Yes. YES.

I don't know if anyone else had this idea before (...probably) but I would LOVE to see a fic about Essek's fake burial.

Listen, picture Verin, heartbroken, very confused about these outsiders who showed up unannounced at his brother's funerals, claiming to be his friends (”Essek do not have friends !”), and insisting on helping him empty out his tower.

First stage : polite confusion

Second stage : passive aggressive doubts from Verin

Third stage : Verin is convinced these people are huge liars and are trying to loot his dead brother’s precious belongings.

Final stage : Verin starts throwing stuff at the Mighty Nein. Chaos ensues. They end up teleporting with Verin in the Clay’s kitchen in front of a very surprised Essek, in his lounging clothes, busy drinking tea and drawing hearts around Caleb’s name in his spell book.

Essek just wanted to get some of his stuff back.

Hi Critical Role fandom 👀

Inspired by this post, where a 500+ years old Essek goes back in time when Caleb is kept in the Sanatorium

https://kurosmind.tumblr.com/post/656544093606985728/hi-fellow-shadowgast-lover-i-need-your-take-on

I did not expect to get hurt by my own anonymous ask… @kurosmind​ has a galaxy brain. First time interacting with a fandom, and I’m already spreading angst…I’m so, so sorry, this scene just popped up in my brain and wouldn’t let me be

Hi fellow shadowgast lover ! I need your take on this : what if ann older, distinguished and grizzled Essek (like, around 500 years old or something) was sent back in time against his will / to stop some nefarious threat, and met a young Caleb ? Obviously he wouldn't want to alter the timeline, but the temptation to protect his beloved from all the pain he will go through ? The drama ? What would be Caleb's reaction to meeting a powerful Kryn wizard ? Critical Role fandom, I need your wisdom.

I was going to have a cohesive response but my brain IMMEDIATELY went on "Essek gets back to the time Caleb was in the Sanatorium, disguises himself and he's actually the one that breaks him free of the Feeblemind" (I know it's not confirmed but I've always thought that the whole sanatorium business was Caleb being Feebleminded - it's basically impossible breaking free of a Feeblemind after it takes hold without some sort of external help)and I'm... I'm having feelings about Essek seeing Caleb again after centuries but not being able to do anything about it I'm--Maybe he protected him, from a distance, in the years before Caleb met Nott. Essek is determined and focused enough to know he cannot afford to mess up the timeline, but watching over him isn't that, right?

what little i can do

a/n: so uh, my hand slipped. i saw this post about time-traveling essek helping bren and i just... it all kinda wrote itself. @kurosmind i hope you enjoy this little ficlet and the pain this concept has cause me, bc i just love it so much.

* * *

he figures it out accidentally. late at night in the library, frumpkin nestled in her basket nearby, Dancing Lights illuminating his scrawling. he should be sleeping; a group of far-too-green adventurers came by to pester him today and he's exhausted.

but then he scribbles a formula and stops.

a memory flashes. a mess of red hair; sobs upon his chest. a room full of ash; his mantle heavy with disintegrated secrets.

he tucks away the writings hastily. no. he promised he wouldn't, and there's never a promise to caleb he's ever broken, not even now, hundreds of years later.

he won't use the spell.

it's been years. another adventuring party has come and gone; this one included a halfing who giddily hugged him, rambling about her great-grandmother's wild stories. she's not the first one he's met; there are many out in the world who come to him with echos of the mighty nein. if only the rest of them could see the ripple they've created...

he finds that spell when he's looking for something else. it brings him pause. he feels a great weight in his bones these days, an aching, ever-present coldness. soon he will be the final grave in the grove, he knows, buried by clarabelle clay or perhaps one of her children.

he looks at the portrait by his bedside, small and fading. he gives frumpkin an absentminded pat.

he gathers the components, letting them sit on the kitchen table for days, gathering courage.

what does he have to lose? he knows he can't alter anything, but if only he could see him-- see them, all of them-- one more time...

it would be worth it.

it will be worth it.

Afficher davantage

In honor of the anniversary of the most unhinged shadowgast era, I present you the Timeloop-babygast-execution Au, where two mad lads run away from home (secret military underground bunker) and try their hands at murdering criminals (Caleb, their own father) and piss off a powerful dunamancer (Essek, their other father) enought to set up a timeloop none of them can escape (until they sit down and talk about their feelings/misunderstandings).

Many thanks to the amazing @flappingduster for joining in this madness, and  lending her babygast

I was thinking about it !! Caleb has very ambiguous feelings about that : on one hand he’s happy to have this unique chance of growing old with his lover, but on the other he feels guilty of making him change his appearance all the time for his sake.

On his deathbed, he asks Essek to take the illusion down, and so he does. Caleb cries as he strokes the perfect youthful face, kisses the plump lips, and tells a heartbroken sobbing Essek he loves him.

May I present to you:

Essek casting Seeming as Caleb grows older so he and Caleb can be old together

Also for your consideration:

Essek taking Frumpkin as his own familiar since he and Frumpkin are going to live a long time without Caleb, and will out-live all of the Mighty Nein

“I  can almost touch them, Caleb !”

Hey….cursed thought but…do Long Essek see shrimp colors ??

Something something Essek being his own martyr in his own homemade hell, something something Lux embrassing him through pain in all universes no matter if he wants it or not 

Something something fantasy catholic guilt

I’ve been suddenly hit with inspiration so here’s an Essek Thelyss Pieta

The poor kid would suffer so much during summer vacations at auntie Jester and uncle Fjord’s house in Nicodranas-

but listen: shadowgast children, with a drow and a ginger for parents, that’s going to require levels of SPF magic the world has not seen before

I’m so sorry for all the angst from last week, here’s some fluffy old wizards in love