#m9 aeor arc my beloved

[nat1nonsense]

Watching exu: calamity and being obsessed with the lore and history inevitably leads to a moment of thinking “oh. Now I understand why Caleb and Essek were like that”

[widogastc]

two massive character progressions that fascinate me to no end are caleb going from "i will let you all to die before i face my past, i am petrified in it" to "i will look at my abuser in the face and ask for his help if it means we get to live through this" vs jester going from "my bestest of friends is a god, im 100% positive he won't let anything too bad happen to me" to "i am making sure my last memory of my mother and father are of their intertwined voices and not the empty promise i made of surviving this". rent free on my mind , keeps me up at night

[circuslollipop]

Jester and Essek?

JESTER:

Why I like them: ksdjhf where do i BEGIN. she's that one character who was INSTANTLY my favorite; i fell in love with her voice, her demeanor, her personality, everything! but i also love her and relate to her on a deeper level--how she's seen as less mature because of her likes and hobbies, how she represses her negative emotions for fear of making other people hurt or uncomfortable, growing up isolated. also i really love her creativity and her growth from someone sheltered to someone with a bit more worldly experience who takes initiative, but in that growth she never lets go of her love for unicorns or fairy tales or the color pink or her joy and kindness and belief in the best of people! i love her so much

Why I don’t: literally nothing i can put here she's great

Favorite scene: the tarot reading on lucien that was INCREDIBLE

Favorite season/movie: i cant pick a favorite arc w her shes great all the time!!

Favorite line: "something must end for something new to begin" but also "let chaos reign"

Favorite outfit: ALL OF THEM but if we're going by purely official art then her xhorhas outfit. but if we look at my tweaks to the outfits then the winter one becomes my favorite

OTP: JESTERMAUK but i also ship her with beau, yasha, and calianna

Brotp: jester essek besties for the win also team cleric good

Head Canon: bi grayro/grayce jester my beloved

Unpopular opinion: kinda wish we got more time for jester introspection/inner conflict in the travelercon arc? it got kinda wrapped up pretty neatly and i do wish we could've gotten more conflict. i do like that her friendship w artagan was reaffirmed in the end, but idk i do wish there were some more challenges thrown her way in that regard and that would make it all the more satisfying to see her rise above it all and fight for her beliefs and win in the end. also ngl some of the shipping discourse i see is Weird and im just gonna leave it at that. also there's more to jester's humor than d!ck jokes and i kinda don't like how one-note it all started to become in the later episodes

A wish: continuing from the first point in the unpopular opinion section, would have LOVED to see the timeline where the traveler actually was taken to the feywild and jester turned to the moonweaver for help. while her faith in artagan is definitely strong in canon i feel like that kind of arc would have made her faith feel even STRONGER. also i wanna see her feywild adventures

An oh-god-please-dont-ever-happen: please don't let her """mature""" out of her hobbies and interests let her become a little old lady who still loves unicorns and stories and pink

5 words to best describe them: chaotic, vibrant, joyful, strong, lively

My nickname for them: another canon nickname but i do call her jessie or jes sometimes

ESSEK:

Why I like them: oh golly gee ANOTHER character i relate to! gifted kid burnout syndrome my beloathed. mainly the experience of being considered a prodigy early in life and then expected to preform to that standard every time. also i LOVE essek's arc and his character development, he grew from someone cold and isolating to someone who cries over a person he didn't even know (mollymauk) and all that growth was SO satisfying to watch. easily my favorite character arc

Why I don’t: n/a

Favorite episode (scene if movie): episode 91 was SO GOOD

Favorite season/movie: despite being a Molly Stan, essek was easily my favorite part of the aeor arc! (mostly bc the molly and lucien stuff made me stressed and emotional while watching; essek was nothing but satisfying to watch) anyway i loved being able to see that growth in real time!

Favorite line: "it's not fair" AAAH the heartbreak and also i cant remember any other essek lines atm RIP

Favorite outfit: out of all the different interpretations of his mantle i do like the munchkin interpretation (aka kyotosparty's) the best!

OTP: SHADOWGAST but i do also like shadowmauk

Brotp: jester essek besties

Head Canon: short essek fave essek

Unpopular opinion: i dont think i have one?

