#willow kelyra

[incorrect-dawntakers]

Willow: Haveren has let me live another day and I'm going to make it exclusively his problem.

[itscamel]

TPK gang, I want to write this evening but none of my wips are inspiring me much at the moment. Any suggestions for a little crillow fic? 🤔 I want to write within the canon universe, something with angst maybe (who’s surprised lol)?

[browniejeane]

In the Darkness, Shadows Move

Day 5 of my TPK Whumptober series is up! Some Crillow pain, as a treat. >.<

An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works

[purplemilk27]

It means so much to me that when Willow tells Cricket she loves him, he just responds "I love you" instead of "I love you too." It's not transactional for him. He loves her regardless of her love for him. It's just so 🥲

[itscamel]

SPOILERS FOR TPK EPISODE 111

i’m just gonna word-vomit for a hot sec:

soooo…. what the fuck?

I hate that this is not our Willow, that she’s lost that free will, that agency, that choice. Everything felt so off, Willow gaslighting herself about Moonwater broke my heart, all her apologies to Toni for being “such a bad person” EW.

I’m so so glad the non-poison touch between Cricket and Willow hasn’t happened. It would have been so wrong.

I said it on discord but Willow “the one I look for” genuinely had me paused in shock, plus the Fig Tree music and the unsettling soundtrack just below, that was FUCK UP.

But it begs the question, what now?

They have crossed the boundary of the Eternity Forest, so I’m assuming next episode is going to be a “travel” episode and we’ll reach Moonwater by the end of it. Is Willow going to come back to herself once she arrives with Toni because she obeyed the compulsion? Is it going to last until it’s time for Toni to go through her “Last Rites”? What’s going to happen once they get there and Willow’s family is indeed *dead*?

In my head, as soon as Willow is back to herself, she’ll be so filled with rage it’s going to be initiative time riiiiight away. I’m picturing the tendrils from her mark extending all the way up her arm, collarbone and neck until her eyes go jet black. So maybe we won’t even get the Crillow conversation of him getting his years back/no poison/the Three until after the battle but then what if they don’t make it out?

Getting this conversation post-BBEG battle would be incredible, but that assumes they survive and I don’t know how I will deal if they don’t… 😳

Cricket being so torn between wanting to be happy for her but also trusting himself and the feeling in his gut was such a phenomenal performance from Pete (as usual).

Siggy is going to be soooo interesting to watch next episode. He knows something is off. And with his questions not getting an answer during the commune ritual, I’m so looking forward to seeing how he handles everything.

Toni though…. Gurl. I get it though, he’s an abuser and he keeps telling her everything she wants to hear in such a convincing way, of course she would soften up. I still hate it. But I *know* she will come around, there’s no way in hell when the truth comes out that she doesn’t realise what’s actually going on. No way. (Right?)

Last thing, hearing Willow say “Thank Haveren” was fucked up, the way we all gasped in the VC was incredible (thanks Ben)

[itscamel]

I rewatched TPK episode 83 tonight and for context, since we all know I adore Crillow, I’ve rewatched most of their scenes together many times over. Well, apparently not 83. Absolutely cried my eyes out when they touched for the first time. I hadn’t rewatched that scene possibly ever since the first time and it hit sooo freaking hard.

• Cricket’s slightly hesitant but decided smile as he brings his hand up to shake Willow’s. The moment he takes for himself just before, wiping his hands on himself (after the “that makes my hands feel wet” to Siggy about talking to Willow about his feelings in 82), and then just going for it, the vulnerability of putting himself out there like this.

• Willow’s eyes darting between Cricket and everyone else and the table and the glance up to the sky. Ben Fenner I swear to god!! Willow’s thoughts are so clearly read in an instant. The overwhelming feeling of being watched by the thing she hates most, sullying this moment, it’s unbearable. But also being faced with the possibility of touching Cricket for the first time, and wanting to so, so much, especially because it might be the last.

• The smile on Cricket’s face disappearing as she leaves, the look down to the table, frown on his face, confused and awkward as the silence stretches on about him and the slightest hurt too because he *loves* her and she walked away.

• Willow pacing, away from the group, unshed tears in her eyes as she grapples with the fact she feels so *much*. Talking herself down, trying to breathe, hearing her mother’s words in her head to not let the one she looks for go.

• “Getting to touch you isn’t just something fun to do today. It’s a dream come true”. A DREAM COME TRUE?? insanity. The yearning of it she must have been feeling for so long since 72.

• Ben choosing to have Willow touch Cricket with the non-marked hand, such an interesting choice, keeping this moment for themselves as much as she can without Daddigar in the way.

• Willow asking for Cricket’s consent, for his approval and agreement to be touched, very vocally and unashamedly wanting to make sure she isn’t doing anything he doesn’t want and then Cricket responding with extending his hand forward 🥲

• The way Willow is on the verge of tears the entire time but god, the smile on her face when her hand makes contact… 😭😭

• Pete saying in the roll credits of 83 that the touching didn’t feel as significant to Cricket but then going back on that in the rolls credits of 97 because yeah it actually means so much. For 2 cycles Cricket had to learn not to touch the people he loved, that his touch only meant teasing at best and harming at worse. The impact it must have had on him for Willow to kiss him, to touch him, to say she loved him in 94 *after* she felt the full effect of the poison, embracing quite literally all of him. And to go back to 83, Cricket’s little flinch as Willow’s hand comes up because he can’t help it, it’s so ingrained in him to step away from any sort of contact, maybe he’s forgotten what it feels like to feel someone touch him with the tenderness Willow shows him.

