#like to take huge leaps (literally with keyleth)

[deprecious]

Okay just watched episode 95 of campaign 3 and wowsy its a doozy.

All I want to say is... Marisha is the most fearless player and it's absolutely insane to watch

[captainsspnanon]

C2OneShot Part 2 - reaction

Small reaction this time, because both combats were great but not much to say aside from that I loved it.

I feel like I don’t have much to say about this whole first section.  It’s a long combat, but it’s fun to see the players and PCs messing with high level capabilities and moving back in to the M9 combat feel.  I feel bad for Taliesin, jumping straight in to 17th level of a homebrew that you haven’t played in ages and has changed since then?  With new weapons and items and multiclassing? NOT EASY. (Travis’s delight at having four eldritch blasts?  AMAZING)  I’ve enjoyed watching the combat, it’s fun, there’s fun choices being made, nothing else to say.

Actually I lied, I do have a comment.  I wish they went less to the map as the main screen and more with the players being the main screen.  I know that the fanbase is pretty split on this, with a lot preferring the larger map, but I prefer the corner map and bigger players.

Oddly, I LIKE Kingsley leaping at the chance to take the pact with Zehir?  It does feel super in character for a number of reasons.  I was wondering if it hit that same point of “keyleth trying to serve the Dawnfather rather than Vex”, but it doesn’t have that same type of awkward interruption.  It felt a lot more natural.  (and of course there’s the not-so-small part of me that would love for him to be Zerxes’d off of Exandria forever)  Travis did a very interesting mix by having Fjord take on the pact but then giving Kingsley the blade.  Odd that Matt chose a rapier though, because Fjord literally can’t use it? It’s not a Simple weapon, which is what warlocks have proficiency in.  Only Kingsley or Yasha could use it, and both of them had special blades already.  With the rapier theme, it 100% feels like Matt designed the weapon for Kingsley, which….I dunno, feels weird thematically?  Like, I would have thought that Matt would have focused this temple and such around Fjord with the whole Uk’otoa thing, but to have a weapon designed for Kingsley?  I get it in terms of ‘let’s give Taliesin something fun because this is a new PC and he’s out of his familiar zone’, but how does Kingsley narratively tie into the whole Uk’otoa arc?  *shrugs*  I don’t dislike this, I’m just a bit confused by the intentions behind it. It’s totally possible that I’m reading way too much into this, and the sword is just one that has been already designed and just happens to fit where it does.

Color me SUPER fucking impressed that Matt was able to jump into the Plank King’s voice SO DAMN quickly omg.  Absolutely glorious.  I’m a bit more thrown by the Adella voice though.  I feel like I’d have to rewatch both C1 and when she’s in C2, but the voice feels slightly more Kima-like to me?

UK’OTOA MINI HOLY FUCK LET’S GOOOOOOOOOOOO THIS IS AMAZING!!!!!!!!!!!!!  I wonder how this scale compares with Thordak?

*watches Matt move the head far from the others* Oh yeah, not comparable.  Thordak was fucking huge too, but didn’t have the ability to stretch his body. Don’t know how the actual size would compare if, say, Uk’otoa was curled up, but stretched out is definitely bigger.

AND A BUNCH MORE COMBAT lots of fun not much more to say

I wonder how many times they have to force the groan?  Sam’s jokes are actually pretty good a lot of the time.  I liked all three of them!

THEY HAVE AN UNDERWATER BACKGROUND HOLY SHIT I LOVE IT

Combat has been amazing, btw.

I’m glad that they didn’t make Fjord indebted to Zahir going forwards.

That was such a sweet ending!  I didn’t expect them to do little epilogues again, and they pretty much all matched up with the 141 epilogues (with one glaring exception).  I do really hope we get more one shots with them, at least one more!