A wish: if the m9 ever get an animated series, i hope essek gets more lines and more chances to give his input once they get to the aeor arc! i understand that matt was juggling SO MUCH at the time so i def see why it didn't happen during the actual show. also i would love to see more adventuring essek as well as an origins comic

An oh-god-please-dont-ever-happen: that after the m9 are all gone, that he doesn't ever find happiness again and slips back into loneliness. i would like to think he's able to find more friends, more adventures, and more love while still honoring his old ones, and he's able to live a long and happy life

5 words to best describe them: complex, relatable, flawed, hopeful, ninth

My nickname for them: i dont have one for him i dont think

[potatoesandsunshine]

Campaign 2 Wrap Up: Anna Potatoesandsunshine Edition

Seemed like it would be fun to go through all the fan content I made for this campaign and try to find at least one thing I like about each thing! Kind of like looking back through a photo album. Under the cut because as it turns out, I wrote kind of a lot! (As in, 21 fics and 3 playlists kind of a lot!)

the sea, once it casts its spell (fjord speculation, what’s up with all this ocean stuff?? the fic)

The first thing I wrote for c2, wayyy in the beginning of things. We had no idea about Uk’otoa or Avantika or anyone at this point, it was pure ocean vibes for my favorite warlock. I really like how hard I leaned in on the “the ocean follows Fjord to land” idea.

so many things will fill my life (but only one will do) (post-campaign cali/jester fluff, written the night of the cali episode and so sweet it could rot your teeth)

This one is just good. I just did good with this one. I’m one of those people who hates their own work the night of posting and then when looking back at it goes, “Wow, this is great.” My favorite thing is the little gifts sent along with the letters! Cali was so fun and cute :)

when the dust does roam (Beau study up to Episode 42, 2k words of Beau poking at the idea of grief)

Best thing I did in this fic was have Caleb-through-Frumpkin bugging Beau about getting some sleep. They really... they’re siblings, your honor. 

“  “Fuck off, I’ll sleep when I’m dead.” Beau picks the bird up and sets him in the hood of her own cloak, out of reach of any weasels or startled monks in the morning. It’d suck to have to tell Caleb that his Frumpkin got eaten by Sprinkle.” C’mon guys, let’s do the sibling dance.

keep your swords out by your sides (the idea for this was, What If Fjord Has Nightmares From Uk’otoa Every Night and just doesn’t remember them)

Assigning everybody a word Uk’otoa had said for each nightmare in this was a challenge; I went into it knowing I wanted Caleb for Learn and Caduceus for Consume and had to guess the rest - for an angry eye snake Uk’otoa didn’t give us a ton of quotes. 

“ He reaches over and runs a hand along the wall of the ship. From his touch, mushrooms begin sprouting.” Caduceus starting to decompose the Mistake in the middle of cooking was maybe the best moment in this story for me. Like, yeah. Yeah. Ok you funky little grave cleric.

strange but not a stranger (Caleb & Jester, in the immediate aftermath of Caleb’s charm in Episode 55)

the first of my “the Mighty Nein won’t have these conversations with each other in canon so they have to be had in fic” ideas that turned into a full-fledged story. I still had not discovered the em dash at this point, so the formatting of this makes me cringe a little bit, but this fic was really about The Emotions Of Being Out Of Control which turned out to be a very big Thing for the Mighty Nein.

now this story was when swords were humble (fake academia mixed with a Yasha study)

Honestly I’m still obsessed with the AU I made here where Yasha was just awakening every sword she used without knowing it?? Why did I use that here only?? That might come back. But the best part about this fic is the citations; me at my most in-joke and ridiculous.

through the teeth of this tempest (Written in the immediate aftermath of Episode 69, Yasha internally trying to break Obann’s control over the course of a month.)

The most “I wrote this to cope with canon” fic out of all of them. I was crying writing this, I was so upset that Yasha was gone ugh just remembering it. Still waiting for past me to discover the em dash, I genuinely don’t know why I didn’t know how to do it and I’ve thought about going back and editing all of these but I’m just Not Gonna Do All That. Anyway, I really like how Yasha catches lightning with her sword in this. We all really manifested that happening.

nothing more than what the losers settle for (Time travel, a series of oneshots where each member of the m9 sans Caduceus went back to a different point in the timeline and murdered Trent Ikithon)

This was my longest fic for c2, so I’m mostly just glad it got finished. This happened somewhere around the time Matt released that set of notes that mentioned Trent in more detail and I hated him so much I just had to write him dying six times. That speaks for itself.

Revolutionary!Fjord was also a good turn. He could pull it off, I think.

we’re gonna show ‘em a thing, or two, or three (Jester growing up fluff!)

I really like how I did Jester & Artagan in this, even though he barely appears. Someone better at songwriting than me please write the Dragon Song. Em dash makes an appearance here but the formatting is still wrong. I Am Once Again Asking For Proper Use Of The Em Dash.

the best things (happen while you’re dancing) (Mid-Episode 97 Divergence, Jester taking the reins at the party + hints of jester/beau/yasha bc i still love my girls so much)

Jester’s a little out of character in this, but not wildly so, and it was for the purposes of a Trapped By Societal Convention plot that I wanted her to mastermind so I think it was fine in the end. I’m still fascinated by the way she unbalanced Ludinus Da’leth in basically every interaction they had, and while their scene feels pretty cliche in this... the cliches are there for a reason. They’re so fun to write.

