy figured that she wasn’t actually as annoyed by them as she seemed.

“I think I am. Even if you only invited me so that Cass would come,” he answers, nodding towards where his sister is walking a little ahead of them, talking to Grog, and Vex leans into him again, a bit harder this time.

“Completely untrue. You think Vax and I voluntarily enter the library for just anyone?”

“Besides, if they’d only wanted to invite Cass, they could have just texted her in the first place. They wouldn’t have even needed to bother you,” Pike says from Vex’s other side, and Vex laughs, looping her arm through Pike’s and then surprising Percy by doing the same with him.

“Exactly, darling. You’re just going to have to accept that we like you at this point.”

“I’ll see what I can do,” he says, as Vax pulls open the door of a small brick building with The Slayer’s Take stenciled straight onto the wall in black. It has the look of a place that decided a long time ago that the kind of customers who would be scared off by its appearance weren’t really customers it was interested in having.

“Kashaw! Greetings!” Tiberius calls as they walk into the building, and Percy is pretty sure that the guy behind the bar actually sighs when he looks up at them.

“Oh, joy,” he says, coming over to the table they all settle around to pass out coasters.

“One of these days, Kash, you’re going to have to admit that you actually like us,” Vax says with a grin, which Kashaw meets with the most deadpan expression Percy has ever seen.

“Unlikely. Hey, Keyleth, what’s up?”

“Not much,” Keyleth answers, and Percy thinks she might be blushing.

“Cool.” And then he nods a couple times and retreats behind the bar to polish more glasses. No one else says anything about it, so Percy doesn’t either, but he and Cass exchange a look that must give them away, because Vax laughs.

“That’s Kashaw. He was a TA for a religious studies class that met before mine and Kiki’s econ class last semester, and we’d chat sometimes. He’s the one who told us about the Take in the first place.”

“Technically he invited Keyleth out for a drink and the rest of us crashed that invitation because she was nervous,” Vex says, which makes Keyleth blush again, and she’s about to continue when someone calls “Vex’ahlia!” from the bar and she practically throws herself off her stool to hug someone making their way towards the table.

The embrace is so enthusiastic that it takes Percy a few seconds to realize he knows the other person, having been introduced to Zahra a few weeks ago while he was eating lunch with Pike and Vex. It’s the long white braid that gives her away, especially since she and Vex had spent a good five minutes that day teasing him about the white in his own hair while Pike tried to control her giggling.

“It’s good to see you again, Percival,” she says, once she’s leaned back from Vex a bit, “And who is this young lady?”

“That’s Cassandra, Percy’s younger sister. We only invited him out so she would agree to come,” Vex says, winking at him, and Percy can’t help the little indignant noise he makes in response. The rest of the table laughs, and it seems somehow to light up the entire dingy space of the bar.

“Nice to meet you, Cassandra. I see you’ve got the same taste in hairstyles as your brother and me,” she says, flipping her braid over her shoulder and laughing when both Cass and Percy reach up to touch the lighter parts of their own hair, “So what’s everyone drinking?”

Zahra doesn’t write anything down, but she doesn’t get any of their orders wrong as far as Percy can tell, although it’s possible that nobody bothers to complain because alcohol is alcohol at this point. Grog, Scanlan and Vax seem particularly intent on getting completely plastered, and Cass gets roped into acting as the judge for whatever drinking game they’ve decided on, drinking her Shirley Temple and laughing at the three of them as they get progressively drunker. Keyleth takes her drink over to the bar to talk to Kash, and Percy ends up in a conversation with Tiberius about his current film project. He’s not sure what it’s about, mostly because Tiberius doesn’t really seem to have a firm idea of it himself, and just as he’s running out of reasonable questions to ask, Vex pulls him over to play darts with her.

“Pike is terrible completely sober, so it’s really no contest now,” she explains as they watch Pike take her turn. Only one of her three darts actually hits the board.

“How are you sure I’ll be any better?”

“You pretty much have to be,” Pike says, looking perfectly pleased to stop playing and sit at the table with her beer to watch the two of them instead.

“And even if you aren’t, at least I’ll have the chance to beat someone else instead of just beating Pike for the third time,” Vex says, handing over the darts she’d collected from the floor.

They split four games, because Vex is very good but she’s also drunk enough that between turns she leans against Pike, the two of them laughing and heckling Percy as he throws. He doesn’t mind, since Pike is equally enthusiastic about teasing Vex when it’s her turn, and is just thankful he’s holding his own.

Vex is downing the rest of her beer while he resets the scoreboard so they can play again when there’s a commotion at their table, which turns out to be Scanlan drunkenly attempting to stand on his stool as Vax and Keyleth, equally drunk, try to keep him from falling. Grog is laughing so hard he’s in danger of falling off his own stool.

“Scanlan trying to put on a concert by himself is usually our cue to leave,” Pike says, climbing down from her stool and steadying herself with a grip on Percy’s elbow.

“Unless it’s karaoke night, because then he’d have started a long time before this,” Vex adds.

“They have karaoke night here?”

“Absolutely. Okay, guys, I think it’s time to go home.” Pike has to raise her voice a bit to be heard, and she’s met with groans from most of the group, but none of them argue with her. Between Tiberius and the de Rolos, who are sober, and Pike and Vex, who are tipsy but certainly less drunk than the other four, they manage to get everyone outside without any property damage or physical injury. Vex stops to hug Zahra goodbye, and Keyleth babbles drunkenly at Kash, who surprisingly almost looks like he might find it endearing.

“Does everyone have a plan to get home? Anyone need a ride?” Tiberius asks.

“You still okay with us crashing at yours, Pike?” Vax slurs, leaning on his sister for support, and Pike nods.

“Then I’ll bid you all good night.”

It sounds easy enough, to make it the relatively few blocks to Pike and Grog’s apartment, but it turns out to be pretty challenging almost immediately, particularly for the drunker members of the party.

“Pike, you know that I would-I would walk five hundred miles for you, and then, after that, you- I would walk five hundred more. But your apartment is so far away from here. From this spot where I’m standing, your apartment is-is-is very far away,” Scanlan says, after the fourth time he’s tripped over his own feet.

“Our apartment’s two blocks closer,” Percy says without really thinking about it, and the group sort of lurches to a stop.

“I vote for that,” Vax slurs after a few seconds.

“Closer is better,” Vex adds, and Keyleth nods and then immediately seems to regret it a lot.

“We don’t have a lot of furniture,” Cass says, which is true. Other than the cheap bed frames in their respective bedrooms, they’ve only got the card table they eat at and their couch, which is barely longer than a loveseat.

“Really any horizontal surface will do at this point, I think.”

“Hell, I’d take a verti- verti- verti-macallit surface right now,” Scanlan says, which makes Grog laugh hard enough that he almost falls over.

“You guys don’t have to,” Pike says, voice slurring a bit, “The longer walk might do us all some good.”

“We don’t mind, if most of you are alright sleeping on the floor.”

“Again, any horizontal surface will do. I’d lie down on this sidewalk right now if it wasn’t so fucking cold.”

“Sounds like a plan,” Scanlan says, drawing a soft, ragged cheer from the group, drunk and tired and happy.

