#blorbologist

[duganator01]

I'm such a huge fan of the actor AU, you have no idea how delighted I am to see it back! Any ideas tied to the recent episodes? I had the thought of Vex's actress refusing to give back the Percy coat because it's so warm vjvjvjvj or someone on all fours doing the dragon mocap like how Benedict Cucumbr did Smaug. I'm sure the costume designers had fun with Kiki and Vax's new fits too

Everyone steals the coat at some point. It's just so dramatic it's hard not to

I'm sure the costume designers had fun with the new outfits, particularly Vax's.

Keyleth is going to change her outfit again at some point, but Vax's armor is a vestige and greatly effects his character and the plot. It's gonna be around for the rest of the show so they had a lot of talks with Matt and Liam about how it should look

[utilitycaster]

Sending this hoping to get it in before break/you go to bed, BUT!

The contrast between Laudna demanding power and support of Delilah, vs the 'I didn't choose this' is intriguing. I don't know about you but this is the increased Oomf to Delilah I've been waiting for, as well as potentially forcing Laudna to reckon with these feuding interests of hers. And Laudna being interested in potentially powering Delilah enough to get her out of her head too.

Sorry if these aren't organized, just curious as to what you're thinking!

I think I'll have to sit with it for a while because there's some issues that I feel fall on Marisha, some that fall on Matt, and without knowing how much Marisha did in the character development and how much she left to the DM it feels presumptive to criticize since I can't quite tell where the breakdown is. With that said, it kind of sets up a conflict? But it also kind of doesn't, and that's actually a pretty massive problem for me that underscores how this really needed to come up much sooner.

Here's the crux of it: Laudna has been a hollow one, presumably living only because she is bound to Delilah, for 30-ish years. She has not been working towards Delilah's goals in a meaningful fashion during that time, and has only incidentally provided her with strength (the gnarlrock, Bor'Dor). Delilah was effectively dormant for a time and Laudna was still fine. Delilah has also not made these goals clear to her until now, at least to our knowledge.

What are the consequences, meaningfully, if Laudna doesn't do anything to help Delilah resurrect Sylas? She's been leveling up in sorcerer, which is unrelated to Delilah; losing three warlock levels isn't fun but it's not devastating if she's still a L8 sorcerer without them. Delilah doesn't seem to need to be active to keep Laudna alive; she just can't be removed. To that point, Delilah is unlikely to simply kill Laudna for disobedience, since I don't think she has any other options, so they really are trapped in a standoff, with neither able to kill the other without killing themselves. At best Delilah can try to make Laudna kill the people she cares about, and to be clear that's a good source of conflict, but at this point the party knows that then they put Laudna down so it makes it either a suicide mission for Delilah, or a TPK, or a postponement of the inevitable.

This isn't to say it's not a potential good hook, particularly if Laudna decides she refuses to be a permanent vessel for Delilah. I think that while the points above are still pretty significant...not plot holes, but certainly plot points that demand more explanation than we've gotten, Laudna refusing to comply with Delilah would be a great step forward. I also think it has opened up some great new avenues for Imogen; her scene in the Dawnfather temple was intriguing. But this lack of stakes remains, and that's what ultimately needs to be addressed, even though this is a big step forward in terms of having some engagement with the core concepts of the character.

[essayofthoughts]

So I had a terrible terrible thought.

Oh Wise Friend of Paleopathology... what do you think you would be able to learn from Percy's tomb, whenever he kicks the bucket and ends up buried? Assuming a language barrier + at least a few thousand years (and Kiki can't just chime in if still alive).

What strains of his life would still be on his bones? What about the teeth? What do you think Whitestone’s burial customs would be like (and how would his status/history be conveyed in that context)? Would any fabrics used in funeral dress be likely to survive, or only his wedding ring + buttons + whatever that shiny thing is in his ascot?

What would you, future archeologist, make of that earring in just one ear???!

I would note that it has been several years since I properly studied the subject, but Palaeopathology and Skeletal Analysis were some of my favourite classes and I do remember a fair bit. But for any currently practicing Archaeologists - forgive my oversights. It has been Too Long.

Now. Before I get to anything else in this scenario, we have to think about the likely context. This word means different things in Archaeology and Anthropology but for our purposes here today the short definition is "What is he found with? Where do we find the body? Is there a tomb, a grave, grave goods? What is there here that is not the body, that can tell us about how the body got here?"

I don't know how to explain to you that this is one of my favourite parts of archaeological thought - everything matters, everything plays a part, everything is context enabling us to better understand a site or an artefact. Every new thing we discover is another datapoint to weave into a greater whole until the web resolves into something greater than the sum of it's parts.

So in this instance we're going to have to start with the following questions:

Where is his body interred?

What kind of inhumation is it? (graveyard, cemetery grave, wooden coffin or vault casket or leaded sealed, mausoleum, crypt, ossuary?)

How well preserved/damaged is it?

What are the burial customs of Whitestone nobility and how will that affect things?

Why am I exhuming it?

Now, we know a few things from canon, most namely that the de Rolos had a family mausoleum beneath their castle. This suggests a formal burial in a family crypt. We do not however know if the bodies were placed in coffins, or niches or even if they were cremated! From the transcript of Reunions Pt2:

MATT All right, so. You progress through the undercroft as quietly as possible. You notice as you get past the first section, you look to your right and left and the inside of these small like cubby offshoots that contain these separate ten by ten stone tombs. The walls have shelves burrowed into it, in which there are urns and small gems and offerings-- things that were buried alongside the family members as part of a remembrance. →

So it seems like some may have been cremated! Being adherents of Pelor, this doesn't actually surprise me - the sun burns, after all. But then again, neither would traditional burial - Pelor is also associated with agriculture and standard decomposition returns you to the earth that fed you.

Though... that would be a bit complicated in a sealed stone tomb.

Given also how I'd equate to modern time periods and technology levels... I'm inclined to say embalming hasn't taken off in Exandria at the time Percy dies. And... even if it was possible, I rather feel it'd be associated with Necromancy more than standard burial, plus Whitestone is predominantly Pelorian and Percy's wife is Champion of Pelor, and Pelor is god of agriculture. Embalming chemicals seep into the soil and are catastrophically bad for the environment - there's a reason American cemeteries expect caskets to be fully sealed and in a concrete vault - to prevent exactly that. I can't see Pelor being down with that kind of embalming, so most likely a body is neatened up, shown for funeral, and buried, with minimal messing about. Even nobles being buried in crypts where they won't immediately return to the soil, I imagine they'd want to stay true to the general idea.