• “Thank you mom”??? i just. don’t even know. Starting the episode with Willow telling Cricket she hopes one day she’ll be able to thank her mum for sending her away from Moonwater to give her a chance to be happy and literally later that day she is so overcome with joy at being able to experience this moment with Cricket the resentment and bitterness of her mum’s decision fades. She loves him so much.

I will never recover from them.

[itscamel]

10 First Lines

The 'guidelines' are to copy the first line(s) of ten of your fics (or chapters, if you don't have ten fics). @purplemilk27 thank you for tagging me <3

All of them are The Players Keep (and more specifically Cricket and Willow) fanfics because that’s basically all I have been writing this past year 💜💚

1. running back to you

Toni’s voice resonates in his head, and Cricket runs.

He remembers sprinting away from a pissed off noble in an nameless city - he hadn’t timed his move perfectly with Halvar, missing a beat when he should have stepped back, and the pompous rich lady noticed the missing sapphire and gold bracelet off her wrist. She yelled and suddenly, he was running off, faster than he’d ever ran before, iron guard on his trail. From a time when stealing was tricky, when his fingers fumbled and his step faltered with incompetence, he remembers the adrenaline, the fear gripping his gut.

“Cricket. Get Siggy. Get back here, now. Hurry up”

He runs faster than he thought he could.

2. too late

Pain greets him as he wakes, the hard ground stabbing at his back. His body, broken, struggles to let him breathe. His vision fills with bright light, eyes frantic as the mid-afternoon sky, the trees, and Siggy’s face leaning over him comes into sharp focus.

Siggy looks small, fragile. It feels wrong, seeing him so feeble, like the bright, good, light in him has dimmed to a faded gray. He sees his friend shake as he hands him one of his healing potions, and it speaks of restraint, of shoving everything down where, with a bit of luck, feelings dull. It doesn’t look like it’s working.

3. the in-between

Eventually, Saedie, Siggy, and the rest of the Sumners shuffle into a mostly unscathed part of the living room to settle in for the night. Cricket follows, and as he lies down on his bedroll, he turns his back to the rest of the room and stares at the wall ahead.

He’s usually the first to keep line of sight to all points of entry and exit, you know, just in case. However, today, the worst has already happened so he’ll make an exception.

4. a promise to keep

Dawn comes, and Cricket hasn’t slept. The silence in the absence of Willow’s usual morning call hangs, heavy, in the air.

After sneaking back downstairs, he was careful to lay in the same position the others last saw him in, his back turned away from them. His eyes, burning with exhaustion, are open, fixed to the wall ahead.

5. the one you look for

Night has fallen on the Sumner estate, and Willow finds she cannot bring herself to look up at the stars.

Siggy is telling a story, one she hasn’t heard before about an old legend of the Twin Blades of Ezheim - doomed lovers, separated as they were sundred in two. Everyone is sitting around the campfire and Willow tries her best to enjoy the warmth of the heat and Siggy’s dramatic storytelling and she just… can’t.

6. from afar

It’s been a day since her heart broke to pieces.

Cricket’s barely spoken a word to her since. He’s not approached her, not said anything. She feels on the verge of tears all the goddamn time lately. The morning after, when she saw him break the tree line and walk towards the house, answering Siggy’s call, she thought her heart stopped in her chest. She spent the night before trying to forget. But the hurt, the longing, all crashed into her the second she saw his face again.

7. best day ever

When they make their way back to camp, the sun has already set beyond the horizon.

Cricket smiles to himself as he sees Siggy, looking very uncomfortable, moaning to Toni about the exorbitant amount of gumbo he’s eaten. The tiefling is about to respond when she sees them approaching.

8. vanished

She hears it happen, before she sees it.

The sound of hooves hitting the forest floor, almost muffled by the thick grass and the distance that separates them. Cricket’s cry as the gallop kicks off, a rush of movement in the corner of her eye. Willow looks up. There’s panic on his face and she feels her heart drop. Her mouth opens on a question, what’s going on, are you okay-

A flash of fire, and then he’s gone.

9. letting go

The flicker of candlelight dances on Cricket’s bare skin, and Willow can’t look away. The night is quiet. The light is dim in the tent as Siggy and Toni have gone to sleep. Still, as they lie down on the makeshift bed, she lets her eyes roam over the wide expanse of skin that is brand new to her.

10. alone at last

Privacy is a luxury when you’re a Dawntaker. Cricket’s learned that within the first lexinoth of meeting the rest of them. Going from one deadly danger to the next, through hostile cities and unpredictable wilderness, Cricket knows calm and silence are rather hard to come by. Especially now that the fate of the country basically rests on their shoulders.

Anyone who wants to participate, go for it!

[browniejeane]

TPK Whumptober Day 10!

Secrets, Secrets... is up! A prequel to day 5 - Quivering, it features our favorite elven druid Willow! A little bit of angst, somebody back from the dead? Enjoy~ P&L

An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works