Under normal circumstances it probably would have taken about five minutes to reach their apartment, but it ends up taking the better part of twenty, because even if the de Rolos are sober and Pike and Vex are less drunk than the others, less drunk is still drunkand puts them at a disadvantage as far as herding the other four in the correct directions as they walk.

Once they’re finally inside, everyone seems at least somewhat capable of taking care of themselves, which Percy is extremely grateful for. He’s never exactly had a normal sleep schedule, and it’s only gotten worse since everything happened and even more so since they got to Emon, between school and work and friends and everything else that crops up when you’re twenty years old and responsible for yourself and your sister. But it’s two in the morning and he’s exhausted, with the late tow truck shift staring him in the face, so he’s glad that all he has to do to help people settle in is to show Vex and Pike where the glasses are and pull the extra blankets to drape over Keyleth, who has collapsed face first on the couch, feet sticking out over the armrest.

He sticks his head into Cass’s room, where she’s already half asleep, Slinger curled up by her feet.

“That was fun,” she says, and Percy hmms in response, which draws a sleepy huff of exasperation from his sister, “Remember, you’re allowed to have fun, Percival.”

“I remember, Cassandra, I promise. You should get some sleep,” he responds, and Cass nods, burrowing deeper in her blankets.

He goes through his nightly routine mechanically, nodding off against the sink with his toothbrush jammed into one cheek, and crawls into bed without bothering to get underneath any of his blankets, too tired to bother. Even closed in his own room, the apartment still feels full and warm, the way that the Take had when they’d all laughed, the way Kima’s had as they all picked food off each other’s plates and everyone talked at once.

Percy thinks, as he drifts off, that he might actually be able to get used to this.

-------------

“Where did you get eggs?”

The apartment is full of people, and Percy, in the cold light of day, isn’t exactly sure how to deal with that, so he’s focusing on the fact that Cass is sitting at the kitchen table eating scrambled eggs, even though neither of the de Rolos are morning people and he’s certain that the only breakfast appropriate items they have in the house are chocolate chip granola bars and coffee.

“The Food Mart a couple of blocks from here. One dozen for forty-nine cents, it was in the paper a couple days ago,” Vex says, leaning against the counter with both hands wrapped around her coffee mug.

“She has a photographic memory for savings,” Pike explains, cracking a few more eggs into a bowl and scrambling them with a fork.

“We all have our talents. One of mine is the ability to feed eight people for three dollars.”

Percy can’t help smiling as he pours himself some coffee, leaning against the counter next to Vex. Everyone else seems to still be asleep, although he’s just assuming that Vax and Keyleth are probably somewhere under the pile of blankets and coats spilling off the couch onto the floor next to it. Grog, for some reason, is sprawled out underneath the kitchen table and Scanlan, for reasons even more unfathomable, is curled up on top of it.

A month and a half ago, he and Cass had loaded everything they owned, which wasn’t a lot, into the bed of Bad News and driven to Emon, where they knew exactly one person, and now there are people- friends - all over their apartment, sleeping off a night out like it’s completely ordinary, and Percy’s not entirely sure how that happened.

Vex surprises him out of his thoughts by pushing up onto her tiptoes to press her lips against his cheek, lightning quick. She smiles when he blinks at her in shock.

“Thank you for letting us take over all the flat surfaces in your apartment last night.”

“You’re welcome. It’s not really- we had the room.” This is, of course, a ridiculous thing to say with Scanlan sleeping in the middle of his kitchen table, but he’s sort of flustered by the kiss most immediately and the overall situation in general.

“I want to thank you for letting them crash here because it means I didn’t have to deal with them in my apartment,” Pike says, but Percy can hear the way she’s smiling even with her back to them as she fills two plates, moving to set them on the table before coming to a stop in front of him, looking up at him expectantly. It takes a few seconds for Percy to figure out what it is she wants, but then he leans down to lessen the considerable difference in their heights so that she can kiss him as well, stretching to press her lips firmly against his temple, right beneath the white patch in his hair, lingering for just a moment as he steadies her with a hand at her waist.

And it’s… something, warm and soft, Vex’s hip right next to his against the counter, Pike’s hand on her shoulder as she leans up into him. It’s been so long since he’s had anything that felt like this outside of Cassandra, felt like home or family, that it’s all a bit overwhelming, and Percy can feel his breath beginning to hitch in his chest, doesn’t know how he can possibly explain to them the way his instincts are all screaming at him to twitch away from them, from all of this, because it’s too much and too fast and yet somehow not enough at the same time and-

Then Pike swipes his coffee right out of his hand as she leans back away from him, grinning as she takes a long drink. Vex laughs, taking a seat at the table, pushing Scanlan’s feet further away from one of the plates Pike had left there. The still sleeping man makes a noise of protest, trying to roll further away, except he runs out of table about halfway through the turn and crashes to the ground with a thud that makes Percy’s bones ache for a moment.

“Ow,” he groans, “Shit. Fuck. Ow.”

Grog stirs underneath the table, hands coming up the clutch at his head a few seconds after his eyes open. Slinger, lying across Cass’s feet, scrambles up to crawl into Grog’s lap, who buries his face in the dog’s ruff immediately.

“That you, Scanlan?”

“It sure is, Grog.”

“Let’s make a deal: I’ll kill you, you kill me.”

“I thought you’d never ask.”

“No mutual murder pacts, boy,” Vex says, “At least not before coffee.”

“Speaking of,” Pike says, setting a full mug down in front of Scanlan’s face where he’s still lying on the floor.

“Pikey, you always give me the nicest things. Let’s get married and go live on an island far from the cares of man.”

“I’ve got a biology test on Tuesday,” Pike says, not looking up from where she’s turned back to dishing up more eggs, “And no jokes about helping me study, please. People are trying to eat.”

“There’s food?” Vax asks, trying to struggle his way out of the blankets. He gives up after a few moments, collapsing back onto the floor with a groan, “It feels like something burrowed through my brain and then died in my mouth.”

“Please don’t talk about it,” Keyleth groans, red hair everywhere as she pushes up from the couch, shoving even more blankets onto Vax, “Someone describing what it feels like somehow makes it worse.”

“Food will soak up the alcohol. Or the pain. Or something,” Scanlan says, having finally gotten up off the floor and accepted a plate of eggs from Pike.

“That’s why you can’t help me study for my biology test,” Pike laughs, dishing up plates for Vax and Keyleth as they stumble over, leaning on each other for support.

Percy retreats from the kitchen slowly once everyone has sort of settled in, trying to draw as little attention to himself as possible until he can escape to his room and sink down onto his bed, burying his hands in his hair, curling down over his knees. He’ll be okay, he will, if he can just have a few seconds to himself to close his eyes and breathe, to remind himself that he doesn’t have to be terrified of this.

“Are you alright?” someone asks, and Percy startles, not sure how long he’s been sitting here, looking up to see Keyleth standing in the doorway. She’d obviously tried to do something to actually tame her hair and then given up and thrown it into a high ponytail, slightly off-center.

“I’m fine,” he says, trying to smile, but she just gives him a look, and he must be worse off than he thought, if he can’t even lie well enough to fool Keyleth of all people. She crosses the room and sits next to him on the bed, although she leaves a good foot of space between them.