Further, from Matt in that same episode:

#MATT Continuing down, a long set of whitestone-constructed stairs descend for about 45 feet before they level off into the de Rolo mausoleum. A long hallway continues forward that contains two ten-by-ten stone structures that contain the entombed bodies of previous generations of de Rolos, with six passages-- three on each side-- that split off of this main hallway that contain their own stone-encapsulated corpses. → This is a place of silent prayer and showing appreciation for the previous families. Not all of them are full, and there were extensions planned as the family grew, but the first thing you notice is all of the tomb doors are open. →

So the idea is that the graves stay in use! This isn't a case like Sedlec where bodies are periodically disinterred to be reinterred in an ossuary, these are meant to be lasting burials.

So... why am I excavating here?

Given Keyleth's lengthy lifespan I would assume that Whitestone likely survives quite well (yes, even with the Apogee, shush, I've only watched C1 so far). It's also a source of, well, whitestone and residuum, meaning it's likely to remain inhabited. Even given the significant shifts a thousand plus years bring - castles and keeps and forts are pretty good at lasting in some form! We have a lot of remnants of old castles (In Britain alone: Tintagel, Colchester Castle, Tower of London, the Roman Forts at Hadrian's Wall, various Caers throughout Wales), and they frequently get built on or rebuilt over time. In a case like Whitestone, with valuable resources and economic links, even if it were, say, invaded, colonised, etc. - the castle would be a good seat of administration or even just a tourist hotspot. And crypts are well down in the foundations: even if the castle was damaged or destroyed, it actually has good odds of staying intact. The Alabaster Sierras are mountainous, but given the ziggurat survived from the Calamity to when we see it well enough it only took the Briarwoods and Ripley a few years (minus the time excavating down to it) to restore it, it seems that they're not terribly tectonically active.

So... this is likely a very stable site, with good odds of at least 500 or so years of protection (Pike and Scanlan are set to have long lifespans, JB too seems set to live there, all would have reason to see it protected) even before we get to Keyleth's likely thousand-odd year protection. Given that much time to build itself stronger, I see Whitestone as most likely still existing, and the castle a significant historical site and cultural heritage.

I can see some degree of linguistic drift, but if the area has remained inhabited then there's good odds there'd be scholars of the area able to translate Pre-Apogee-Era Tal'Doreian Common. And, likewise, if the area has had so long protected then there's good odds the Chamber is still around, and so there's probably a good library and even recorded genealogy of the founding de Rolos, even if the family itself had died out. (Factual accuracy of these records might be suspect, but I'll get to that.) This kind of persistence of a culture would not be without IRL historical precedent - Ancient Egypt lasted for thousands of years using largely the same Hieroglyphics, even as Dynasties rose and fell. The culture absolutely changed, but good chunks of records were still around.

Given all of this, most likely I can see the reason being some kind of refurbishment of the castle prompting archaeologists to be called in for the safe disinterrment of the tombs and then some kind of funded study by the Chamber of Whitestone of the bodies in those tombs to help inform on who Whitestone's forebears were. This, again, is not without precedent - if I'm recalling my Sixth Form case studies correctly, Christ Church in Spitalfields had a massive crypt of lead caskets that were disinterred, catalogued, studied and, wherever possible, returned to relatives.

Let's return to those questions, yeah?

Where is his body interred?

Most likely in the de Rolo crypt under the castle.

What kind of inhumation is it? (graveyard, cemetery grave, wooden coffin or vault casket or leaded sealed, mausoleum, crypt, ossuary?)

Stone tomb burial - likely dry but not anaerobic. Reasonable odds of non-human disturbances (rats, flies, bugs, etc.)

How well preserved/damaged is it?

Good odds of reasonable preservation. Depending on how well and consistently the crypt is tended it could be best case for the scenario or somewhat less.

What are the burial customs of Whitestone nobility and how will that affect things?

Given Taliesin has said that the de Rolos took a bit from Prussian nobility in etiquette and manners, I'd be inclined to say probably similarly, with an eye towards our 1800s funerary practices simply because that's when the Pepperbox was prominent in our world.

So most likely, Sunday best, plush coffin, but - unless royalty - left to rot. Royals (in the UK at least) have historically been prone to leadlined caskets but that tends to lead to a specific kind of anaerobic putrefaction that results in something called corpse liquor.

Ick.

So let's hope that's not the case. Given Whitestone is primarily Pelorian in devotion, at least in Percy's day, I'd be inclined to say they're not completely sealed - possibly even just interred as bodies, but unlikely - plus the crypt is in the family castle and it seems that the crypts were visited periodically by family prior to the Briarwoods' attack - the odds of someone breaking in to try to steal royal relics is pretty low, unlike the public royal burials in Westminster Abbey.

Why am I exhuming it?

Castle refurbishments prompting a Chamber-sponsored study on the historic remains in the pre-Chamber de Rolo crypt.

OKAY. Now that's all out of the way, let's get into what I might discover, yes?

So most likely I've gone through several other bodies before I get to Percy. During exhumation the details of the tomb would have been recorded - it's placement in the tomb, which tombs it was next to. Now, I would imagine his tomb would be between Cassandra's and Vex's, but while working I likely wouldn't know that! Assuming linguistic drift and font changes, most likely the burials and tombs are labelled in the database something like T6E2 - Tomb 6 of the 2nd East Section. I would then have to find a scholar working on recording and identifying any inscriptions and translating them - so names, dates, quotes, etc.. And, most likely, I would be kept in the dark until I was done! Archaeology is best done without recorded human history to bias one and huge amounts of history have no contemporaneous record to speak of.

Now, if I'm just doing the Palaeopath then likely with a specialist in coffins, caskets and funerary fittings, I would record the state of the coffin and body inside, as well as the positioning of the body inside. Is the body extended (laid out flat as we tend to bury bodies now) or contracted (foetal position, very common prehistorically)? How intact are the remains?

And then, recording everything as I go, I would extract the body from the coffin, bit by bit. I would want to ensure that no bones were left inside the coffin, no tiny tatters of cloth - assuming any remained, cloth disintegrates shockingly quickly and if it wasn't fully sealed it's likely the moths got to it, let alone any rats - and that I didn't misplace any bones as I laid them out per diagram.

Jewellery, buckles - any metal grave goods would also be extracted here and recorded. Also, given Exandria - Detect Magic. Make sure anything enchanted is Identified so we know what it did (hello Earring of Whisper!). Again, I'd probably end up giving them over to someone who knows how to compare them to similar items to properly study them.

