#pikelan

[vethbrenatto]

#hehe they blush

[swearwolfcola]

Vox Machina part 3

[the-french-belphegor]

Psst. Hey. You know that very specific trope of slowly and lovingly helping someone remove armour, piece by piece? Generally it's a knights and a page, or just knights (being knights), but you know, something about intimacy, respect, devotion, trust - "I will worship you on my knees and also help you with the twisty fiddly thing you often struggle to get open" and "You are mine (to command) in very specific ways and also I put my trust and my self in your hands". I don't know, it's the first time I get the itch to draw that particular (and probably very niche) thing but it applies to Pikelan particularly well, imo.

Also, well. There are more metaphorical armours and ways to (let oneself/help someone) take it off. removing_armour.xcf goes both ways ;o)

[talesandfluff]

Scanlan? I know you can’t hear, but I’m sitting in a tavern right now with Grog, he just went to sleep… erm… We had I had a pretty good day, I had to do a lot of labor, just like lifting stuff into a cart… and then… I… and then like, you know, Vox Machina, lo and behold, come along and I see them and now we’re here, but… I miss you… I’m gonna… I’m very tired… I’m… 🥱💤

[indigoire]

It's so funny watching Scanlan and Pike flirt in TLoVM and being like "aww yeah, she is gonna divorce him so hard one day 😎"

[simplysparrow14]

This is an Annual Reminder that Laura Bailey has always been the Ashley Johnson romance shipper

Bonus mention to her husband:

(Top Row - Pikelan; Middle Row - Beauyasha; Bottom Row - Callowmoore)

[bloomballad]

me and who

[baesarenraes]

dimension door

[bravoalmara-blog]

Close ups were requested! Thanks for all the love on this picture guys!

[dreamingofmaidensandmonsters]

[vethbrenatto]

THE LEGEND OF VOX MACHINA 2x09 | “A Test of Pride”

[pansexualnoodle5]

aw stop they're adorable

[the-french-belphegor]

Finished! Oh man, this took me... two months? Three? So long. But the idea wouldn’t let go, so ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

As I mentioned before I watched bits and pieces of the 1st campaign of Critical Role before going back to the beginning and watching/listening to seriously (I’m now starting episode 74!), but one thing that struck me was the character growth for all these characters?? So good. And these two... oh, these two. I started thinking I wanted them together any way, romantic or platonic (about... 6% of my ships are romantic?), but as time goes by I just love this ship, where it started and where it ends up in the epilogue. Plus... y’now, a couple of slightly bruised souls finding solace in each other 💜

I remember a fic that covers part of Scanlan’s year and a half away in which he gets... self-conscious? (understatement) about his death scars, if only because, well. They have to take up a lot of space on his body, considering what happens to him in “The Deceiver’s Stand”. (I have this headcanon that the scars from wounds that cause death don’t really fade like other scars do. So what these two have gone through left a hell of a mark. Physically, too. Pike knows a lot about scars, the forms they can take, and the weight they can have. And I wanted to explore her side of things from her own passing through death and resurrection.)

Another headcanon I have is that, once the dust has settled and they have to consider mundane things like immediate lodgings and stuff, Scanlan is the only one who doesn’t have anywhere to go back to: Vex and Percy have Whitestone, Keyleth has Zephrah, Pike and Grog have Wilhand’s house in Westruun... which has an attic that could double as a guest room with many a few repairs. It probably looks way too cosy and tidy for what I thought I’d do, but chalk it up to my inability to really clutter a room (unlike irl) 😅 The little frame behind Scanlan isn’t a random castle, by the way, it’s supposed to be Greyskull Keep. Wonder what happened to the place after the end...

Anyway. It’s 11:30PM and I should be in bed, so I’m posting this and hope you like!

[talesandfluff]

like in a 4sided dive, Sam described Scanlan during the events of C3 as "recently divorced", which means he was married to Pike for almost thirty years, which is a really long time and I wish people didn't brush that off, it's not the end of the world their marriage ended eventually, they were always toying the line between platonic and romantic throughout the first campaign, they picked one side for several decades before deciding on crossing the line again the other way, and still they remain occasional sexual partners like. this is just so in line with the way they've always been and it absolutely doesn't cheapen their marriage nor their deep love for one another.