“I’m sorry, I know we can be a bit overwhelming, especially all together like this.”

“It’s not- well, no, it is that, exactly so, but it’s not really your fault. It’s just been Cass and me since-” He cuts himself off there. They all know that he is Cass’s legal guardian and that they don’t have any other family they can turn to, but nothing beyond that. “For a while now, it’s just been the two of us, and I’m still… adjusting, I suppose.”

Keyleth considers this for a while before she awkwardly but gently reaches over and pats him on the elbow a few times. It’s awkward but heartfelt, and Percy can’t help but appreciate it.

“If it makes it any easier, we’re all glad you’re here. At least, I am, and I think the others are too. They just have strange ways of expressing it sometimes, which has a lot more to do with them than it does you and Cassandra.”

Percy laughs, and he doesn’t think he’s ever seen anyone look as pleased as Keyleth does at that reaction. “Thank you, Keyleth. Truly.”

They sit in silence for a few minutes until Keyleth clears her throat awkwardly.

“I don’t want to rush you or anything, but Grog will actually eat all the eggs, so if you want breakfast…” she trails off before brightening, “Oh, I could bring you some in here if you want!”

Percy, overwhelmed and off-balanced as he feels, can’t possibly stomach sitting in his room alone and eating eggs while his friends hang out in his kitchen. It’s too much, even for him, and he pushes off his bed and offers Keyleth a hand up.

“I think my parents would be disappointed in what a terrible host I’m being right now,” he says, and Keyleth’s face does something strange. For a second he’s afraid she’s going to ask about his family, and then he’ll really have to hide in here, possibly forever, but after a few moments she just smiles and accepts his help up.

Percy can hear the others out in the kitchen, Cass’s laugh layered over their voices, and he reminds himself that this is something he’s allowed to want, something he’s allowed to have.

--------------------------------

Notes: First things first, I certainly did not make it as clear as I thought I had in the first chapter that, with the exception of Tiberius, none of Vox Machina are quote unquote traditional students, in that they graduated from high school in the spring and then started college the next fall. All of them, for various reasons (mostly relating to money, but there's plenty of family stuff in there too), put off attending college (or graduate school, in Scanlan's case) for a few years, which is why all of them except for the de Rolos can legally drink. The twins and Keyleth are 21/22, Pike and Grog are 22/23, Tiberius is in his mid-20s and Scanlan is in his late 20s. The only ones I've definitively nailed down are Percy and Cass, because I had to in determining their ages relative to each other and the rest of their siblings; Percy turned 20 a few weeks before this chapter takes place, and Cass is 15, so there's about four and a half years between them.

Speaking of Percy and Cass, there's a lot more coming for them (probably predictable, since this is based on my de Rolo siblings AU), particularly in their backstory chapter (which is probably up next as far as this story goes), but I suppose the most important thing to note here is that so much of their relationship in canon is so wrapped up in their guilt that even in this and the de Rolo siblings AU, there's still a lot of guilt that infects their relationship and they have to work through: Percy worries that he's not a very good big brother a lot, and Cass feels like she's a burden keeping Percy from doing what he actually wants.

If you're wondering who Slinger is, well, uh, let me ask you, what two kids in the universe deserve a Good Dog more than Percival and Cassandra de Rolo? Slinger is a border heeler mix and a Very Good Dog, and he switches off sleeping in Percy and Cass's rooms every night and Grog takes him out running pretty much every morning and sometimes Vex takes him when she's working in various parks in Emon and Vox Machina loves this Good Dog and this Good Dog loves them.

Also, if you are like 'Zoe, this seems like maybe you might be trying to hint at Pikeval'ahlia but you're not very good at hints, to the point that you have to write a note about it?' then congratulations, you got it in one. That's the only endgame ship thing I've got in mind, because once again, the plot of this pic is really just 'friendship.'

Uh, these notes are getting very long very quickly, so I'll leave off there, except to say that I've titled the past three chapters, if that's the sort of thing you're into checking out. If you've got questions, feel free to ask!

#vox machina #critical role #percival frederickstein von musel klossowski de rolo iii #percy de rolo #cassandra de rolo #disaster asshole family #explosion son #does cassandra de rolo know i would die for her #ride or die

[deralpi]

So after a good sleep and collecting my own thoughts, I want to talk about some points in the last episode (even though many people already did).

First it was pretty clear that Marisha had an off game. Her decisions can be criticised and different options could be discussed, but what annoyed me more this episode was how she did it. We all know how she sometimes mishears/didn’t hear what others told her and then she has to ask again, which is totally fine and you can overlook that very easily; last episode, however, it was very extreme. Her brain seems to run under stress at 100 miles/hour and she loses the ability to think clearly for short times in between, where she mishears constantly her saving throws, asks for clarification again even though someone told her repeatedly before and she was very indecisive about her actions, at times even nearly incapable of making her own choices, which dragged her turns on to twice (sometimes even more) the duration of other people’s turn. This with the already tense episode probably made some people angry at her and made me very frustrated at times.

That being said, Marisha seemed very overworked this week. You could already see some of it in the Talks Episode and now with it being Keyleth final (?) challenge in her Ara’Menthe and her being really tired, it was very palpable. Everyone has such a day once in a while, especially after a hard week at work. I hope she gets a good night sleep and I expect nothing but greatness coming from her next week! Also, not everything she did was questionable: Besides everything what Grog did, who was the clear MVP this episode, was her Plane Shift at the last second to give Vax at least hope for a second chance and saving her and Vex, who both would’ve not survived another round of attacks, very clutch. Also it’s not like any of the others went through this episode without making mistakes.

The second thing that comes to my mind was the casting of Friends in the end. In retrospect it was the right decision because everyone survived and they recovered all three stones, but on the other hand Percy made the decision to send Grog, who he called his brother earlier, to get the unconscious body of Tary and put in risk of dying as well. It was a somewhat controversial decision and I’m not someone who blindly defends Percy for his actions, but for me it was a legitimate choice. I think we all can agree that for Percy and all of us Grog is more important than Tary and if we had to choose, who survives, we would pick Grog 10/10 times. Tary is Percy’s nerd buddy but I don’t think he alone was the reason for Percy to send Grog back in; the final loadstone was the real reason. Maybe you could’ve picked another up in a later expedition or the challenge would’ve failed when not retrieved in one trip, both possible outcomes (unless i missed something). At least for now Sam can still play his new character and they only have to worry about one thing. It got so close in the end, way too close for comfort. When the Kraken swallowed Grog again, I thought it was over, but when Matt missed the DC by one, I screamed louder than I probably should’ve in the early hours of the morning.

Btw, despite how you view Percy’s choice, don’t forget that Grog swam right past Tary to leave his unconscious body to a hungry kraken. It was totally in character and I would’ve done the same thing in his case, but he is not a saint either. Also Grog’s exit with the double-bird and Percy handing him his glasses right after, made me smile quite a bit. :)

The third and last thing is Vax’s death. It was heartbreaking, but in the same time so fitting to the narrative. He died in the final step of his girlfriend’s AraMenthe after a beautiful moment the night before, where he told her that she made him happy; so sad, but so good in the same time.

