#crispysnake

[waltwhitmansbeard]

hello friend it is nice to see you😛<3<3 hb 10."You owe me for this." with anything and anyone of your choosing!

10. "You owe me for this."

"I wanna do something stupid."

Very little slips past Orym's notice, but Ashton's sudden appearance him jump. "I—what?"

Ashton plops down next to him, his long legs akimbo as he joins Orym on watch. "For Fearne. I wanna do something stupid."

Orym looks over at where the woman in question is sleeping, curled up around a campfire, snuggling Little Mister close to her chest. "O...kay? Why?"

Ash rolls their eyes like Orym's being dumb on purpose. "To show her that I like her."

"Oh, well, I'm pretty sure she already knows that, Ash."

"Still. I want ideas."

"And you're coming to me?"

"Well, yeah." Ashton shrugs. "You're her best friend, and you're the only one of us who's been married, so you at least know something about romance."

Orym cannot begin to figure out how he's supposed to feel about any of that. "Okay, fine. You want to do something stupid to impress her."

"Yes. And not just stealing something. I do that all the time."

Orym drums his fingers atop Seedling's hilt. Something stupid that impresses Fearne. Well, a lot of stupid things impress her, but Ashton has a point; Fearne likes display of chaos, of wanton idiocy. He imagines they make her think of home.

"How about a scavenger hunt?"

Ashton perks up at that. " A scavenger hunt?"

"Steal something from her, something important, but then make her work to get it back. She likes to be challenged."

They think that over for a minute. As they do, Orym watches the moonlight reflect rainbows in the wound on Ashton's head. Oh, gods, the chaos these two will bring together.

Ashton finally snaps his fingers. "I've got just the thing."

.

Fearne wakes up with a note crumpled in one of her long-fingered hands. She opens it and reads in abysmal handwriting: I've stolen something you treasure. Better come find it. —A

She spends the rest of the morning following an increasingly elaborate series of clues, wandering around their camping site until she finds a little hole in the ground covered in fallen tree branches. She kicks them away and peers down to see Orym, face and hair covered in dirt and looking unbelievably bored. "Hey, Fearnie."

"Orym!' She leans down to help him out, but before she can, Ashton appears from around a nearby tree, grinning from ear to ear.

"Congratulations," he says, stealing a quick kiss. "You won the game."

Orym, using Seedling to claw his own way out of his imprisonment, glares up at the two of them. "You owe me for this."

Neither of them are listening, though, and Orym flops onto the ground with an annoyed sigh. Idiots.

[ravendruid]

trick or treat👻👻👻

Send me Trick or Treat for a treat <3 Remember when I mentioned I had 3 new AUs? This is one of them.

“Close your eyes, focus on the energy of the world around you.” 

Vax’ildan does as Keyleth says. He focuses on the wind blowing through the open windows, feels the warmth of the flames in the sconces, smells the freshly cut grass outside. Energy surges through him, green and brown if he were to give it colors, and he doesn’t need to open his eyes to know he did it because Keyleth allows a quiet gasp to leave her lips.

“That is wonderful, Mr. Vessar,” The professor says, now standing in front of him with a big smile. 

“Vax’ildan’s fine,” He corrects. The man looks at Keyleth with a knowing look, to which Vax explains, “Keyleth has been teaching me for a few years now. I’m not very good, but it’s something.”

Vax admires the small, wrinkly daisy on his palm. The stem is short and the petals are frail, but he did it. He created this tiny flower himself. 

“You will get there with practice,” the professor says and nods at Keyleth, who expertly Druidcrafted a handful of multicolored wildflowers, before he moves on to other students.

“Let’s try again,” Keyleth’s excitement is contagious. “Close your eyes. Leave out any negative thoughts. In fact, think about what makes you happy and hold on to that.”

