Fandom: Critical Role
Pairing: Beau/Keg
Summary:
“Aw shit. Was I – Was it the blue? Was I too tall?”
“I mean, you guys have your weapons drawn. I’m assuming – are we gonna do this or what?”
or: soulmate AU where the first words they say to you are tattooed on your body.
Written for @goinggrimdork for the @critroleexchange. I hope you enjoy it.
Beau had never liked her tattoo very much.
It wasn’t even about the actual words scribbled on her midriff – although, to be fair, those words were pretty fucking weird – but more that she’d never liked the whole idea of it all. Soulmates. She could certainly see how there might be an element of reassurance to it, in knowing that there was someone out there that was right for you, and it wasn’t that she didn’t understand how some people got immense joy and hope out of something like that. It was just that Beau herself would have been perfectly fine opting out of participating in this particular experience and leaving it for other people to enjoy.
She’d spent her whole life trying to get away from the path that had been rigorously pre-determined for her, fighting to make her own choices and to be the one forging her own destiny. She wanted freedom, to not be controlled by her parents, nor by some magic too old and powerful to even comprehend, let alone circumvent.
She’d never been a fan of magic to begin with. Even now, despite all the ridiculously cool shit she’d seen her travelling companions pull off, she still wouldn’t trade her training for any of it. Maybe it wasn’t as impressive as summoning walls of fire or swarms of beetles or literal otherworldly demons, but at least her power was something that was inherently hers. She didn’t need some fancy book, like the one Caleb clung to, or the approval of some fickle immortal being. She’d earned it, all by herself, and nobody could take it away from her.
And that quote, so indelibly imprinted on her body, represented the entire antithesis of everything Beau stood for.
Overcome with curiosity, Beau had even done some research on the phenomenon, back when she’d first been with the monks in Zadash. Those few days had been the only times she’d voluntarily ventured into the library to check out some of its vast collection. There were many books and scrolls on the subject of soulmates in possession of the Cobalt Soul. Beau had only had to leaf through a small portion for her fears to be confirmed. There were widely varying theories about the subject – about how it worked, where it came from, what the determining factors could be – but none of them seemed to question the fact that it existed, that it was always right, and that it could not be changed.
And for Beau, that just didn’t fly.