This next episode will be very interesting and I’m actually very positive towards it. I really want him to come back now and I think the odds are in his favour with it being his first death (DC 10), which means the DC goes down to 1 after 3 successful roles (the die is unpredictable, but it looks good for a quick return).

Now it comes down to the people doing the offerings. Vex and Keyleth are no-brainer, but the third option will be interesting. If I had to handpick one, it would be either Pike or Gilmore. However, I don’t think Pike will be an option if Ashley is not there and Gilmore has to brought there to assist in the ritual and Keyleth is probably quite tapped on her magic. If someone in Vesrah can perform a resurrection ritual, they normally would do it right away and that leaves the third offering to Grog or Percy, where I can’t tell who will step up.

The excitement for next episode is already kicking in for me. No matter the outcome (good or bad), I think we can expect really high class rp-performaces during the ritual and after.

#critical role #cr spoilers #reaction #episode 88

[pagerunner-j]

With everything that’s been going on I admit I’m too worn down to trust myself with a final revision on this, let alone a title, so the fic below is not on AO3 yet. It’ll get there. Eventually. In the meantime, though, I wanted to write and share something, so have a Critical Role vignette.

In brief, it’s early in Keyleth and Vax’s relationship, and Keyleth has just come to Percy with a question about it...

--

Percy was alone in his workshop when Keyleth found him for what he’d later refer to as That Conversation. And his solitude was a mercy, really, because when she greeted him, fumbled through the half-hearted beginnings of polite conversation, then blurted out, “I need to ask you some advice. About…sex,” he made the most undignified sound imaginable, and almost dropped a hammer on his foot.

It had been an uneventful evening up until that point. Percy had been catching up on some weapon repairs and minor improvements: nothing glamorous, just odd jobs and necessities. He hadn’t prepared for company, and in fact had thought the door was locked for safety’s sake. Still, here was Keyleth, looking like she’d been preparing for sleep before restlessly wandering off. Her circlet was absent, her hair was loose, and, to Percy’s horror, her feet were bare. He tried to shoo her back from the metal shavings all around him even as he asked at an unfortunately high pitch, “What?”

“I know, I know, that came out of nowhere. I’m sorry. But I…I’ve had a lot on my mind. And I wanted to talk to someone. Because…there’s Vax. And I’m not sure how to go about this, and…”

Percy took in her anxious expression and a deep breath all at once. This was happening. This of all conversations was suddenly happening. He rubbed one hand over his face. “All right. Let’s…slow down. I’m going to finish what I was doing before something explodes, and you can sit there, on that bench, and then when I’m done we’ll talk about whatever exactly is troubling you. Does that sound good?”

“Yes.” She nodded perhaps a bit too quickly. “Okay.”

“Right.” Percy looked at her a moment longer, then turned sharply to his worktable to square away his equipment. By the time he was done and had shrugged off his protective leathers, leaving him in an admittedly sweaty shirt and with soot probably smudged every which way, Keyleth was seated, and had moved on to worrying at her hair and tracing patterns across the dusty floor with one big toe. Percy brushed his hands clean on a nearby cloth and sat beside her. For a second both of them just thought.

Finally he said, “I’m sorry if I was abrupt just then, but you took me rather aback, and I have to ask…”

“Why I asked you?”

“Well, that and other things.”

Keyleth nodded and let both hands fall into her lap. “I guess I’ll start over. So. You know Vax and I have kind of started a relationship. Thing. Obviously.”

“Yes, that was a bit noticeable.”

“And we’ve kissed, and that was nice, and we’ve cuddled, and that was nice, and there’ve been a few other things—“

“I’m willing to take your word on that without exhaustive detail.”

“But I’ve never done this before.” Her expression turned both concerned and annoyed. “I mean, I know how it works, I’m not stupid. It’s not considered shameful among the Ashari to discuss our bodies, we’re taught how to be responsible and respectful, I know my cantrips, but it’s just…complicated, when it’s new. And I want to figure out how to make it good more than only knowing the basics. You know?”

Percy wasn’t sure whether to nod in understanding or feel more alarmed at what his part in this conversation was expected to be. He settled for saying, “Um, yes?”

“But I had no idea who to ask.” She shook her head. “I mean, I can’t talk to Vex, not about her brother. She’ll just pretend to vomit. Or actually vomit.”

“Either seem likely.”

“And I’d be fine with asking Pike”—which she said casually enough that Percy had an unusually vivid moment of contemplating their cleric’s sex life, which he made himself stop immediately—“but she’s not here. So I started thinking maybe I should talk to one of the boys instead, to get your perspective? But…that leaves me with Grog. Or Scanlan.”

Percy said faintly, “Dear gods, don’t start with Scanlan.”

“Or there’s you.” She gave him a faintly wistful smile. “And I trust you.”

“Well.” A little flicker of feeling, fond and also wistful in an odd sort of way, went through him. “That’s dreadfully misguided of you, but I suppose I should be flattered.”

Keyleth nudged his shoulder with her own, making a pfft sort of noise, then sighed. “So. That’s why I’m here. Asking for advice. Because I figured you’d know, and…” She stopped short. “Um. I mean. You do know, right? Because you’ve never actually talked about sex much, and I figured you were just being stuffy like usual, but I might be assuming—oh, gods, don’t tell me I assumed…”

Percy knew, just knew, that he was turning bright red. “No. That is, yes, I’ve had sex, and no, you didn’t wrongly assume.” He cast his own gaze skyward. “And Pelor above, I was not prepared to be having this conversation.”

“So was it with women, or men, or…?”

Percy made another strangled sound. “Let’s set that aside and go on with saying I’m familiar with your general scenario, all right?”

“All right.” She paused. Percy waited her out, watching her work her way to an even more tentative question. “So would you say there’s anything I should do that he might…like?”

He opened his mouth, shut it again. Of course there were thoughts flitting around his head—bits of memories and ideas trying to get his attention—but none of those were the point just now. “Keyleth, I think perhaps that’s…not the first step.”

She sounded frustrated. “I need somewhere to start.”

“But that ought to be with you.” He turned on the bench to face her better, reaching for words as he did. He didn’t intend to say as much, but what experience he’d had didn’t exactly lend itself as a model. The best he could do was work with the evidence at hand, and the consideration he knew Keyleth deserved. “Listen. I can’t speak for Vax’s preferences, which is another point I’ll be getting to, but I know he’s aware you’re new to this, and that he doesn’t mean to pressure you. And”—his voice went slightly wry—“no matter how much shit Vax and I may give each other, I can trust without reservation that in this, he’ll be kind.”

“I know that. I just…I don’t want to be some fragile, wilting flower.” She grimaced and kicked at a stray casing, sending it pinging off across the floor. “I want to impress him.”

Remembering the awed look he’d seen on Vax’s face many a time when watching Keyleth, Percy said quietly, “I assure you, you already do.”

“Really?”

“Most definitely.”

“So you mean…”

“Just be you, Keyleth.” He meant to stop there, but a few more things slipped out, no matter how he knew both of them could be about compliments. “Fierce, gentle, unsure, powerful, however you’re feeling. He knows those things about you. He loves you for them. I have to give him credit for that, because he’s right to.”