Vax closes his eyes again, hands still facing up on the desk. He thinks about his sister and his mother sitting by the fire in their dilapidated cottage, but dark thoughts take over the memory, so Vax shoos them away. Keyleth reminds him again, in a soft voice, to think about what makes him happy, and Vax does. He sees her face clearly in his mind, a smile as bright as the sun. He sees Keyleth laughing by the edge of the lake, shoes strewn about behind her as she splashes the cold water. She has flowers in her hair and smells like summer and strawberries. Gods, he loves her so much his chest fills up with joy and hope. Vax holds on to the image of Keyleth’s smile, the love he has for her, and sends wave after wave of energy to flow to his palms. This time it’s rainbow-colored because Keyleth is nothing but brightness.

“Oh my gods, Vax.” She all but shouts. Vax opens his eyes and sees a full-grown daisy in his hands. The stem is as long as if he had just picked it, with beautiful white petals that stand up tall and proud, not like the other attempts. It’s beautiful, just like Keyleth.

“You did it!” Keyleth jumps in her seat, clapping. The professor runs over to see what the ruckus is all about and his eyebrows shoot up to his hairline when he sees the flower in Vax’s hands.

“That is amazing, Mr. Vax’ildan. And on your first lesson, too. You’re a good tutor, Miss Keyleth. I must be careful or you’ll take my place,” He jokes. Keyleth laughs and the sound is enough for Vax to craft another flower, equally as beautiful.

Once they are alone again, Vax breaks the stem of the first flower he made and turns to Keyleth, whose eyes shine brightly with pride. Only she would look at him that way. Vax slides the flower in her hair, behind her ear and smiles. She’s so beautiful and strong, and has no idea how smitten he is.

“What did you think about?” She asks, curious.

“You,” Vax whispers. Keyleth’s smile vanishes into a shocked expression. “Only someone as beautiful as you could create the most beautiful flowers.” It’s when her cheeks redden and her gaze falls to his lips that Vax knows it’s time that Keyleth knows exactly how he feels about her.

[ravendruid]

well tell me abt this tattoo shop au!!!

If anyone's confused, this is the post.

So, Vax has been doing tattoos for ten years, and he has quite a lot of them. One day, this cute redhead sets an appointment to get a tattoo on the inside of her arm. It's just linework, and the design is very simple and geometric.

Keyleth is very nervous because it's her first tattoo, so Vax entertains her by asking if it has any meaning, and what it is. Keyleth tells him all about Zephrah and the Ashari, how that is the crest of her family, etc. She talks during the entire session and doesn't even notice time passing or any pain from how distracted she is. By the time the tattoo is done, Vax knows all about Keyleth's family and her childhood home. Keyleth is very embarrassed because she talked his ear off, and leaves a huge tip as a thank you for being so nice and helping her relax.

She comes back a few months later to get a shoulder tattoo and asks specifically for Vax because she loved how easy the process was with him (and he's cute). She has a design in mind but they have a few consultations that drag on for months until finally, they have a pretty set design. They set the session for a couple weeks from then, but when the day comes, Keyleth is reticent and wants to make changes again. So Vax finally asks her what's the real deal, and she confesses that she's enjoying spending time with him and it's so easy to talk to him. Keyleth tells him she doesn't have any friends, and he's the closest thing she has to a friend in the city, and that she is scared that after the tattoo is finished, she won't have a reason to see him again. Vax tells her he would love to hang out with her outside the tattoo shop, and they basically become friends. The shoulder tattoo ends up taking a few sessions, and on the last session, Keyleth comes in with a huge smile and a folder in her hands with the first sketch of the next tattoo.