Now... Percy's fleshy bits would most likely be gone. Unless he mummified which is not impossible with a dry stone internment but between two thousand years, one's own gut bacteria (remember, modern embalming is unlikely), rats and bugs... yeah I can't see much remaining beyond fragments of cloth and bones.

Oh, and his glasses.

That would have been noted during removing the body from the coffin - this person wore glasses. From my colleague examining them, we'd be able to see if they were prescription (or as historically close as you could get) or if they were a stylistic choice - so we'd know this person had bad eyesight.

Now, the first step after checking every bone is present would be to sex it and to look for damage or signs of wear and tear. Given this is Exandria 1. Gender equality for ages and 2. Magical with options to trans one's gender. This is also a high-status burial so there's good odds this person was living as their chosen gender; and sexing the body could tell us what that was. Even if there's a mismatch - grave goods can also tell us. Is the jewellery more commonly seen on men or women of the era? Percy would likely have a pocket watch (he does make a clocktower! I'd be shocked if he didn't make himself a pocketwatch) which is often a more masculine item, and an ascot pin - ascots are a masculine fashion - and his Earring of Whisper, which is a bit more complicated. Any remnants of clothes could also tell us. And of course - the coffin furniture. Any plaque with inscription, or inscription on the tomb panel. After drawing my own conclusions I would ask my scholarly colleague if their findings lined up with my own.

Given also that this is Exandria, it'd probably also be very important to identify which (DnD) race he was. Elves seem to be more gracile than humans, half-elves likewise albeit to a lesser degree, genasi would likely have magical influences, likewise aasimar, tieflings having horns, tails, hooves, claws, dwarves being short and stocky, while halflings are short and comparatively gracile and gnomes are smaller still. Goblins would be ruled out by size alone, goliaths would be massive and probably have big muscle attachment marks and dragonborn would have very obvious conformation compared to a human.

I don't think identifying Percy as "Most likely human" would be hard - but we can confirm it later.

Now... damage.

Percy's torture would almost certainly show on his bones. Given it was torture, I highly doubt Ripley wasted magical healing on him. It was only a week or two, so likely no broken bones - unless she only wasted enough healing on him to keep him alive, in which case... yeah absolutely some wear and tear. Signs of partial healing, mixed damage. Scarring on the bones, evidence of dislocations, etc.. Likewise, injuries from his time with Vox Machina would show - him leaving his hand in a bulette's mouth probably left marks on those bones, his death at Ripley's hands probably is extremely interesting in the skeletal record - most of his pre-mortem injuries only partially healed if that, while the actual cause of death being healed up completely, a lacuna in the record. Likewise - Percy's cane. If he was buried with it we would probably look for some kind of leg injury. Was the cane an affectation or was there an injury it was compensating for? What injury might that be, what could have caused it? Or even... was he not buried with it? Would we see a leg injury that implies a need for a cane, but no cane to go with it? If so, we could assume that presentation in death had significance, and they were presenting a "perfect" "whole" version of him at death. Again, there's cultural precedent for this! Ancient Egyptians would provide wooden prosthetics and false eyes during mummification because of a belief that how one was interred was how one would arrive to the afterlife - they could be given limbs they had lost or even never had in life.

Just due to all of this I'd probably also take a close look for any evidence of malnutrition - though this might be significantly faded after his many comfortable years retired. That said, Percy was tortured and then washed up on a fishing boat and dissociated for two years. Given this was at the tail end of his puberty, I'd be shocked to find no sign at all of lasting physical trauma at that.

I'd also find he had one arm that was just. Fine. Factory reset perfect. Nothing wrong at all. What the hell. Did someone cast Regenerate on him? (If they did cast Regenerate: did that have an accelaratory effect on any bone remodelling his healing bones were going through after the Vecna fight?

Assuming I've studied some of the other crypt bodies before Percy's this would be very interesting! Most of those would be de Rolos who likely went through little to no hardship - Percy stands out.

I'd also want to check to see his teeth - what kind of teeth care is he getting? Any cavities, calculus build up, abscesses, missing teeth? How worn down are they? Are there any fake teeth? Given Vex would probably chivvy Percy to take care of himself (and wouldn't care for stinky breath) and they have Pike on hand for healing, I imagine he has very good teeth for his age.

This is a good thing.

You see, assuming this is a very thorough study and all of that time between Percy's era and know gives me access to modern technology or some equivalent I would want to a few destructive tests. Namely - carbon dating, isotope analysis and DNA testing.

And these are often best done with Teeth. Teeth are fun! They are growing bones which live in our bones! And we lose our milk teeth and gain our adult teeth on the same reliable time frame as we use to age infant skeletons (sealing of skull sutures in that case) which makes them really useful. Like. Unspeakably useful. Teeth are fantastic. Take care of your damn teeth.

Carbon dating would, obviously, give us a rough idea of how old the body was. This is easier the more recent it is, and much more exact. We can then cross-reference this with the scholar translating inscriptions and checking historical records to see how well the carbon date matches up with the historical record!

DNA testing is the thing that would tell us if he was human, and, depending on how advanced it is, might even be able to tell us a few phenotypic genes! Melanin levels for skin and hair, eye pigmentation - possibly if he was genetically predisposed towards a few diseases. It would also allow us to compare him to other bodies in the data set! We would find out that the female body interred on one side of him was most likely his sister, and while the woman interred on his other side shares no meaningful DNA with him, there are other nearby bodies which share DNA with both of them, being their children! And from those children we'd know that there was a tiefling in the family, which would allow us to infer that somewhere in this family there was some kind of infernal influence.

Isotope analysis - if I'm recalling correctly, you can use isotope analysis to both identify some part of a person's diet in life (carbon and nitrogen analysis, usually) and where they came from (strontium and oxygen analysis).

So we'd have some idea of Percy's general diet, and also know he was local! I imagine given, you know, Exandria, magic - we'd have not just strontium analysis to place him as a Whitestone native, but also likely some lingering magic from the local whitestone rock to further establish that. Now, if I recall rightly, strontium analysis only really works for childhood, but based on the injury and malnutrition pattern, the idea that he either went through hell locally or left in some relation to that is not an unlikely one - just hard to prove.

CONCLUSIONS

We would see from his grave goods and the circumstances of his burial that he was high born and likely associated with the de Rolo family. From DNA analysis we'd know he was related to a good number of people in the crypt and that his apparent spouse was not, meaning he is most likely the de Rolo of the pair. Plus the strontium analysis we'd know he was local and his likely spouse was not, again furthering the idea that he was the de Rolo.

We might also have some idea of how he'd look, and if we decided to try to do a digital or artistic facial reconstruction we'd likely have some pigmentation pointers. Also, we know he wore glasses and that he needed them - that they weren't a stylistic choice.