[fanficcianawrites]

FIC: Potions and Promises (Perc’ahlia, one-shot, ficlet)

DISCLAIMER: Usual disclaimers apply. TITLE: Potions and Promises PAIRING: Percy/Vex (Critical Role) RATING: T for general combat violence and some strong language SUMMARY: Percy needs Vex to be okay. Vex needs Percy to not die. AUTHOR’S NOTES: This is a thing I’ve had in my head literally since December, I just never got around to writing it, and when I finally did, I couldn’t get the second part of the fic right, so I scrapped it altogether after a week of trying to figure it out, and let this just be a ficlet for the main thing I wanted to write in the first place, hence how short it is. Also, I had it in my head that it was only Vex and Vax who went to confront Raishan in the nest, so suspend that part of the canon happenings for just a bit. Also also - I’m not saying I’d love it if this is a thing that happened this week on the show, but I’d love it if this is a thing that happened this week on the show.

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“Vex! VEX!”

Vax’s panicked voice sounds a world away, a distant echo desperately trying to be heard over the ringing in her ears. Vex cringes and winces as she tries to push herself up off the ground on shaky, aching limbs. Her skin smarts and stings. Her head is swimming. Her vision is blurry. Her lungs feel as though they’re on fire, and coughing throws those flames up into her throat.

Vax’s knee almost rams into her side when he skids to a stop beside her. She feels his hands on her, trying to be careful as he urgently tries to turn her over onto her back. She coughs as she goes, and she thinks there’s blood coming up, but none does.

“Thank the gods,” Vax sighs as he helps pull her up off her back as carefully as he can and wraps her up in a hug, “I’m sorry.” He kisses the top of her head, relieved. “I’m sorry, I’m sorry.”

Sputtering against the dust that seems to be coating her insides, Vex waves him off. “Don’t be,” she tells him, “You didn’t know she’d go that far.”

“I had to do something,” he says as he helps Vex onto her feet, “She was -”

“I know, dear,” she replies, cutting him off, “I know. We’ll talk about it later.”

A huge impact rocks the ground beneath them, and Vex stumbles a little, nearly knocked off-balance again but for Vax’s clutch on her tightening. Through the rubble and dust and heat and debris, Raishan rears her head, the rest of her silhouetted in the smoke.

“So…” the dragon rumbles, and Vex swears she’s sneering at them, “This is how it is to be then.”

“It was always going to end up like this,” Vax shoots back, having to raise his voice over the din of the chaos around them, “You knew from the very start you would not be coming out of this alive! Just like we knew you would not let us live once we had taken out Thordak.”

Over the earring, she can hear several voices calling out, desperate, panicking, urgent. It helps for a while, and somehow Vex finds the strength to stand just a little straighter.

Raishan makes a sound like some sort of laugh. “Letting you live past Thordak was not part of our bargain,” she reminds them.

“Neither was letting you win!” Vex answers. The effort it takes her to be heard over the noise jolts some ache in her side, and she winces.

Raishan notices. A flash of white and sharp tells them the dragon is absolutely grinning now. “And what hope could you possibly have, little half-elf?” she says, reaching out a claw, poking at Vex’s chest enough to knock her back a step or two, even with Vax’s grip, “Look at you - bleeding and aching and hurting, pieces barely able to stay together. Do you honestly think, with what little strength and magic you might have left, if at all, that you can finish me off?”

“Absolutely,” Vax challenges, “Because you see, Raishan, we have something you never did.”

The sinister smile creeps wider across Raishan’s massive maw as she leans down, in, forward. “Oh?” she laughs, “And what might that be?”

Some ache in Vex’s ribs throbs, but it only makes her grin up at Raishan as she replies.

“Friends.”

As if on cue, Percy and Keyleth leap down into the hole, Keyleth conjuring a lightning storm right onto Raishan, Percy firing off an explosive shot into the side of the dragon’s head. They land in separate distances just as Raishan shrieks in pain, her great head rearing. As Vex watches, an axe soars through the air and embeds itself in Raishan’s neck, causing the dragon to roar some more. Grog suddenly jumps into view, aiming for the handle of his axe. Both of his massive hands grasp it as he comes down, the blade tearing into Raishan’s flesh. As Raishan comes swinging back down, she opens her jaws.