She blushed and hunched her shoulders around her ears. After a minute of thought, though, she relaxed somewhat. She hooked her hair back over one ear, twisted her lips, then blew out a long breath. “So you’re basically saying just show up, wing it, and hope for the best?”

“Well, not just that. I think it’s more important to talk to Vax than talk to me. If you’re trying to figure out some sort of…of sexy surprises, you can get to that when you’re more familiar with each other.” He paused. “Why are you smirking at me?”

She grinned wider. “Sexy surprises,” she repeated, exaggerating his tone. Percy groaned.

“You asked,” he protested, a little despairing, and she laughed. Oddly, it helped. “Also a valid point.” He gestured her way with one hand. “Don’t make the mistake of taking any of this too seriously.”

“The whole thing is pretty absurd, isn’t it?”

“Sex? Yes.” He hitched one shoulder. “But it’s not without its appeal.”

“That’s how you’re summing it up.”

“You did say I was insufferably stuffy.”

“Not insufferably,” she retorted, but Percy nudged her this time. Keyleth responded by leaning over and kissing him on the cheek. Percy tilted a look at her.

“What was that for?”

“For helping,” she said simply.

“Well. Thank you. Although I’m not sure I gave you anything sufficiently specific.”

“You gave me enough,” she said, and got up, brushing her dress straight. Percy looked at her there in the firelight and pondered a few things in silence until she interrupted him with, “Besides, I did get some suggestions from other people. Like a couple scented oils that might be useful…”

Percy’s thoughts ground to a halt and provided him a too-vivid image instead. “Um.”

“And Synala told me a long time ago that practicing with cucumbers can help”—she gestured a little too closely to her lips for Percy’s comfort—“although I don’t know if it’s the season around here for those?”

“Keyleth,” he said, strained. She laughed again, giving him a broad wink she was clearly trying to copy from Vex.

“And here I didn’t even get as far as creative uses for grasping vines,” she said, before he started waving his hands and saying, “Enough. Enough. I didn’t need to know about that part. Out.”

She was still laughing when she ducked outside his door, leaving Percy alone and a little bit shellshocked. “What just…” he murmured, before trailing off into a chuckle of his own. All he could really think in that moment was, Absurdities, indeed…

After a while, he got up and went back to his work.

And although the room may have gone dimmer for Keyleth’s absence, at least the thought of her parting smile lingered for a while.

#critical role #fic #wip? (sort of) #vaxleth #keyleth #percy

[ruthdemoofins]

Cor Tutor Chapter 2/? - Perc’ahlia fanfic

When Vex heads home after a long chat with Pike, Saundor enters the scene. Percival and Vex meet for the first time and it's entirely unconventional.

Read the first chapter on AO3: (X) 

“I don’t know, Pike, Percival de Frankenstein Von Muscle Claws-out-seat de Rolo the Third? He obviously must be a completely loaded dickhead if he’s got such a long fucking name. Vax and I probably ransacked his place a few years ago, probably stole his prized pocket watch or ugh-” Vex cut off in a frustrated growl, aggressively tugging at her braid as she sank down into her seat a bit.  

Pike, glancing up from her textbook, offered a sympathetic smile, shrugging her shoulders, “Oh, I don’t know, Vex,” she sighed softly, brushing some stray strands of her blonde hair behind her ear, “It might not be a bad thing, you might just make a friend out of it.”

“Or I might just make a rich little fuck bleed,” Vex spits out, crossing her arms tightly over her chest, the very image of a petulant child. He’ll probably be just like all the other rich little fucks from “home,” who mocked her and her brother at every turn for their attempts to fit in and then for their attempts to stay as far away as they could from their little niche cliques.

Pike covered her mouth to hide her smile at Vex’s current, pouting state, though her dimples gave her away anyway. “Well, I wouldn’t judge him too harshly,” she offers, taking a bite of the bagel she’d bought before trudging to the library. “I’ve never met him personally, but he seems to carry a lot of weight with him. He and his sister lost their entire family in a fire, you know.”

Vex rolled her eyes as though that information didn’t matter. She and her brother lost their mother to a fucked up murderer, but you don’t see them asking for pity.

“He’s not asking for pity, though,” Pike says, reading her mind because, of course, Pike knows her and all of their friends better than anyone (or even themselves), “I just know that from what I’ve heard.”

Vex’ahlia flips through her textbook, pretending to give a shit before finally, she’s giving a loud groan of defeat, “Fine, I won’t chicken out, but I will find you to complain when he’s fucking gushing about money or he turns out to be a complete creep.”

Pike makes a soft, popping noise with her lips as her eyes flare, surely searching for the right words to scold Vex’ahlia for jumping to conclusions, but when she sees the twinkling mirth in Vex’s eyes, she falters. “You can’t joke with me like that right now,” she weakly informs, soft, platinum waves bouncing as she shakes her head, “My brain is just…completely fried and it isn’t even midterms.”

Vex offers a sympathetic smile as she reaches over, rubbing Pike’s shoulder supportively, “You’ll charge through this semester like you always do. Nursing is just one giant battle to get through, isn’t it?”

“Oh yeah,” Pike sighs, her scrawny shoulders seeming to deflate as she slumped forward. Vex knows that being the mother hen of their little rag-tag group of friends doesn’t help her studies either, whether it’s from Grog coming to her to question her about itchy balls for “his friend” or Scanlan drooling all over her.

Thankfully, Pike is always level-headed, even when she’s bogged down.

“I’m going to head home and find out whether my brother’s still at Gilmore’s or out with ‘his Kiki,’” she retches a bit, clumsily snatching her bag and dragging it from the table as she stands.

“Well, whoever he’s with, it’ll do him some good,” Pike pointedly arches a brow as she glances up over her book to Vex.

“He might be sleeping with them both,” Vex dramatically groans, whipping her bag over her shoulder. “I can’t fucking understand him, sometimes, Pike. Love is shit,” she kicks the leg of the chair she’d previously been lounging in to push it back into the table, resulting in a squeak that has a few, annoyed glares from other library-goers directed towards her. “Fuck off,” Vex mutters, scowling.

Pike only looked at her with those easy-to-read eyes, clearly throwing out an “I’m worried about you” gaze that has Vex twisting her lips in frustration. “I don’t know,” she exasperatedly bit out, “I’m happy that he’s getting out and being with people, but I’m also his detached Siamese twin and I miss him sometimes,” Pike’s full attention is on her now, though she’s lightly nibbling at her bagel. Her eyes soften and fill Vex with reassurance that what she’s saying isn’t insane. Pike is one of the only people she can actually talk to, anyway. Grog wants to talk about drinking, football or bashing faces in, Scanlan wants to flirt with his foul limericks, Keyleth wants to talk about her manic-pixie thoughts about nature and Trinket, well, Trinket can only listen and wuff.

“I’m afraid he’ll stop telling me things, I’m afraid he has stopped telling me things.”