We'd know he'd been badly injured at various points in his life, and, depending on how severe his various post-Glintshore and post-Raishan injuries were, we might still be able to see the gap of the resurrections in his bones, which would further suggest he was someone of means to have afforded such a resurrection. A lot of his injuries could probably be put down to an adventuring lifestyle, which the resurrections and any evidence of magical healing would probably attest to, and without the kind of surface scarring torture leaves, while we'd know he was injured badly over the course of his life, I don't know if we'd be able to easily conclude it was all at once. Certainly some marks on the bones would seem older than others but bones remodel over time! Some of it might be damn near invisible, while others would remain obvious. He also has a mysteriously perfect arm for Some Fucking Reason.

We'd likely have his wedding ring (I'd be shocked if it didn't have some inscription on the inside; this was very common historically and Percy is a complete sap), an ascot pin, a belt buckle and some buttons or fasteners for his clothing, a pocketwatch and chain (and again, I'd be surprised if the pocketwatch didn't have an inscription or a hidden flap with a miniature of his family or something). We'd have his glasses and possibly even his cane. We'd likely have the Earring of Whisper and based on how well Purvan Suul's two magical items lasted - one of which was not a Vestige! - I'd be inclined to say an Identify would let us know what that was once Detect Magic turned up that it was enchanted.

I imagine someone would also have catalogued any offerings left outside his grave - keepsakes, mementos, inscribed tablets of memorial, etc. which would help to let us know not just who he was but what he meant to the community in which he lived.

After all, the dead do not bury themselves - this is what I meant at the start by context. He was buried by people around him - his community. They chose his grave and his grave goods, they chose the inscription of his tomb (he may have requested it, they chose whether or not to honour that) and they left offerings and markers of what he meant to them.

And... from all of this? Assuming Scanlan really went ham telling the Legend of Vox Machina and bards keep telling it? I'd think an in-world archaeologist could make a good guess as to who this body was even before getting it confirmed by the scholar checking the inscriptions. And with the Cobalt Soul storing information - good odds they'd have a record of Scanlan's version of the tale and their own additions (see also Chronicles of Exandria books, intended as being from the Cobalt Soul). And, also, of course, Tary's version too! There's likely to be several different contemporaneous sources, not to mention later additions from the Voice of the Tempest.

So... I imagine this would probably help to fill out things that weren't covered by Scanlan's tale, refute things in Tary's and generally do as finding Richard III's body did for Britain - give us more information about the person behind all the stories and propaganda. Flesh out their life, give us hints of the hardship they went through - if there's inscriptions on his ring or pocketwatch, give us a hint of the heart he shared with his family.

It certainly wouldn't be everything, but it would be enough to let you touch another's humanity across a thousand years or more.

[jadequarze]

Hi! I've been listening to Epic: The Musical lately and it's got me thinking about your mythology AU (namely Orym - Warrior of the Mind with him and Kiki is *so* good. Some of the songs might jive with your OCs too, if you wanna give it a listen!).

So! Any thoughts on the AU you haven't had a chance to share? Especially for Orym, Ashton and Chetney, I'm really curious to hear more!

I really gotta listen to Epic, keep holding it off.

I'll be honest, I haven't thought too much on the others. The bare minimum that I can confirm is Ashton and Imogen being alongside each other for their duties. Since their domain are more or less the same.

For Chetney, some mortals considers him the Patron of Craftmanship while others Patron of the Wild.

I don't have any idea for Orym (IM SORRY ORYM). I'm open to suggestion

[rightpastnowhere]

Zone of Truth with the twins? >:D

hurt/comfort spell ask meme

so... i know who you meant by "the twins"........ but since you didn't specify in words i am going to be mean >:D

ZONE OF TRUTH: You create a magical zone that guards against deception in a 15-foot-radius sphere centered on a point of your choice within range. Until the spell ends, a creature that enters the spell's area for the first time on a turn or starts its turn there must make a Charisma saving throw. On a failed save, a creature can't speak a deliberate lie while in the radius. You know whether each creature succeeds or fails on its saving throw.

An affected creature is aware of the spell and can thus avoid answering questions to which it would normally respond with a lie. Such creatures can be evasive in its answers as long as it remains within the boundaries of the truth.

also this prompt got way out of control whoopsie. i used this as a warm-up to get back into writing after my very long hiatus, so it's not my best, but i love the twins <3 so here you go!!!

~

It's dark.

Not dark enough to blind - he has darkvision to thank for that, enough elven blood passed down for that - but dark enough to obscure details, to mess with his sense of where he is. His hands are tied, but not his feet, so theoretically he could try to get up and flee, but-

A panicked whimper, small and quiet, from beside him reminds him why he can't just up and run. They'd taken Leona's glasses, smashing them under heel, and darkvision doesn't amount to shit when your vision's that bad.

"What are we gonna do?" Leona whispers, a shrill string of her voice threading through in her panic, and he doesn't want to snap but she's being too loud. "Mum and Dad don't know where we are, we don't know where we are, we don't know what they want-"

"It's okay, Leo," he hisses, not to scold but just to interrupt - he's switched into elvish, too, just in case none of them speak it. He wishes, more than ever, that he'd paid more attention in any of Mum's other language lessons. "They'll be able to find us. Mum can find anything, remember? Like when Egg dropped her necklace in the garden that one time?"

He can see Leo's eyes when she turns, and meets them as steadily as he can, even knowing that she can't see the details of his face from this close. "It's okay," he whispers again, as fierce and solid as he can. "We'll be okay."

The door to the room they're in opens, allowing a single woman to step through. She walks over slowly, heeled boots clicking on the floor; each click is in time with his heart until the latter picks up pace, gradually running out of sync until his pulse is in his ears.

Breathe. Calm down. In, hold, out. In, hold, out. Dad's voice in his head, Mum's hands on his shoulders, a memory of a panic attack curled between the bookshelves of the family library.

Wolfe is usually one of the first to panic with things like this. He hates to admit it, especially in comparison to his siblings, some older-brother instinct

Leona's hand, somehow having found its way into his, squeezes so tight he feels his knuckles roll together; it hurts, but just enough to ground him.

"Do you know why you're here?" the woman asks, her words scraped at the edges by rough-accented Common.

"Because you brought us here?" The words trip out unbidden, stumbling past his lips in a shaky mockery of his usual snark, and he almost winces. This isn't the time to act smart.

You might want to throw out some cheesy one-liner or whatever to act cool, but it's not worth the risk, his mother's voice chimes from a memory, the three oldest kids sitting in on interrogation training with the newest Grey Hunt recruits. It might seem like a way of keeping the power on your side, but it's just as likely to make your captors even angrier.

