#caleb/lucien

[seizethegrey]

[Part 3 of the "Trouble Comes Running" series, after "Mistakes Were Made" and "Mistakes Don't Make You."]

Caleb purses his lips. “Essek's tower was the first of his many ambitious and successful arcane projects. It seems that the only way to bring the more organic aspects of the tower was for Essek to invest his own consciousness in the process. While I cannot imagine what it must feel like from your perspective, the magical fact of the matter is that here in this place, he is always present.”

“That explains a lot,” Lucien mutters. "Shit. Minds can be changed by force in adulthood—but that has a specific feel to it. This is different; it feels organic, which is a sure sign he grew up like this.”

Caleb is fascinated. “That is certainly possible. He is a true prodigy, the most talented mage I have had the privilege of meeting. I have always had so many questions about his bond with this place, but he does not share much about the tower. What is it like?”

"He feels different than he did in Kostheim. His presence here is altered, or maybe my perception of his presence and the tower’s presence is muddled up together.”

“He is a complicated man; here in this place, he is even more so.” He gives Lucien a stern look. “Perhaps you now understand why it is so unnerving for him to have us here."

@antiva-flowers @umbrafire26 @codesculptor

[nerdylizard5]

Mighty Nein: Nonagon

Sometimes wild inspiration hits as you’re falling asleep and make a note on your phone and then spend 8 hours over 2 days completing the piece. My subconscious is better than my conscious at art ideas. So enjoy this Critical Role Mighty Nein art I completed last night!

(Prints)

[fra4tas]

[mekhartist]

Two of my fanarts that got featured in C2 back in 2020!!

Still proud of them

[itseghost]

i have been steadily catching up with the mighty nein campaign the past few weeks after i fell off right around travelercon arc a few years ago.... i am ENTRANCED AGAIN and i have been doodling them while i put off thesis film work..

[mini-minish]

cheated a little bit on that color wheel challenge bc i wanted to get them all together 🥺

[tatersdoesstuff]

♟️Empire Pawns♟️

a silly thought experiment/au on how a traitorous shadowhand, a leashed attack dog, a desperate alchemist, and an underpaid mercenary may meet differently through a series of unfortunate circumstance and timeline fuckery

[ashisafriedpickle]

No matter how much this is talked about we never talk about it enough.

[ludinusdaleth]

absolutely out of my mind obsessed. OBSESSED. with liliana always saying "he" and, even if we know it's ludinus, never saying his name and obfuscating him with predathos, these two pillars of limitless power & incredible cruelty that chain her, stronger than her, in her own words. how he needs her. how he admires & values & even in some way adores her, and maybe more. how she's pulled ludinus back from the very edge. her trying to change him, and zerxus 1000 years ago trying to change asmodeus and jester trying to change artagan and caleb trying to change essek and the m9 trying to change lucien and opal trying to change lolth, and imogen, trying to change her own mother. this cycle of desperate belief in redemption that can succeed or fail, the coin that hasnt landed on a side yet. how that's freedom for some. how that's a whip, a martinet on the back of the reformer for others. the belief in set fate vs the vanguard belief in changing destiny. generation upon generation of hope & abuse that can so easily become one or the other or both at once for eon upon eon. how the gods who created these mortals who seek any glint of kindness desperately wish, in this moment, for redemption themselves. "to reach a hand down to somebody, they need to be beneath you". but the gods are in the sky. and their saviors are on a lonely planet & lonelier moon, locked together by a cycle of violence & desperation started by them so long ago.

[hemisphaericas]

sketchdumpings of things i'm never going to finish probably - threeleafs, some characters i haven't really drawn before (vax, cassandra, kiri, orly), that shadowgast with the volstrucker scene, and some caleb face studies across the timeline of C2.

[offbeatworlds]

The Mighty Nein is returning tonight! I'm so excited!

My Mighty Nein fanart - find print here

[seizethegrey]

The maid leads Caleb to enter a softly-lit parlor decorated in red, white, and gold. She says something to him, but while he thanks her, he doesn’t really hear her. There are other people in the room, every one of whom is worth a good once-over, and a bevy of invaluable art pieces on display, but Caleb can see only one thing.

Lucien is sitting in a baroque Marquesian armchair of red and gold, speaking to a handsome drow couple that Caleb doesn’t spare a second glance. Lucien’s hair is swept up on top of his head, his horns adorned with golden bands set with rows of tiny jewels. He is attired in a floor-length dress of red and black brocade that would for all intents be a stately, high-collared affair had it not been altered to leave a wide slit open from collarbone to navel, affording Caleb a tantalizing peek at Lucien’s lithe, scarred chest. The throat is cinched with a comely pearl choker. Ornate black high-heeled shoes can just be glimpsed under the ponderous folds of silk and satin. 

As Caleb steps into the room, mouth dry, heart racing, Lucien glances up. His eyes widen, and Caleb flushes when he sees Lucien give him a long up-and-down look followed by a coy smile. Caleb doesn’t want to risk being too demonstrative and calling attention to their closeness, but he smiles back, hoping that will be enough until he can politely maneuver closer.

Good evening, love, Lucien’s voice says in his mind.

[Thanks as always to Naya, Code, and everyone who gave ideas and feedback for this fic. @antiva-flowers @umbrafire26 @Code @ kal.]

[c-kiddo]

was worried parts of cr2 would not hold up on rewatch (especially seeing people hate the aeor arc so much) but ngl so far its either been good and fun as hell (travellercon, pirate arc) or just straight up banger after banger. like the xhorhas to angel of irons through to refjorged arc and then the cathedral.................. unrelenting slay

[fra4tas]

WIP

It looks like Caleb is surrounded...