Pike waited a few beats after this to be sure Vex had fully ranted before, in the way Vex and their other friends often mimicked when Pike wasn’t there, said: “Well…” she took a few seconds as she searched for words before giving Vex a smile. “I think you’d certainly do well to tell him that, but maybe not so…”

“Pissily?” Vex offers with a weak grin, and Pike nods.

“I’m sure he’s not keeping you out of the loop, anyway, but it might be awkward to talk about his love life, you know?” she offers.

“Yeah, you’re right,” there’s less of a weight on her chest and she’s grateful for that. Vex pushed her bag’s strap further up her shoulder and gave a nod. “You usually are, anyway. I’ll be off, then. Text you later and try not to drown in books, yeah?”

Pike looks visibly relieved to have helped in some way and bobs her head, smile brightening. “Yeah. I’ll try.”

Vex exits the library, scowling faintly at the cloudy sky before setting off-campus for her and Vax’s flat.

She was nearly finished with untangling her headphones when she heard a sudden, echoing pang of footsteps behind her. Unbidden paranoia had her glancing over her shoulder, and it wasn’t useless unbidden paranoia either.

His pale skin and his oaky brown eyes had a way of making her stomach twist and the way his greasy, slick black hair clung to his face made her skin crawl.

She’d never come across a person who made her so uncomfortable. Sure, Syldor brought forth tsunamis, but never a discomfort as this.

Saundor.

Vex quickly surveyed the area; thankful that she’d forgone any alley shortcuts and stuck to the open sidewalk.

She was also thankful that there was no chance Vax would happen upon this.

It’d all started a year ago, when she’d gone on a class trip between her Advanced Earth Sciences course and Keyleth’s Writing With Nature elective (to go to the forest once a week just to write seemed entirely boring to her). As Vex had eyed the group, as she always eyed any groups or persons around her, she noted Saundor, slinking far and away from the rest of the students.

Vex, tired of Keyleth’s not-so-inconspicuous questions about Vax, had approached him. She was always fond of outcasts, having been one herself, and knew it’d be her good deed of the day to chat up the pale, pale boy.

Vax always insisted they should be guarded, always said that most people wanted the wrong things from them. Meeting their group of friends (or rather, the S.H.I.T.s  as they’d called themselves for that one karaoke contest) had been a completely chance occurrence, and a good one, at that.

Vex, of course, did love doing the opposite of what he said.

And so she spoke with him, briefly, about his course. It was for her own benefit, really, as she was curious as to what they even wrote about.

Immediately, she realized Vax was right and she’d been horribly stupid.

“I feel as though I’ve known you for a very long time,” Saundor had told her, ignoring her question entirely, and the intensity of his gaze still made her cringe to that very day.

She’d immediately stuttered out a horrible excuse, something along the lines of: “I think my friend needs help getting a leaf out of her hair,” and hurriedly left.

Needless to say, she was happy to endure Keyleth’s dreamy, dedicated soliloquies about the trees that day, though Saundor watched her the entire time from afar.

It hadn’t ended there, of course. After snooping about, Saundor found her name, her social media, messaged her on every possible platform for weeks. He told her of his intense feelings of her, described how she appeared to him the first time he saw her on that trip, tried to convince her that they were ‘destined’ for one another.

Vex had simply blocked him, but he found her cell-phone number next, called her when she wasn’t around and Vax, being the asshole he was, had answered the phone and immediately confronted her after Saundor demanded to know who he was and why he thought he had any worth to Vex, who belonged with him.

She’d told him everything, and while Vax was entirely pissed off for a day (she knew it reminded him of the reason why he’d joined that shit little Clasp gang when they were young), he’d bought her a switchblade and made her promise to keep it close, even though he knew she already had the pepper spray he’d bought her when she’d been far younger.

Things had been quiet for a few days, but eventually,  they’d found a stick on their doorstep with a rudimentary carving of a very Vex-like woman and Saundor-like male. After that, Vax had insisted upon walking her to class for a week, and eventually, thankfully, Saundor had gone away.

But now, he was here again, following her with those disgustingly sad eyes.

“What the fuck do you want?” Vex hissed as she turned on her heel, mentally reminding herself that her switchblade was in the front pocket of her messenger bag if he got to close, and her pepper spray on her keychain if he pissed her off from afar.

“I only wanted to see you; I missed you,” Saundor said in his soft, melancholic rumble of a voice.

“You don’t know me,” Vex immediately retorted with ire, not at all phased by the way he forlornly tilted his head at her, as if he didn’t quite get what she was saying.

He moved closer, until he was at least two feet away from her and offered a chilling smile, his hand extended towards her, “You do, though,” he said, “We have a deal to make, one that will help us both. I understand your pain, your mother-“

Vex’s horribly-contained-cool completely shattered, melting into a molten, livid rage, “You don’t fucking know her, you don’t have the right to speak of her!” she spat out, nostrils flaring and eyes blazing. Her fists were clenched so hard that her nails left half-moons upon her palms, body trembling with the urge to charge, to bash his fucking face in. The fucker had probably found the fucking newspaper articles of her murder online, probably poured over every little thing he could find from fucking Google.

“I know enough to know that we are meant-“

Vex phased out, forcing her mind to ignore his aside to glance around at their surroundings, at…

A head of stark, white hair approaching caught her eye and immediately, Vex was moving past Saundor towards the man, no, student with white hair (she’d ponder over why the fuck he had white hair later) and a long navy colored coat.

“Darling,” she cooed, to the stranger’s obvious befuddlement. Ignoring his confusion, she reached for his hand that wasn’t clutching a bag and gripped it tightly in hopes that he’d understand something wasn’t right. “I’m glad you caught up with me.”

“I’m…” the stranger’s blindingly blue eyes studied her for a moment, his brow furrowed lightly before he looked past her to Saundor. “I-I’m glad too?” he asked unconvincingly.

“Of course you are, dear,” she crooned, turning to look to Saundor, who, thankfully, looked entirely confused. She hardly knew him and she knew this could be bad, that he could act upon his possible rage, but she had no problem beating the ever-loving shit out of him herself. “I was just giving this stranger directions to the university, but I didn’t expect you to surprise me like this!” her tone is so honeyed and drenched with sweetness that Vex wants to either vomit or scrape the sugar from her tongue with a hot knife. Still, it’s the kiss she places on the stranger’s scruffy, peppered cheek that has her reeling from her obscenity. The poor man takes it though, his face flushing into a lovely shade of pink. “I-I,” he stutters, his hand trembling lightly in her grip, “I wanted to-ah…surprise you,” he repeats, lifting his other hand with a bag that she recognizes as take out. Judging by the distinct, spicy smell, she can only conclude that it’s from Jarret’s place.

“You brought me takeout? Oh, darling.”

The stranger looks to the bag and then her, suddenly wearing an expression that’s honestly hilarious in that moment, a look that clearly states “Don’t you even think about it.”

But she does.

Vex turns to peer over her shoulder and fucking thankfully, Saundor has vanished. She immediately drops the stranger’s hand and knowing fully well that she’s an asshole, she takes his bag of takeout.

He stutters adorably as she walks down the sidewalk with purpose, her free hand finding her can of pepper spray, just in case Saundor’s waiting for her around a corner.