Lesson one failed.

Luckily, the woman doesn't rise to the bait; she just chuckles, stepping closer to crouch down in front of them both. He shifts his body best he can, trying to put himself between her and Leona, trying to shield her.

"How cute," she says, "but you know that's not what I meant."

Wolfe swallows thickly.

"You're little de Rolo brats, aren't 'ya?" The woman leans forward, and Wolfe fights the instinctive urge to cower away. "I bet you know alllll sorts of secret entrances and whatnot into the castle, right?"

Shit.

"We never used those," Leona croaks from behind him. "Guess you fucked up and got the wrong kids."

She still manages to sound smug and haughty, even with her voice wobbling with fear. He would be proud in any other circumstance, but now he just holds back a wince, meeting the woman's eyes best he can as she frowns.

"If that's how it's gonna be," she growls, sending a shiver down Wolfe's arms. He feels a mirrored shudder go through his sister, trembling in her hands like an echo.

Another figure steps in through the door, this one cloaked and their face obscured. They're carrying an old, thick tome, and Wolfe has spent enough time around magic users to recognize a spellbook when he sees one.

"I'd just beat the answer out of you," the woman says, far too casual for Wolfe's liking, "but we don't have that kind of time. Your parents will probably catch on soon. So."

The cloaked one begins to murmur under their breath, and Wolfe curls back, bracing himself for whatever is about to hit them. Leona goes tense, squeezing his hand again and burying her face against his shoulder.

He feels the magic as it hits him, but it doesn't hurt. It... it feels like something is pushing at his mind, in his mind, like a Message or a Sending but much, much stronger. Like pushing through a locked door. He thinks to brace himself, somehow, but before he can, the lock is broken, and magic floods through his head.

"Let's try this again." The woman leans closer, too close, he can smell her breath from here. "Do you know where the secret tunnels into the castle are?"

Wolfe tries to say No, with as much force and conviction as when he tried to convince Mum that he hadn't snuck out or that it was Leona who'd pranked the Curator. But when he opens his mouth, all that comes out is a choked, strangled sound.

He and Leona tense up at the same time. Zone of Truth.

The woman grins at their realization. "You kids are smart, I'll give'ya that. Now are you smart enough to stay alive?"

Half-truths, his father's voice reminds him, a sudden reminder of an old lesson. Mum had called him paranoid, and Dad had said he was just cautious. If staying silent is too much of a danger, try and get by on half-truths. Don't give away anything that you don't have to.

He scrambles to think of something to say, something that's just true enough to get by. He can't deny the existence of the secret passageways, and he can't say he's never used them... dammit, think think think-

He feels Leona pinch at his hand, breaking his train of thought. He resists the urge to snap at her, wondering what the hell she's getting at, when he remembers the scar that sits right under her thumb and forefinger.

The scar he got from climbing in their bedroom window - or, more specifically, from the tree just outside it that he'd hastily scrambled up to avoid being caught by the guards. The tree that he always climbed to get back in after sneaking out.

Gods, his sister is a fucking genius.

"I've never gotten into the castle using secret entrances," he says, confident and certain, locking eyes with the woman as her lip curls into a snarl. He thinks of his mother, every time Syldor has come to visit; he thinks of his father, every time someone questions the integrity of Whitestone.

He thinks of them both as they tell him, be brave.

The woman growls, and he does not flinch. She doesn't do anything, just turns to his sister, and somehow that is harder to stay strong in the face of.

"What about you?" the woman hisses. "You gonna be more useful to us?"

He feels Leona's hand tighten around his before she says, "I've never used them in my life."

Wolfe swallows down a shocked noise, because yes the fuck she has. Leona was the first one of the twins to discover them - she'd been tailing Vesper through the halls, and turned a corner to find their older sister had disappeared. Leona used them far more than Wolfe did, even if it was mostly for traveling within the castle than getting out of it.

But if she was able to say that, bold-faced, then... she must have resisted the spell. Leona, with the lowest constitution out of all of the family, managed to resist the spell.

Holy shit.

The woman snarls again, but turns her ire to the cloaked figure instead. "Did your stupid fucking spell even work?"

"I - I knew I felt it catch, but I..." The cloaked figure pulls out the spell book again and hastily flips through it, ripping at least one page along the way.

He never gets a chance to find it; there's two arrows through his neck before he can, and his book falls to the ground only a second before he does. The woman barely has a chance to draw the crude-looking axe from behind her back before the crack of a gun fills the air, and her head bursts into a bright-red spray. Wolfe cringes back instinctively, and covers his face with his arm as well, but that's more to spare his own eyes from the gorey details.

Footsteps rush into the room, and Wolfe feels a gentle hand on his cheek - his mother's, from the uneven pattern of leather-covered and bare fingers, a signature of her archery gloves - and lowers his arm at her frantic voice calling his name.

She's kneeling in front of him, with her other hand a mirror on Leona's face, and Wolfe smiles in relief. He feels tears prick at his eyes when she sweeps a thumb across his cheekbone. "Hi, Mum," he chokes out, his throat thick with a building sob.

Leona echoes him, sounding similarly fragile, and their mother's face crumples into a shaky smile, her own eyes welling up with tears. "Hello, darlings."

Dad runs up just behind her, looking even more fraught than when Gwen had gone missing with one of his guns. "Are you two alright? Are you hurt?" He falls to his knees beside Mum, and Wolfe winces, thinking of his bad knee.

"We're fine, Dad," Leona says, her voice a little stronger. "I just can't fucking see."

Wolfe surprises himself with how loud he laughs. Maybe it's the stress of the situation, but something about Leona taking advantage of being actually fucking kidnapped to swear in front of their parents without consequences - because he knows they're going to be too relieved to have them back to lecture her, of course they are - just fucking breaks him.

Then Mum starts laughing too, and Dad looks at her the most bewildered Wolfe's ever seen, and that just makes him laugh even louder.

[waltwhitmansbeard]

24, Scanlan and Kaylie?

24. "Sit still. Let me sign your cast." ig i'm gonna set this in grow with the flow bc that's my modern au?

The waiting room smells like blood and bleach. The cracked plastic seats are uncomfortable as hell, and Scanlan's ass is too old to be sitting like this. Seriously, how long can it take to put a cast on?

(Alright, Scanlan actually has no idea how long it takes to put a cast on, because he wasn't there when Kaylie broke her arm falling from the monkey bars in the third grade. He takes a deep breath. Patience.)

