vess de rogna are you free this thursday i am free this thursda

a collection of whatever potentially incoherent thoughts i have about matthew mercer's little world and other, usually also elf-related, things. i block liberally and am sorry for everything. perpetually tired. they them or it its only please

[liltaireissocute]

DOOMED BY THE NARRATIVE

[uncerberusly-assembled]

(anna ripley voice) hello percival. i was hoping i'd find you here. i know youve said no several times and tried to kill me but i am again pitching my plan of you ditching everything to go Gun with me. you are just like me percy, and i know the allure of science will out. you cant ignore science forever. think of how wonderfully we could Gun. your ideas, my ideas... we could make something incredible. you're just like me percival, my family was killed by mages, your family was killed by mages who paid me to kill them. you're still mad about that? come now you know that was just work. it was like your torture it doesnt matter except when i tease you about it and it kinda gets me off. come with me and orthax. let's go crafting together. let's invent even bigger worse guns. guns for everyone. what do you say

[grakkie]

Vax sketch teehee

[hinumaycommissionsopen]

Because..... Cassandra de Rolo 😌😌😌😌😌😌😌😌😌😌😌😌

also my comms are open yayy!

[alexkablob]

One of my more niche but deeply held Critical Role headcanons is that, out of Vox Machina and their greater extended network, the character who is most likely to have ever been a client of Marion Lavorre's is actually Cassandra de Rolo.

[romancemedia]

The Death of almost every member of Vox Machina!

[lorn-art]

Cassy

[alabasterten]

Champions of the Gods

[kaen-ace-of-diamonds]

okay but like, from early on in What Doesn't Break:

"Waking dreams of a conclave of academics, pleading with her to accept the natural order of things; of a handsome man being eaten away by a fever, his bones jutting through skin worn nearly to transparency; of a wedding and the cool weight of a ring on her finger; of asking for power; of finding enough to carry love home from the dark.”

assuming that that bolded part refers to the other members of the Cerberus Assembly: Delilah was really going around the office with a big neon “I’M GOING TO DO SOMETHING DRASTIC” sign over her head, I KNOW they got caught in five seconds flat

The rest of the Cerberus Assembly: DELILAH PLEASE DO NOT DO ANY STUPID SHIT YOU CAN FIND ANOTHER MAN WHO SUCKS WE NEED YOU TO 👏 LOCK 👏 IN

Vess who’s looking to make some career moves:

(honestly that probably just made it so much more suspicious when she suddenly came back into work like "actually I'm fine now <3 Sylas is feeling much better <3 <3 yes I am very into chokers and high collars lately don't read into it <3 <3 <3")

[alexkablob]

I'm screaming every single part of this post down to the part about Vess making career moves was EXACTLY how it went. She came back all goth and getting into weird shit with her mysteriously alive husband like "IT'S FINE AND NORMAL DON'T WORRY ABOUT IT" and Vess was like hang on that irritating little upstart who leapfrogged me and won't give me the time of day is acting unwise TIME FOR SOME SCHEMES BABY THAT ANNOYING TWERP'S JOB IS GONNA BE MINE—

[pigmentsandpotions]

For @artists-guild-of-exandria 's project about the many battles of Critical Role, I picked the confrontation between Vox Machina and the archfey Saundor. The picture quality isn't the greatest, but trust me - it looks so good! For my first attempt at something like this, I'm so proud of how it turned out.

[alexkablob]

Obsessed with this Briarwood Family Dinner™ in the third Whitestone Chronicles comic because like, conditioning or no, vampiric charm abuse or no, they are obviously considering it Dangerous to leave Cass behind where they can't influence her for like two weeks. So Delilah, as is usual when she's in manipulator mode, puts on this Performance of faux-maternal care to preemptively shore up any possible cracks in the facade, and they're happy when Cass gives them the exact reassuring response Delilah teed her up for.

But the thing is, right—we see in Cass's comic just how capable Cass is of switching between her two masks, the Rebel Princess Of Whitestone™ and the Briarwoods' Dutiful Daughter™, how which one is "real" and which one is "fake" shifts over time, and here five years later—obviously, in this Delilah PoV comic, Cass is seen playing the latter role to the hilt. But how much of her fawning attitude toward her "parents" is compelled by her conditioning, and how much is her deliberately showing them what they need to see? More of the latter than Cass can give herself credit for, I think. Definitely more than the Briarwoods can.

Because Delilah trained Cass to be a flawless actress in order to make a tool out of her, and Cass had to learn to play that game in order to survive, but I don't think either of them realized Delilah—who always saw Cass as a possession of hers, a thing to amuse herself with, not a real person—fell for it too until the moment Cass's sword was in Delilah's throat.

[kaen-ace-of-diamonds]

okay but like, from early on in What Doesn't Break:

"Waking dreams of a conclave of academics, pleading with her to accept the natural order of things; of a handsome man being eaten away by a fever, his bones jutting through skin worn nearly to transparency; of a wedding and the cool weight of a ring on her finger; of asking for power; of finding enough to carry love home from the dark.”

assuming that that bolded part refers to the other members of the Cerberus Assembly: Delilah was really going around the office with a big neon “I’M GOING TO DO SOMETHING DRASTIC” sign over her head, I KNOW they got caught in five seconds flat

The rest of the Cerberus Assembly: DELILAH PLEASE DO NOT DO ANY STUPID SHIT YOU CAN FIND ANOTHER MAN WHO SUCKS WE NEED YOU TO 👏 LOCK 👏 IN

Vess who’s looking to make some career moves:

(honestly that probably just made it so much more suspicious when she suddenly came back into work like "actually I'm fine now <3 Sylas is feeling much better <3 <3 yes I am very into chokers and high collars lately don't read into it <3 <3 <3")

[alexkablob]

I'm screaming every single part of this post down to the part about Vess making career moves was EXACTLY how it went. She came back all goth and getting into weird shit with her mysteriously alive husband like "IT'S FINE AND NORMAL DON'T WORRY ABOUT IT" and Vess was like hang on that irritating little upstart who leapfrogged me and won't give me the time of day is acting unwise TIME FOR SOME SCHEMES BABY THAT ANNOYING TWERP'S JOB IS GONNA BE MINE—

[kaen-ace-of-diamonds]

[kaen-ace-of-diamonds]

just going to jot down that Cass can in fact muscle her way out of certain swordless encounters.

[isvaxstillanorb]

Day 3

Vax is still dust.

[exandriacalls]

Cassandra calling Percy a “cunting doughnut” is still the funniest possible insult she could’ve thrown at him btw I love her so much

[julietcpulet]

People saying it’s diabolical they had Vax say “I’m never gonna let go of you again.” to Keyleth after he thought he was free of the curse when it actually just confirms what we already knew, that he is hers forever. That he’s really her Champion. Even those who may know in full or in part what happens to Vax later on (whether they change it or not, I’m undecided on if I think they should) this one line establishes firmly that his heart is with Keyleth. She’s the one who somewhat goes on to doubt why he seemingly “chooses” the Matron over her when Vax’s loyalty is evident from the start. He’s loyal to the Matron because she proved herself as a goddess and saved not only Vex but Percy and helped the whole of Vox Machina. But over his time as the Matron’s Champion, even she comes to know that Keyleth holds top place for Vax and she couldn’t stop him from saving her more than once. This line is important because it represents the truth for Vax that had he been free and later we know, once he is, he’s completely committed to Keyleth and their future together. That he meant it when he said once he truly had her in his arms again, he wouldn’t let her go. Would that she never doubts it.