Em dash my beloved, there you are.

plus thirty-one varieties of sacramental wine (The Galavant crossover that truly nobody asked for, Beau + the monks)

Yeah, this one’s just fun. Not much more to say about it. Critical Role and Galavant are both fantasy, but they’re honestly pretty different in tone, and it was fun to write Beau dropped into a comedy musical.

oh we were sea-bound and aimless at best (Purely angst, a What If The Fjord & Orly Resurrections Didn’t Work fic)

Made myself care about Marius with this one, y’all. What more can I say? Beau having to go from first mate to captain was just... deliciously painful, because she would.

lost my shape trying to act casual (Beau & Yasha during travelercon, another mid-episode fic, this time of 104)

Yasha comforting Beau, who feels guilty for not feeling guilty... That Mighty Nein wasn’t lying, Mind Control and Autonomy can be themes. Another in the  “the Mighty Nein won’t have these conversations with each other in canon so they have to be had in fic” tank. They really just... didn’t open up to each other for a long time, which made sense, but I wanted them to.

so long as you don’t mind a little dying (Beau & Caduceus, sometime in the peace talks arc)

Keeping with the Mighty Nein Please Talk To Each Other theme, I feel like I did a pretty good job with the late-night conversation energy of this fic. This was at a time when I was looking at Caduceus, can opener in hand, ready to make this firbolg open up about his feelings. Beau in this is prickly and confrontational but only in service of her friend’s well-being.

amber light, bending (Eiselcross speculation, Widofjord and all the messiness therein)

THE widofjord fic of my two widofjord fics. The blueprint. The better one. Finally I got the dynamic figured out. I maintain that the tower is an absolute expression of Caleb’s love for his friends. The way that neither of them have the braincell in this fic... yeah this one is just good.

and a blade between them (Widofjord happening... sometime.)

Okay so this is not as good as amber light and I will never be able to look at it and like it as much, but it was still fun to write. Anyway, the intimacy of shaving someone else. That is good. The tag “if they didn’t want me to think about the blood pact they shouldn’t have made the blood pact” is the most useful takeaway from this fic and is the driving force behind the Fjord/Jester/Caleb fic I’m working on now, so it wasn’t a waste of time or anything.

feel the ground beneath my feet turn into the sky (Post-Campaign Astrid-retires-to-Nicodranas, Astrid/Jester)

This is another one where I’m like “Yeah, this is just good.” Packed full of Wizard Fashion, Artagan making an appearance to rope Astrid into having a happier future, and the power of Going To The Seaside. Good for you, fic-Astrid.

spend your days biting your own neck (Role-reversal where Beau is the one mind-controlled this time and Yasha is the one chasing after her, set very early in the Tomb Takers arc)

So much of this fic is about not saying things aloud - Beau’s POV spends a good chunk on body language and Yasha writes multiple letters on paper and in her own head - but devotion bleeding through anyway because there’s nowhere else for it to go. The two of them go tumbling over a cliff together at the end but Yasha has wings, ugh. Yeah this was a good one.

and blow the dry leaves from the tree (Somewhere before the beauyasha date but otherwise timeline-nonspecific Nicodranas, Yasha & Yeza become friends)

Yasha & Yeza making pancakes together when neither of them know how to do so... is good. This fic is very much about grief sneaking in, but it’s even more about finding someone to share the moment with you. I think these two have more in common than we think.

oh, lend a mending hand (Caleb & Caduceus during Beau’s tombstone meditation in Episode 130)

I wrote this entire fic as an excuse for Caleb and Caduceus to hug and it does what it says on the tin. Got em.

it’s about the passing of measures (Beauyasha at the end of Episode 134, Aeor speculation)

This fic got extremely sidetracked because I rediscovered the marble machine during it and I do not apologize for that. I still really like the idea that Aeor as a whole, not just the Cognouza, is somewhat-alive. Too much magic and too much death for it to be anything else, in my mind. And I’m a sap for hurt/comfort.

the blumentrio playlist nobody asked for

If I think too much about how deep in each other these three people are I will cry. Made myself a soundtrack for those tears. 

the caleb playlist nobody asked for

what if this angsty wizard had a playlist of songs that mostly just... make me want to dance? that question was answered here.

the caduceus playlist nobody asked for

songs about home, leaving home, dying, changing, becoming someone new, coming home and finding it’s changed... this to me is caduceus.

yeah... this campaign has been fun!! I probably won’t stop making things about it; I still write about Vox Machina, for crying out loud, but... it feels good to lay it all out like this. It’s been a long few years, and it’s wild to be seeing the end of it now.

[nat1nonsense]

Watching the m9 aeor arc after having seen exu: calamity is a whole different experience from watching the m9 aeor arc without watching exu: calamity. I know so much more now and I’m so much sadder because of it </3