Every ninety seconds, his phone buzzes with a new questioning text from his friends, but he doesn't read them. What's he going to say? He doesn't know how Kaylie is feeling, because she didn't want him in there while she got her X-rays done, and he doesn't know how he's feeling, because he doesn't know how he's allowed to be feeling. Does it make him a bad dad if he's grateful that Sybil is away on business at the moment, leaving him as the available emergency contact? (There are so many things that make him a bad dad.) He just stares at the muted TV up in the corner, watching some daytime host mediate manufactured drama between family members—a little too on-the-nose for the moment, but it's not like he picked it.

Finally, there's movement in the hall to the right, and Scanlan slides painfully from the chair to see his daughter, pink-haired and scowling, being wheeled in his direction, a haggard nurse pushing the chair from behind. Kaylie's expression doesn't change when she comes into earshot. "You didn't need to come."

Scanlan raises an eyebrow at the thick cast encompassing her leg from ankle to knee. "You broke your leg. Were you going to drive yourself home?"

"They invented these newfangled things called buses—"

"Mr. Shorthalt," the nurse interrupts, clearly exhausted, "if I could just get you to sign the release paperwork..."

"Right." Scanlan takes a clipboard from her, doesn't read it, and signs where it seems appropriate. "C'mon, Kaylie, let's get you home."

Kaylie opens her mouth to issue what Scanlan is sure to be a scathing retort, but then the nurse swears low under her breath. "I forgot her medication. Give me two minutes." And then she scurries back down the hall, leaving Scanlan and his daughter to each other's company.

Scanlan wheels her out of the way, sitting in another ass-punishing chair beside her. There is horrifically awkward silence between them for a few moments, then Scanlan says, "You know I broke my toe once kicking an amp?"

Kaylie side-eyes him. "Really?"

He shrugs. "Couldn't get the sound I wanted. Thought beating the amp into submission would help. The amp won that fight."

And he can see it, though she's clearly trying to hide it: the ghost of a smile on the corner of her mouth. "Better than falling off a stage in an attempt to knee-slide like a rock god."

"At least you did it in rehearsal and not during an actual show. I was playing this dive bar once and thought I could chug an entire pint during the bridge of this one song. Ended up puking on the front row."

There's a choked-off laugh in the back of Kaylie's throat that feels like the greatest victory Scanlan's ever managed. "Okay, that's...that's bad."

"You're telling me." He stands up, goes over to the front desk, and steals a Sharpie someone abandoned. When he returns to Kaylie, who's eying him skeptically, he says, "Sit still. Let me sign your cast."

He's expecting her to move just to fuck with him, but as he starts to scrawl over the hot pink plaster, she surprises him (always surprising him, this one) by keeping her leg still. When he's done, he straightens up. "There."

She twists her leg and her torso to get a better angle on what he's signed just below her knee. Nothing broken that isn't worth fixing. —Your #1 fan. There's a begrudging smile on her face as she looks at him. "Your handwriting is shit."

"So is your knee-sliding."

She gapes in offense, but before she can say anything, the nurse is back, orange bottle in hand and clearly eager to be rid of them both. Kaylie is helped into the back of Scanlan's car, and then they're off toward his place, where they're going to have to figure out together how to deal with a broken leg and all the years he's missed. He watches her in the rearview, falling asleep against the door with her leg stretched out across the seat, and yeah, okay, he's a bad dad, but fuck is he grateful for the chance to fix what he broke, one bone at a time.

[pocketgalaxies]

*cackles*, I've been waiting for you to get to this moment of the campaign - in all seriousness, are you doing alright? I know it's a pretty brutal backstory and Liam's acting during it is devastating ;;

i'm doing okay! i definitely knew a lot less than i thought i did but i knew it was Dark so anyway. it's all good but thank you for checking

[chaotic-on-main]

Hi! How about 4 and 27 for the writing ask game? :D

Akdjkahd HI! Thank you so much for sending an ask 😭 (also internally screaming that it's you specifically reaching out to me because I love your vox machina writings so much 😭 your Perc'ahlia gives me LIFE)

Hmm. This one is a very hard one lmao!! Feral is a good one for sure, not to steal that from the question. Chaos is a big one for me. In terms of descriptors (that are most def not just single words) I LOVE "narrowed eyes" and "pouty lips". There's something about them that is just chef's kiss. Maybe I could be cliche and say "love"? I just LOVE love. It makes me so warm. I have no idea, I think it just depends on the day and headspace.

This is going to sound so silly but literally all of them. I only write for Attack on Titan, Levi Ackerman specifically. And literally every single one of them, especially Levi, stresses me out. Because I'm always so afraid I'm going to get scrutinized for not writing his (or their) character(s) the way he "should be" which is silly because like yeah, I should write what I want to write and if they don't like it then they don't have to read it. But also it's like, that nagging feeling of what if NO ONE is into it. Then like, I won't be getting the outreach that I'm wanting with it? I wrote for myself but I'd be lying if I didn't say I didn't want people to read it and like, because otherwise why would I post it, yanno? Anyways that's a long ramble and I don't know if any of it made sense, but I'm always stressed about any character I write. 😅

[kmackatie]

😈🙂📚 for the fanfic ask game?

hello! thanks for the questions!

(ask me a fanfic writer ask the sequel)

😈 Is there anything you enjoy doing that you think your readers hate?

I really hope my readers don't hate any of what I'm doing, and more so because life is short and there are better things to be doing than reading fic you hate! But in a softer context, I know I am stretching out some tropes for effect at the moment, but hopefully that is more enjoyable than not!

🌝 Who is one character you haven’t yet written for that you would like to?

Oooh interesting, I think I've written for most main C2 characters though not necessarily from their perspectives. It would be interesting to step into another pov and see how that would work? I'm not sure I have any ideas where it would work for though. Similar, I also haven't tackled any of the outer NPC's - Da'leth, Ikithon, Yussa, Marion, etc - it could be fun to work them into a fic somewhere!

📚 Do you read your own fic?

I do! I write first and foremost for myself, and I do enjoy going back and rereading some of my work when I get the chance to. It's also nice to go back and see where you've improved and how it's changed over time.

[piratespencil]

!! 👻🤖🎁?

👻 What is your wildest headcanon?

Idk if it's my wildest headcanon but here's one I've been thinking about (and sort of picking away at writing a fic about) for a while now: When Luc is a teenager, he decides that he wants to go to the Soltryce Academy, because he's grown up learning magic from Caleb and Essek and Veth, and magic is cool. And even though Caleb teaches there and recognizes that Luc isn't going to go through the same things he went through, it still makes both Caleb and Veth panic and Luc almost has to run away from home to sneak into the school before Yeza manages to calm Caleb and Veth down and convince them to let him go... Luc is talented but also an Absolute Menace at school lmao.