[demisexualemmaswan]

i've seen so many complaints that like it's not fair that m9 has to go fight the weave mind, it has nothing to do with them,

have we considered the possibility that weavemind is directly tied to the creation and abilities of the somnovum and that’s why the eyes of nine were red cuz they’re actually Ruidian

I just don’t think Matt would give the M9 a fight that wasn’t as narratively satisfying as VM freeing Vax (potentially) at the Malleus Key Also! Fun fact! Som is the Latin prefix for dream! Who has been big on dreams? The Ruidians

[dent-de-leon]

I could be wrong, but--just thinking about how the twins assumed it was obvious Mollymauk was heading to a brothel. How he clearly knows that, lets them believe that--"I know what the others think, but..." And all this time when he sneaks out in the dead of night, he's really playing the hero, running off to protect someone in need.

And just, I don't know. I think about how Mollymauk was so devoted to Lestera, and we never see him actually indulge in a relationship with anyone else in the comic. How he's still so lonely, and tells Yasha so in a moment of vulnerability--when she catches him in the midst of Choir Practice, this side of him he doesn't let anyone else see. He admits to her that, "The world is harsh and cruel, and I don't seem to be able to just walk on by. You see a wrong? You fix it."

And then when Yasha says she'll stay with him, help him, that's when Molly lets a bit more of his true feelings bleed through. "Suppose I could use the company. I am recently out of a relationship the hard way..." He lets it play off like a joke, but it's incredibly sad and personal. I've lost someone too, he says. I'm lonely too. He doesn't quite know what Yasha's been through, but he can feel the kind of grief and pain she carries. Knows enough to know she's also been dealt a harsh loss, that they both know what it means to feel Empty and lonely.

Thinking about. Molly being a tease and a flirt, but never seeming to commit. Jester listening in on his antics in the Pillow Trove, and Taliesin saying, "It's mostly ridiculous conversation through this whole thing."

Thinking about Caleb and Fjord watching Molly flirt in Hupperdook, both of them assuming he'll run off to have some fun for the night.

Travis: "I turn to Caleb and go, 'I think I may be regretting my roommate choice for the night. It's just a hunch. I think he's in his element.'"

Liam: "Well, the odds are that you're not even going to see him in your room tonight, so I wouldn't worry about it so much."

Travis: "You think? He'll just like, tear off into the night and not come back until the sun comes up?"

Liam: "He's like a coyote. You know what that is?...Yeah, they like to fuck a lot, is my point--"

And they're being ridiculous and half joking, and Molly happily encourages it, but--it still feels like how Mollymauk lets the twins make assumptions. Like the most he does is a bit of playful teasing and some charming words. At the end of the night, he's still back in his room with Fjord--carrying Fjord to their room, because the poor guy's passed out drunk.

Thinking about how Lucien's personality was another facet of Molly's, how they can both be so silver-tongued and disarmingly charming. How Lucien cared for his late lover so much, and how he never found another partner. (He still flirts with Caleb though. Molly's still a part of him, so of course he does. But that is something Lucien also tries to keep his distance from, to keep fun and teasing. Trying so hard not to think about how the forehead kiss Molly gave his wizard feels far too much like his own goodbye to his fallen partner--)

And Mollymauk absolutely having those feelings for his magician. Those feelings ever enduring, even after Lucien, even after another death and rebirth. "Oh, you're cute, Magic Man--" And even then, Molly never actually gets to take that chance. To tell Caleb how he feels. It means something, I think, that he becomes bolder and more forward with his wizard when he wakes as Kingsley. No longer carrying his past lives' loss and grief and painful memories.

I think that's where Molly was always headed, honestly. There's so many parallels to how both Molly and Yasha lost their partner before the campaign, how they each try to cope with that in their own way. And, like how Yasha eventually opened up to Beau, eventually healed to the point where she was willing to start another relationship--I think Molly was gradually warming to that point with Caleb.

Realizing there was someone else he wanted to let into his heart, that he could find happiness again and it would be what Lestera would have wanted. It also seems like Molly was holding himself back from that a bit because he felt Caleb wasn't ready; still so withdrawn and closed off, not yet ready for the pain and vulnerability of another relationship. But, he wants to wait. For Caleb, he's willing to wait. For lifetime after lifetime. And that to me is the proof that Lestera and Caleb were Molly's only true loves, I think. Aside from dear Yasha, of course--his kindred spirit, platonic soulmate--

But romantically, I don't think he ever gave his whole heart to anyone the way he did for them. It speaks volumes to me, that when King wakes with little to no memories, it's still Lestera and Caleb his heart longs for. When he dreams of the circus, he immediately starts asking about her, over and over, "There was a--oh. There was a circus. And a...a beautiful woman, in a red coat. She was telling me secrets, showing me how to keep secrets. Show secrets--I...Where's the woman? No, not her...where's the woman--"

Thinking about how Kingsley still woke with feelings for Caleb too. Immediately told him he was cute, started biting his lip. Can't help flirting even in their last scene together, "Magic Man. Looking good." How Caleb was someone Molly ached for even when Lucien had his soul caged and tormented, "Caleb. Softness and light."

Like, I could be wrong, but. I don't know. I just don't think Molly had quite as much relationship experience that everyone imagined. And instead of having a string of lovers, it feels more like he just liked to give the illusion of it. A romantic who loved with his whole heart, and only really gave it to a close few--