[waltwhitmansbeard]

Vax getting a whole tattoo for simon means I haven't heard enough of their shennegains together!!

vax. loves. this fucking cat.

they go everywhere together. vax has one of those mesh backpacks that he puts simon in and they run errands together. simon eats off of vax's plate which keyleth finds disgusting (not as much as vex does) but vax won't stop. keyleth has come home more than once to the two of them having a full-blown conversation across the apartment. when simon was very little vax would carry him around in the pouch of his hoodies, and simon's too big for that now, but as a consolation prize he'll curl up in the hood while vax edits on the computer. vax is convinced that simon meows during the podcast to let them know they're screwing up and need to do a new take; keyleth thinks he's just being a jackass. keyleth will ask vax what he wants for lunch and he'll respond "we're not hungry" and she's like???? i didn't ask the cat????

the tattoo vax got is simon's paw print—not just a generic paw print, an actual image of simon's paw—over his heart. joking, keyleth asked him if he loved the cat more than her. vax took her face tenderly in his hands and told her not to ask questions she didn't want to know the answer to.

[waltwhitmansbeard]

keyleth: this is fiachra, my son

all of us:

[waltwhitmansbeard]

If you're still taking these may I request “you fell asleep. it would’ve been cute, if i hadn’t been so paranoid you were actually unconscious.” 👀👀👀

“you fell asleep. it would’ve been cute, if i hadn’t been so paranoid you were actually unconscious.”

He shouldn't have volunteered for watch. He doesn't know why he did; normally Caleb is extremely proactive about taking the rest he needs to recover from the Mighty Nein's travails. But they're all banged up now, each of them nursing a myriad of wounds that Caduceus could only do so much to fix, and so if someone was going to keep an eye out while they slept, it might as well be him.

Except he's tapped out of magic, and he can barely keep his eyes open. Beau's on watch with him, her back up against a tree, picking dirt out from under her chewed nails with one of her throwing stars, not watching much of anything. Normally he'd strike up a conversation, say something to annoy her, just to keep himself awake, but he doesn't have the energy for it. He's sitting back against a large boulder, his eyes drooping in the dark and the smoke and the pain of the bruise blooming just above kidney. He should say something. He should stand up. He should slap himself across the face, bring himself back to his senses.

He falls asleep.

It is precisely one hour and forty-seven minutes later that he is jolted awake by a hand roughly shoving his shoulder. "Hey."

Caleb blinks up at Beau, who blinks back blearily. "Oh. Hello."

"You fell asleep."

"That I did."

"It would've been cute, if I hadn't been so paranoid you were actually unconscious."

"Ja, well..." He pauses, frowns. "Do you think I was asleep and not unconscious?"

"Do you think you could not be a dick when you left me alone on watch?"

Fair enough. He nudges Fjord, who is asleep to Caleb's other side, with his foot. "Your turn, freund."

As Caleb stretches out on his bedroll, his head butt up against Beau's, he listens to her joints pop as she makes herself comfortable on the rough terrain. "Beauregard?"

"Hm?"

"You shouldn't have let me sleep through watch."

Her head turns, and one dark eye peers at him through the light of the dying campfire. "Shut the fuck up, Caleb."

The eye closes, and Caleb grins. There are so many ways, he thinks, to say I love you, and if he sticks around long enough, he might just get to learn them all.

[ravendruid]

bingo with our fav tall girl?<3

Send me a character for bingo?

[waltwhitmansbeard]

I'm back to now ask about Simon and Keyleth shennegains?:))) which I'm sure Vax would be 100% normal about

i mean keyleth loves her little boy. she absolutely dotes on him. she always makes sure that there's some space clear on the floor or the furniture so that he can follow the sunbeams throughout the day. she's the one who got a cat bed specifically for the top of the dryer because he loves laying on top of it while it's running. simon loves when she takes baths because he loafs on the edge of the tub and she gives him scritches while she reads her book.

that being said, it is all-out war when it comes to the damn plants. keyleth is constantly playing defense, because that cat is determined to kill the plants, himself, or both. he loves knocking them off of high places and eats their leaves and digging up their potting soil. the spray bottle she uses to keep the tropical plants' leaves moist doubles as a cat deterrent, but it doesn't do much deterring. usually when vax comes home, he can hear keyleth yelling at simon through the door to get the fuck away from this plant or that. there's a supercut online of all of the times keyleth's had to interrupt one of her podcasts or streams to snap at simon to get away from something.