🤖 Are non-fandom friends aware that you write fanfic?

Lol yes... I have no shame when it comes to telling people that I write fanfic haha.

🎁 Have a piece of a WIP you want to share?

Here's a little sneak preview of the next chapter of my Bell's Hells modern au. ;)

“And I had to get another twelve stitches here,” Laudna says cheerfully, flipping her long hair forwards and leaning over to give Opal a clear look at the long, crooked scar that winds from the back of her skull down her neck.

“Whoa, that’s gnarly!” Opal says, equally cheerfully. Dariax leans over her shoulder to get a better view and whistles appreciatively.

“Scootch over,” Ashton says, and Laudna obliges, her hair still flipped over her face like she’s the girl from The Ring. Ashton hands her the drink he fetched for her, and she somehow manages to take a sip behind her curtain of hair.

“Fuck, I leave for one minute to grab drinks and I come back to you spilling your life horror story to these guys?” Ashton asks.

Laudna shakes her hair out of her eyes enough to grin at him and says, “Well, they asked!”

(Ask me more fanfic questions?)

[sun-critrole]

Fighter, Paladin(second one), Cleric?

Fighter: what is your favorite funny moment

The first one that comes to mind is Fjord getting a nat one three times in a row at a carnival game in c2. The dice are sometimes the most hilarious.

Second paladin: what is your favorite badass moment

Keyleth as an elemental is on my mind, as well as no mercy Percy. Caleb and Essek giving the party the equivalent of a long rest while in Aeor! That was a great one.

Cleric: what is your favorite battle

Hands down, the end of c1 Vecna fight. Sometimes I rewatch it just to feel every possible emotion.

[lumiereandcogsworth]

5, 19, 27, 30? :o

5. what work of yours got more feedback than you expected? frankly i never expect any feedback, since this fandom is so itty bitty. so when i do i’m like wow!! my fics exist in the public eye!! but definitely blossoms bloom and light shines through. it’s chaptered and i had a couple readers who were actually engaged with each update, commenting and being excited and just reacting the way i was hoping they would :”) it made posting each chapter so much more exciting and i’m thankful that fic came to me. and since YOU’RE asking, i’ll tell you that i got the idea for that fic based on another fic involving percy and gwennie 🥺 it’s about the fathers with the harsh pasts and their sweet curious daughters, your honor 🤌 (the fic is linked in my fic’s intro notes, if you want to see it haha)

19. what’s one pairing you want to explore next year? look, i’ve been on the adam and belle train for nearly six years. if i write for another pairing it’s a wild occurrence. obviously i love percy/vex a great deal, so it would be a very fun thing for me to write for them. however, i don’t expect to haha. but never say never i guess!!

27. what do you listen to while writing? nothing <3 my brain is programmed in such a way where most background noise and music is entirely distracting. it’s as if i’m trying to listen to someone talk to me in a crowded room — possible but frustrating. so when i write i usually just have a fan on for white noise.

30. biggest surprise while writing this year? the sheer magnitude of how much i wrote and posted. i actually had a goal back in january that i wanted to write and post something new each month. didn’t have any word count requirement, just had to be newly written that month and posted in the same month. and i’ve thus far maintained my goal!!! some months i only posted one thing, others got a handful of goods. i still have december to go of course but i’m proud of myself for doing that :)

[utilitycaster]

For the ask game, how about Astrid Becke?

First impression: I would have to look through my archives but I think I was like oh yeah vollstrucker is like a fucking cult huh.

Impression now: at least as of 837 PD she seemed to be doing pretty well! Interested to see what she's doing in 843 PD; see rest of the post for more.

Favorite moment: alley mental breakdown. we've all been there.

Idea for a story: I'd read about her and Eadwulf's time in Eiselcross trying to track the Nein tbh; I've written some Astrid and Eadwulf stuff and it's always like, their perspective of fairly concurrent events, but I never wrote that.

Unpopular opinion: I have zero interest in 836 PD Blumentrio as a romantic/sexual relationship. I think Astrid and Eadwulf are together but Caleb has simply changed too much and his story is about moving on from all the pasts that were. I don't know if this is unpopular though, I suspect most blumentrio stuff is set during their student days.

Favorite relationship: that said she and Caleb do have a fascinating 836 PD relationship going on.

Favorite headcanon: I think she is currently a. freaking out that magic is breaking, b. freaking out about the implications for Caleb and anyone else involved, and c. regardless, trying to figure out how to become head of the Cerberus Assembly despite being the second most junior member.

[essayofthoughts]

An appropriate prompt: moving! Moving the kids to the castle, or Percy slowwwwly moving into Vex's manor, or early VM moving into Greyskull and the arguments/discussion included.

The thing is, I think Percy moving into Vex's manor probably went rather as one falls asleep, or indeed, as his falling in love with her did - slowly and then all at once. It probably started with a spare change of clothes, and maybe a spare set of tools, and then more changes of clothes, and then mysteriously most of his books, added to Vex's library because she wanted a good library, obviously, no other reason, and before he knows it, he's all moved in at Vex's and only a few weeks ago it'd only been a spare change of clothes or two.

Oops.

Meanwhile the moving out I think takes a lot of hemming and hawing. Until told otherwise, I hold to the headcanon that the move was precipitated by some kind of an attempt on Gwen's life, and that they move to the castle for security reasons, but I also think that not only does Percy have his own complex feelings and misgivings (the castle is where the majority of his family was killed, even if Cass still lives there (alone) and would appreciate the company, and it'd mean leaving Vex's manor! Vex's manor! That he gave her! So she always had a home!) but some of the children probably don't like the move either, even if they understand it's for Gwen's safety - and in the case of the younger ones who don't fully understand that given I think this would probably happen when Gwen was still a baby especially! - and I think that makes things tricky.

I know there's debates as to Percy's neurodivergency and whether it's pre-existing or due to trauma or a combination but at the end of the day I think we can all accept he likes his scripts and knowing how things'll be, what to expect - and I think it's very likely some of the kids inherited this too. So for the kids, the sudden change of leaving home, the home they've always known, for the castle and yes it's Auntie Cass' castle and yes it's familiar and almost home but it's not home, and the manor isn't being entirely moved from, a lot of furnishings will stay for use for the Hunt, so what if this means leaving their comfy cosy bed they dribbled snot all over, or the chair they carved their initials on, what about their hidden stash of sweets behind the skirting board Trinket cracked with a claw, what if they lose their blankie?