“W-Wait!” he calls as he finally figures out how to form words, and she rolls her eyes before glancing over her shoulder, giving him one of her trademark winks before calling: “Thanks!”  

She needs to take a long, hot shower to get Saundor’s grimy words off of her, completely devour her unexpected spoils and not mention a single fucking thing to Vax.

Just after she’s fallen asleep past midnight, after a long, struggling session of trying to understand some of her stats homework so she wouldn’t seem like a total idiot for her tutoring session, her phone vibrates.

With a single, squinting eye, Vex noted a message from Percival, plugged into her contacts as “The Tutor” with an eye-rolling emoji resting beside it.

When she opened her phone to view the message, she wasn’t sure she was even fucking awake.

Miss Vessar

I’ll be happy to work with you tomorrow, as requested, at two in the afternoon. Please find me on the second floor of the library in the corner behind the large stack collection. Have a good evening.

-Percival Fredrickstein Von Musel Klossowski de Rolo III

For a long time, Vex stared at her phone screen, lips parted and eyes wide open in confusion.

With numb fingers, she replied with a simple “Ok. Thanks,” before she promptly rolled onto her side and broke out in guffawing laughing.

She laughed until she was “hoo”ing for breath, her stomach pinching and her eyes watering.

Who in the world wrote texts like they’d been sent by raven? Honestly, it was adorable.

“What the fuck, Vex’ahlia?” Vax groaned from his nearby mattress, the thought of why she was laughing making her snicker to herself.

“Oh, nothing. Go back to sleep, brother,” she sidled further down under her covers, holding her phone to her stomach for a moment before returning it to the floor beside her mattress.

She had to admit, she felt a bit better about walking into the library to meet Percival the next day after that text, or rather, intrigued.

The next day, before class, she’d spent a bit of time on her bulking laptop to search his name up, pleased to find a social media account. Before school, during the days her and Vax struggled for a foothold to let her study, she’d done a similar form of work for Gilmore. He’d send her client names and she’d find everything she could online, all with the purpose of gathering Gilmore all the information on them as she could so he could successfully barter or appeal to them.

The only profile on Percy contained no pictures of the man in question, though, instead, his profile picture was a sketch of a mask with goggles and a long, dark beak. It was odd, but it had her keen on meeting him. Vex liked odd people (not the Saundor kind of odd), her entire group of friends had their oddities about them. She’d rather be as far from the aristocratic, snobby children who mocked those who were different and be with the different.

Vax, of course, hated her easygoing feelings on strangers, always insisted that she needed to be more wary of people and insisted upon this even more after the Saundor-incident.  .

As Vex walked towards the aisle of over-sized books, she felt a mild trepidation, wondered if she was about to meet Saundor the Second, or perhaps someone even worse.

Shaking off her worries and touching a finger to the small blue feather hanging from a chain upon her neck as she always did when anxious, Vex stepped behind the rack.

When she spotted a head of white hair in disarray, her eyes blew wide open.

Fuck.

#perc'ahlia #percy de rolo #vex'ahlia #critical role #critical role fanfic

[annavoigmarchen]

Here There Be Heroes Chapter 2

Heyo, guys! New chapter here! Sorry bout the wait! As always, kudos to @uchuuryokou  for being my beta!

read it on AO3

Chapter 2: In which they plan at dawn and the De Rolos argue about it

The twins stood by the main door after breakfast, as agreed the night before. Percival could see from miles the annoyed look on Vax’ildan face, and how his sister was starting to get annoyed at him. Percy quickly approached, trying to avoid any further discontentment. “Good morning, Mr. Vax’ildan, Ms. Vex’ahlia.” He started, only to be cut off by the girl.

“Vax and Vex, if you will. If we’re to call you Percy, please call us by Vax and Vex.”

Percy nodded. “Very well. Shall we go to my workshop? After all…” He give a sideway look to one of the elven guards that stood nearby. “I did promise you a tour around my creations.”

Vax pushed away from the wall he was leaning, uncrossing his arms.

“Took you long enough, de Rolo.”

“I’m sorry for the wait, Vax. I had some dealings with my family to finish. You know how sisters can be…” He said, directing them to an downward stairs.

“I am deeply wounded by that remark, Lord Percival.” Said Vex’ahlia. Percy just raised a brow, smirking, but the banter had the desired effect. Vax’ildan wasn’t smiling per see, but he at least wasn’t scowling anymore.

Percy opened a door, allowing them to enter. “This is it. Welcome to my workshop.” The twins entered, and the first thing that assaulted their senses was how warm the whole room was. The second thing was the multitude of shards, pieces, tools and scrap metal scattered through the room. The third thing was the giant contraption sitting on the tinkering desk, halfway through it’s construction. “Ah, yes. I do apologise for the mess. You are free to look around, but try not to touch the back powder? It’s a bit unstable.” He said, while working through his stuff to free two chairs.

“What is all this stuff?” Asked Vax, intrigued. Vex was by his side, trying to figure out an unfinished music box.

“I like to do a bit of tinkering, as you might see. I have a lot of unfinished projects, thought. Keep trying to find the inspiration to finish the ones I stopped halfway through, but I never seem to find it.” He grunted as he lifted the chair, bringing it closer to the other two. “There. Now, if you would like to take a seat? I believe we have some plans to discuss.”

“So, what’s the plan?” Asked Vex as soon as the three of them were seated.

“First of all, I think we should leave in your last night here. It will give us more time to prepare, and it will be easier to dodge hastily organized search parties. If you had left yesterday, your chances of escaping the mountain range before being found would be slim at their best. Besides, it will give me time to put my family on the loop, and that…”

“Wow, wow, wow, wait a second there, de Rolo. Put your family on the loop? Are you crazy?” Said Vax.

“Yeah! They’ll probably rat us out to father, and then…” Added Vex.

“Please.” Countered Percival. “Do not belittle me or my family. We might be polite to all, but we do, in fact, have eyes. We’ve seen how you father treats those who are not elves. Besides, we will need their help if you want this plan to work. I’m only the third son of Whitestone, and while that can grant us some freedom, this plan has a better chance of being successful if my family knows what we’re doing. In fact, I’m pretty sure they will approve of our plan, if not to criticize our dramaticity.”

“....What?” Asked Vex, both the twins taken back, again, by what the human said.

“Listen.” Said Percy, taking off his glasses and starting to clean them with his handkerchief. “I might be a prick, but your father is an asshole.”

Vex snickered and Vax gave a half smile. “That’s something we can agree on.” Said the male twin.

“That being said…” Percy continued, putting back his glasses. “With my family on the loop, we can give orders to the Whitestone guards to look at all the wrong places, if a search party is organized. That will increase our chances of not running into any delays, since the only ones who will be actively looking for us will be the elves. Besides, that will mean Whitestone will be aiding us at the best of it’s ability. That means that yes, while we’ll have to lay low for a while and get out of the region, we will have resources. And when things calm down, we could have a headquarters, somewhere to always come back to.”

“So, summing up, we leave in four days, going away like criminals but not really, while the rest of the De Rolos cover for us?” Said Vax.

“Considering I’ll even take us through the back doors, yes, that accurately sums up the plan.” Agreed Percy.