“Take cover!” Vax yells, his wings launching him up into the air as he pushes Vex out of the way. She has no time to react, and rams into the solid form of Percy, who takes less than a second to grab her and pull her away with him into a crevice and away from Raishan’s acid.

Percy helps Vex into the small space as Raishan lets out another spew of rancid fluid, his back turned outwards. “Are you alright?” he asks.

Vex nods. “Yes,” she says, panting. But as she shuffles to be less uncomfortable, that pain in her ribs bursts and blooms, and she yelps, cringing.

“No, you aren’t,” Percy says with a click of his tongue. He pats around his person until he finds a bottle, which he uncorks and shoves into Vex’s hand, closing her fingers over it. “Here, take it. It’s my last one.”

The healing potion is halfway up to Vex’s lips before she registers his words. “Y-your last one?” she stutters, eyes wide at Percy. “Percy, no.”

“It’s a greater healing potion, it should help significantly,” Percy tells her, as if this is Vex’s problem, “Take it.”

But Vex tries to give it back to him. “Percy, I can’t take this,” she tells him, “You need this.”

“No, Vex,” Percy replies, his hand in her hair, “I need you to take it. Please.”

“But Percy, it’s your last one!” Vex argues, but Percy shakes his head, and closes his hand around hers on the neck of the flask.

“I will be fine, dear,” he says firmly, “But I cannot...I don’t…” He sighs. “I cannot lose you again. I’ve watched you die once, I don’t think I could handle a second time. Please, Vex.”

She wants to retort, wants to tell him that those are all things she can say to and about him as well, but the desperate, begging look on his face tells her he won’t suffer more arguments. Instead, she pulls him to her and kisses him, hoping it will be enough to convey everything she needs to tell him. She wants to make it last, and the way his grip on her changes, warms and keens to her makes it harder to stop, but she has to, even if it doesn’t feel quite enough. She keeps him there even after the kiss ends, touching her forehead to his. The hand she has on his cheek can feel him smiling.

“Stay alive, please,” she murmurs, thumb absently running along his cheekbone.

“I can’t promise that, dearest,” he tells her honestly, and Vex tsks.

“Try, Percy, please. Promise me,” she pleads, giving the healing potion a tiny shake, “Promise me and I’ll drink this.”

Percy smirks a little at her. “Drink it and I will promise,” he shoots back.

Vex clicks her tongue at him, but he raises his brows in expectation. Vex rolls her eyes at him, but downs the potion. It burns a little on its way down, as it always does, but the effect begins to take hold almost immediately. The warmth spreads into her quickly, soothing the throbbing in her head, the stuffiness in her lungs and the pain in her ribs. She can’t help the sigh that escapes her at the relief the potion brings.

“Better?” Percy asks her, hand in her hair gentle.

She nods, acquiescing to his main point. “Lots,” she tells him, inclining the lip of the empty flask at him, “Your turn, darling. I drank. You promise.”

Percy lets out a soft chuckle. He takes her hand, clasps it gently against his chest. “I promise,” he starts, “to do my utmost and very best to stay alive.”

Vex lets out a noise of exasperation, but just then, something explodes somewhere behind Percy, sending rubble and dust up and over them. Percy instinctively bends lower in an effort to shield Vex. Any retort Vex might have had is thrown out the window, replaced with the urgency that comes with remembering where they are, what they are in the middle of.

“It’ll have to do,” she says, and grabs him by the collar to kiss him again, “Now go give that bitch a piece of our minds. I’ll catch up.”

Percy cocks his gun. “Are you sure?” he asks her, and this time when Vex nods, it is with far less pain.

She pulls an arrow from her quiver and nocks it on Fenthras. “I’m sure,” she answers, adjusting her position so she can quickly jump out of their little hiding place.

Percy gives her a final cursory nod before leaping to action, guns drawn and firing. Vex watches the shadows on the wall, waiting for her opportunity.

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