And- well. The manor means a lot to Vex too, but I think she can set that aside if it's for the safety of her children. I think the worse for Vex is how upset the children are at the idea of the move, because she's been there too. She was dragged to Syngorn with no care for her or Vax's wishes, she knows exactly how it feels to have one's wishes go utterly unheeded because Grown-Ups Know Best.

I think she probably takes pains to explain to them why it's necessary and no, the manor will still be there, if there's a furniture piece you want to take, we can take it; if you lose your blankie, Trinket will find it, it's okay, you can still visit.

I think it's a very stressful period and I think they're all very relieved once it's over.

[jadequarze]

The fact the de Rolo kids should be teens at the very youngest (unless they had a sixth), with Vesper being in her 30s, should help reduce the odds of Percy blastin' - some might even be moved out, which should reduce the odds of 'what do you MEAN a Briarwood is indirectly near my family again???'. I've thought about it a lot and I'm fairly optimistic - so long as Percy has Pike, Keyleth or Vex running interference he should do alright. Though if Fearne asks for a gun for Mister he might get huffy, lmao

I'm personally hoping to see Cassandra - because she and Laudna were both manipulated by Delilah for years and used as tools by her. Cass might have even met Laudna when she was in the castle for dinner, they’re close in age. They even have matching lil trauma hair ;;

It's been 3 decades and he might've mellowed down. Keyleth being there too, his most trusted best friend, will help ease it. Oh, Percy is definitely going to have a huff about it from the way Tal reacts to Ashley's suggestion of lil Mister having a gun.

Im here for Cass and Laudna interaction too! Cass feeling guilty when she sees Laudna, the lost daughter of Whitestone, who is now used as a vessel to the very woman who destroyed the lives of people of Whitestone. The tense convo they might have. And knowing tht Delilah is listening in. This episode stopped at just the right moment

[rightpastnowhere]

MORE. FOR U

Ok ok ok we all collectively will not shut up about how Percy is endeared by Vex's ears, right? well UNO REVERSE CARD! His lil round human ears are so fucking cute to Vex. It's also very funny for her to parse out how sensitive they are vs half-elven or elven ears.

In modern AUs their taste in music seems very different at a glance but meshes SUPER well. Percy is rocking to MCR and anime intros and Fallout Boy and old rock'n'roll (that his dad and Julius loved), Vex is grinding to pop and country, and everyone is like 'surely not' until they pull up to give Pike a ride and are just blasting a Taylor Swift song together (she joins in obviously). Or on a train sharing earbuds and the poor folks the next seats over can hear Monster by Skillet from there and these two are mouthing along and sharing Dramatic Looks.

Trinket keeps bringing cubs home. He's a male bear, bears don't raise cubs in pairs (males don't participate at ALL), but he's a Ranger companion and lives as long as Vex does. And given he's a fit specimen he's probably the sire of a lot of cubs in the area (Vex and the Grey Hunt have got to watch out for inbreeding effects KJTRNHRKN). So every now and then he'll find a hurt or abandoned or sick cub and bring it back, and Vex nurses it back to health (and Dan too), and suddenly they Have Another Bear. Oh Dear. Sometimes Vex and Trinket make a conscious effort to train the cubs to live in the wild and release them a ways away once they're old enough, but the three bears we see in C3 is Only The Beginning.

The first time Percy tried really growing a beard, Vesper made Unhappy Faces when he'd give her kisses and in a fit he shaved it all off. He needed some talking-tos about it. His baby girl was SO upset and it make HIM upset OKAY -

It's advised that guests do not wander the halls of Castle Whitestone alone at night. They assume, naturally, that this is due to Ghosts or Restless Spirits - no the de Rolos are just. like that. Cass would rather everyone avoid the trauma of hearing them having a good time. Also the kids' darkvision means they have shining pupils if light hits them in the dark and someone fell down the stairs once so there's that too.

Percy fucking agonizes over blue now. Getting a gift to match Vex's feather takes up at least 3-12 hours of a given project. At this point he has custom paints mixed for it and will scour stalls and shops for gems of the right turquoise.

He also owns way more fur than he'd expect, because Vex is a ranger and can at least make a decent muffler or trim for mittens or ruff for his winter coat out of some of her more impressive catches. His favorite, though, is a tiny fur thing that's badly worn. Vex insists it's a bird. *it does not look like a bird,* it looks like a pointed rock with two bead eyes. It was the first thing she tried making him and it, well, it didn't come out as she'd expected. He still stims with it often, it practically lives in his pocket - like she was in Pandemonium, when VM were transformed into birds. She says she hates it, but his earnest adoration for this little silly thing she made really makes Vex so damn happy.

OH MY GOD SHE WOULD LOVE HIS EARS,,, HIS LIL ROUNDED EARS,,, SO SOFT N ROUND,,,,,,,, OMG

YOUR MUSIC TASTES FOR THEM ARE SO IN LINE WITH WHAT'S IN MY HEAD NGKJRNGK. vex imo has the most chaotic playlists because there's just one for all of her music. it switches from lizzo to mumford & sons without rhyme nor reason. and they WOULD be taylor swift stans with pike i LOVE THIS. AND GOD,, THE MENTAL IMAGE OF HER AND PERCY DRAMATICALLY LIP-SYNCING LIKE HUGE NERDS..... MY CROPS ARE WATERED. MY SKIN IS CLEAR

THIS IS ONLY THE BEGINNING NGKJRNKJGNR i simply think vex deserves an entire legion of bears who love her, and many of them on the castle grounds. only the best for the grand mistress of bears. (trinket mimicking vex's adopting behavior is SO CUTE I'M GONNA CRY)

percy upsets his baby One Time and suddenly he must change everything about himself. i love him so much i cannot stand it

NKGJNKJENG the de rolos fuck nasty and it is a burden upon those who think themselves to be fearless... my heart goes out to the unlucky few who dare. ALSO THE FUCKING. QUARTER ELVES. JUST LIKE A BUNCH OF CATS IN THE KITCHEN AT 2AM WHEN YOU WANT A SNACK. IS PERFECTION.

GERKGNERJN percy will do anything to maintain his wife's aesthetic

VEX CRAFTING HIM THINGS...... PERCY KEEPING HER FIRST LIL BAUBLE BECAUSE HE LOVES HER................ STIMMING WITH IT CAUSE IT'S SOFT................................ picturing vex finding out and endeavoring to acquire so many soft things, making him a bunch more knick-knacks once she's better at it, wearing soft clothes, just, oh my GOD she loves him SO MUCH

thank you again for this absolute unfathomable joy, i squeaked out loud at least 3 times, i am full of serotonin once more