[tameila]

Pike Trickfoot & Scanlan Shorthalt in The Fey Realm

[simplysparrow14]

Pikelan is probably the most complex CR ship and more people need to realize that instead of branding it as the "haha funny gnomes" ship.

because the entirely of Pikelan revolves around Scanlan, a very charismatic bard who flirts with literally everyone around him but is head-over-heels in love with his cleric friend but is tragically dogshit at expressing it so he resorts to doing crude bits and gags that ultimatly mask who he truly is.

And then you have Pike, a cleric brimming with self-confidence, who absolutely loves Scanlan for who he is, but is constantly getting mixed signals, because on one hand, he's constantly doing crude jokes and flirting with every person he sets his sights on (even so far as going after his unknown daughter) but on another, he tenderly holds her while she's bleeding and he's constantly at her side during battle and even tends to her emaciated brother for her and it's beautiful to watch, but the moment, the moment she brings it up, he reverts back to his crass personality and it just leaves her reeling about who he truly is.

And then we get to Bards Lament, and Scanlan, after tip-toeing around his true emotions for so long, finally snaps and lets everything he's been feeling (all the pain, and self-loathing manifested as anger towards everyone else, because even in his darkest moment, he's still so dogshit at expressing it for what it truly is) and Pike, who's been wrestling with these mixed signals, finally gets his true feelings on what he feels, calling her magic weird, hating that the same magic that has kept him alive and safe for so long brought him back to his sad existence, hating her for doing it. In the end, Scanlan leaves, just as Pike left the first time and the second time. And Pike stays behind, watching as he heads towards somewhere where she cant follow, abandoning the team and her and grog and everything they've built for themselves. She loves him, and him leaving brings her to that point.

The two are split apart, and despite the anger and hurt, the need for connection with each other is so strong. Scanlan reveals that he dident fully leave Taldorei at first, that he was only 20 miles away in another town entirely, listening to Pike's earing conversations. And eventually, when Scanlan is on another continent, he finds a temple of the Everlight (or just simply begins talking to Everlight) and prays, prays for guidance on finding forgiveness for what he said and did. He's deeply in love with pike, and still is, going to her god for answers to his problems, the quickest connection to Pike that he has between one giant ocean and a continent.

And Pike, despite holding a very rightful disdain for what he said to her, keeps him up to date, informs him of her happenings with the people of Whitestone. She should fucking hate his guts and yet the person she wants to speak to at the end of her day is a bard who (for all she knows) threw his earing away and traveled to some far off place, forever gone from Vox Machina, from her. Yet she keeps speaking.

They switch roles, with Scanlan becoming the quiet solitary one seeking forgiveness for his actions and Pike becoming the people oriented one.

When they reunite, it's tense and sad and angry. So many things said in anger and hurt and they don't really know where to step in the case that something, anything might send them back to that angry, angry place. And suddenly their back at the same place they were before, before the fight.

Pike is, again, trying so hard to sift through the mixed signals he's giving because he's being Scanlan again! Charming bard, essential party member, more confident than he's ever been! but now he's standing near the back and holding his hands and apologizing with a soft voice that she hasn't heard in over a year and a half and rebuilding the bridges he's burned and she doesn't know what to think!

And Scanlan is giving an honest effort at trying to fix what he's broken. He's working harder than ever, he's apologizing. He tries very hard to have conversations with people and fixing what he can. But, again, he's Scanlan, who is less dogshit at expressing what he feels, but still pretty dogshit none the less, and now he's a crime boss and still a beloved bard, but he's also surrounded by the friends, some of them he loves so dearly and he's trying, he's trying so hard

Eventually, everything is forgiven and in the end, Pike and Scanlan come to term with themselves and each other. Pike comes to terms with knowing that Scanlan is a complex person, a broken person just trying to figure his way through this world, just as she had done.

in the end, Pike becomes the person Scanlan feels the most free to be around, one where he doesn't have to put on the mask of a performer, where he can just be Scanlan the gnome instead of Scanlan, bard extraordinaire. and Pike comes to terms with knowing that Scanlan is a complex person, a broken person just trying to figure his way through this world, just as she had done before.

and together, they are beautiful reflection of each other.