“That’s batshit crazy, you know that, right?” Stated Vax.

“How do we even know your family will agree to all of this, Percival? It is crazy.” Said Vex, wringing her hands.

“Trust me.” He said. The twins exchanged looks, concerned. “Look, I know it’s a hard thing to do. You don’t even know me, not really. But you’ve trusted me this far. You could have left yesterday, but you didn’t. And it’s been paying off, isn’t it? It’s mid morning and you haven’t heard a thing coming from your father. While I’m here, earnestly offering my help, with arguments that you know make sense. So give me the benefit of the doubt and trust me again. I can get us out of here.” Percy ended his sentence with such intent and determination, that it didn’t take too long for the twins to relax again. “Ok...Ok.” Vex said, leaning back on the chair. Vax nodded, agreeing with his sister.

“Four days, right?” He asked.

“Four days.” Agreed Percy, with a renewed calmness. “You two are up for it, then?”

“We waited seven years to escape this bastard. We can wait a few days more.” Said Vax.

Percy smiled, relieved, and clasped his hands together. “Great!”

“So, you’re leaving, right?” Asked Vesper, when Percy could reunite all the De Rolos in one room that night. “With the twins?”

“What? How did you…?”

“Percival, dearest, we’ve known since you crossed looks when they arrived.” Said Johanna, with all the tenderness of a mother. “More so after you saw fit to do this family gathering.”

“Besides.” Said Julius. “Old Percy always said you wouldn’t stay here. It was only a matter of time, really.”

“Oh.” Said Percy. “That… Didn’t go the way I expected. That’s… That’s good. It makes things easier, I gather.”

“So what are the circumstances, son?” Asked Frederick. “I know you wouldn’t be this guarded if you didn’t think it was important.”

Percy nodded, looking at his parents. “As you might have noticed, Syldor isn’t exactly a forgiving parent as you both are.”

“He’s a jackass.” Said Oliver. Whitney hit him with the back of her hand, outraged. “What? He really is a jackass!”

“Manners, brother!” His twin sister scolded. “Ludwig and Cassie are here!”

“I am fourteen, Whitney.” Said Cassandra, slightly annoyed. “It’s not like I haven’t heard that kind of language before.” Ludwig only nodded, giving his older brother time to finish explaining his plan.

“We are planning on running away.” Percy said, trying to cut the De Rolo chatter that was about to start.

“Well, you’re not doing a great job at it, are you?” Asked Vesper, with a smirk. “Telling your family and all of that…” “That...That’s not...Vesper!” Said Percy, baffled. Julius laughed.

“Stop teasing him and let the kid speak, Vesper.” Said the older brother. Percy resisted the urge of replying petulantly to being called a kid, and nodded gratefully to Julius.

“As I said, Syldor is not so forgiving. So he might react poorly to us traveling together. It might be in our best interest if he isn’t aware I’ll be with the twins when we run away, and if you could... Cover our escape, so to speak.”

Frederick rubbed his beard, thinking. “You do realize, Percival, that you’re asking us to lie to a possible trade partner, yes?”

Percy nodded. “I do, father. But I wouldn’t ask this of you if I didn’t think it was important.”

Frederick nodded in response, but didn’t say anything. The silence extended for some seconds, until Ludwig spoke, for everyone’s surprise.

“If it might help you to make your decision, Father…” Said the usually quiet boy. The older man turned to his other son, surprised. “While I know that it’s not polite to barge in others business, a few days ago I saw Syldor being less than kind with the twins. I don’t think he realized the door was partially open, or if he even saw me. And after that, I could hear Vax’ildan and Vex’ahlia planning their escape.”

“Indeed.” Said Percy. “I suspect that if I haven’t caught them while trying to sneak away from the palace, they would be long gone.”

“Why not let them go, then?” Asked Whitney.

Percy adjusted his glasses on his face before answering. “A man once told me to not let opportunities pass by me, Whitney. And I’m not about to let this one pass without even trying to do something about it.”

“Let’s face it, Percival.” Said the girl, annoyed. “You’re just doing it because a version of yourself, that we don’t even know if was from another realm entirely I might add, told you so. What can the world out there offer you if not pain and misery, brother? If they want to go away, let them. But you shouldn’t do it based on some strange notion of… Of… Grandness!”

Before Percival could even respond to that, Oliver countered his twin.

“Stop being an ass, Whit. Just because you’re going to miss him doesn’t mean he can’t go. We’re all going to miss him, but we know we all will leave someday.” He stopped, scratching his head. “Well, all but Julius, of course. But the point is, Percy can be an adventurer if he wants. Hells, even you can be an adventurer if you want to, someday. If you have the guts to do so, I mean.”

Whitney crossed her arms, but the call out from her twin broke her angry facade. By now, only tears could be seen in her eyes. “... I hate you, Oliver.” She whispered, her voice broken like the voice of one who is about to cry. Ludwig, that was seated by her side, awkwardly patted her shoulder in an attempt of comforting her.

Percival sighed before kneeling in front of his younger sister. She wasn’t meeting his eyes, and he brought her attention to him with a hand on her knee.

“It’s not some strange notion of grandness per se, Whitney. It’s the notion that, out there, there’s so much more I could do than if I stayed here. For me, for Whitestone… For all of us. There’s much to see out there, and much to learn, and chances are that I won’t be getting another chance like this one. And while I know this is an unusually optimistic view coming from me, Old Percy brought some perspective to me. And… If he can do it, even without you all, I think I can do an even better job and not make the same mistakes he did. I have the means to protect people, Whit. He gave me that. And I don’t think any of us need more protection than we already have after… After.” Whitney sniffed and nodded. Percy smiled, lending his handkerchief to her, and got up.

“Those two… Do you think they need protection, Percival?” Asked Julius. “Or is it your adventuring streak flourishing?”

“I really do think they need protection.” Said Percy. “And yes, while a part of me is eager to go on an adventure, I believe they are going to need me. And I will undoubtedly need them in the future.”

“Okay.” Said Johanna, after looking at the determination on her son’s eyes. “I know my son, and know that you only address those kinds of matters to us when you are certainly sure you can do it. Therefore, I don’t think we could stop you even if we tried or wanted to.”

Frederick nodded. “I suspected that kind of behaviour coming from Syldor from the moment he tried to arrange a marriage between you and his daughter.”

“W-what?” stuttered Percy.

“Not that we went through with it, Percival. I’m not so desperate as to pawn off my son to get a trading agreement.” Said his father, with a smirk. Percy released a breath he didn’t even know he was holding, making Vesper laugh out loud. “We will help you through this endeavour, Percival. I just don’t know why you have to be so dramatic to the point of running away in the middle of the night.”

“You don’t get it, father. It’s all about aesthetics.” Said Vesper, standing and putting one arm around Percy’s shoulders. The teen made an annoyed sound and tried to get his sister off of him, but all his sibling laughed when she only pulled him closer.

Julius smiled, getting on the edge of his seat, a glint in his eyes. “All right, Percival. Tell us your plan.”

#I DID A THING #critfic #critical role #de rolos #Percival Fredrickstein Von Musel Klossowski De Rolo III #anny writes #HTBH