Bonus : Close Up 

In honor of the anniversary of the most unhinged shadowgast era, I present you the Timeloop-babygast-execution Au, where two mad lads run away from home (secret military underground bunker) and try their hands at murdering criminals (Caleb, their own father) and piss off a powerful dunamancer (Essek, their other father) enought to set up a timeloop none of them can escape (until they sit down and talk about their feelings/misunderstandings).

Many thanks to the amazing @flappingduster for joining in this madness, and  lending her babygast

Essek has a 400′s life crisis and goes back on the road with a party of young adventurers. He, of course, brings Caleb with him.

all credits for this amazing idea goes back to the great @flappingduster-scribbles

Look at this !!!! This is amazing !!! Op wrote a great one shot about my silly little post !!

The Terribly Sad and Tragic Affair that Is the Fake Funeral of Shadowhand Essek Thelyss

Apparently, I am not only drawing for the Critical Role fandom, but writing for it, too. After months of nearly no progress I just vomited out 3k words this Tuesday and it only went downhill from there.

This fic is based on this post by @anne-o-nyme, I really hope I managed to capture the energy of it.

Have fun!

Summary: There were eight strangers in the foyer of his dead brother’s towers and Verin Thelyss was slowly losing his patience.

After the sudden “death” of Shadowhand Essek Thelyss, it is his brother Verin’s job to empty out his towers. The Mighty Nein show up to help (and maybe steal a few things).

OR: Verin is grieving, Essek just wants his stuff back, and the Mighty Nein are the Mighty Nein.

Warnings: I didn’t tag this with MCD, because Essek is technically alive and kicking. Since Verin doesn’t know that though, and this fic is written from his POV, this is dealing with grief and includes depictions of depressive thoughts as well as anxiety attacks. For more explicit warnings, please mind the tags on AO3. Take care of yourselves, and let me know if I forgot anything.

Read on AO3

There were eight strangers in the foyer of his dead brother’s towers and Verin Thelyss was slowly losing his patience. “Listen,” he said with what little calm he had left, “I know that by returning one of our beacons you became heroes of the Dynasty and were placed under Es— My bro— his stewardship. But this here—” he gestured vaguely at the interior of Essek’s towers that had always been too cold, too empty, but not like now, never like now— “This is a very difficult situation for me, so if you could please leave, that would be greatly appreciated.”

Afficher davantage

Shadowgast baby headcanons

To anyone who might be concerned, his name is Archibald Widogast. Professor Widogast’s only son, that he’s raising on his own, with the occasional help of his adventurer friends and a revolving door of nannies (it’s Essek. Of course it’s Essek). 

Essek was relieved when he saw how human his son looked. He would have loved him no matter what of course, but being too obviously half-drow would have put a target on his back for the rest of his life. Currently, Archi looks half elven, with his white hair and pointy ears.

As a toddler, Archibald had troubles recognising Essek, since the man was oftenly switching disguises. It led to an equally terrifying and comic event when one day he left kindergarten with the wrong pink skinned tiefling. Essek panicked when he realized his little Starlight wasn’t there and called the entire Mighty Nein Team to retrieve his baby. The pink tiefling, after realizing he wasn’t the kid she was supposed to babysit, bought him ice cream and walked him back to the kindergarden, deeply embarrassed. 

Essek was hurt by the fact that at 3 years old his own son was unable to distinguish him from a stranger. Since then he started wearing a distinctive sign with each of his disguises, so that no more mistakes could happen.

Little Archi has very light and sensitive skin, which means long exposure under direct sun will give him bad sunburns and nausea. His eyes are also sensitive : while he has a pretty decent dark vision, high luminosity is uncomfortable for him. His aunty Veth gifted him a pair of special glasses to handle the sun, especially in summer.

Archibald is quite shy, and since he doesn't like to play outside, he has trouble making friends with other children.

He’s a very smart boy, Caleb used to take him to work when he was a baby, and he has sat through most of his courses since then. At ten, some of Caleb’s students used to sneak him sweets in exchange for a little help on their papers.

He’s also very quiet, loves to read, and is often found napping on a library bench, surrounded by books of various subjects.

If at first Essek wanted to only talk in common and zemnian around Archi, fearing that speaking undercommon would mark him as suspicious, he gradually regretted not teaching him more of his mother tongue when he was a baby. Once Archibald got old enough, Essek started introducing undercommon at home. As an adult, Archibald speaks both zemnian and undercommon, but with a thick accent in the later. 

Astrid and Eadwulf know about little Archi, they even met him a couple of times, usually when Caleb took him to his lectures. Once Eawulf gave him a candy, which put every adult in the room on high alert : nothing happened, it was just regular candy.

Archibald knows he has an uncle called Verin living far away, from whom he receives toys from time to time. Usually picture books about astronomy, and cool rocks he lines up on his window frame.

So many discussions about old man Caleb ! I had to turn it into this WWDITS meme.

@flappingduster-scribbles ‘s shadowgast baby is in here, as well as mine.

Holy shit OP how *dare you* make me have *feelings* about this AU again ??

It’s one of those nights where Essek knows he’s had too much to drink, not enough that he’s well and truly drunk, but enough that the worlds gone a bit soft around the edges and the very quiet part of his brain that tells him when things are a bad idea is silent. It’s one of those nights and Essek is lonely, and sad in a way he’d nearly forgotten he could be.

‘Lux, why, why did you choose me? I don’t, didn’t, even believe you were real. I, I’m nothing special, and there are others who could serve you far better and more willingly than I ever will.’ Essek knows he shouldn’t ask, that you don’t question miracles, but between the wine and the ache in his chest he can’t bring himself to care just now.

“Because you were the only one who questioned. Because you above all others know the pain of not knowing, not understanding. You sit in my light and ask how and why, when others have allowed their devotion to blind them.” Hands softly smooth Essek’s hair from his face, “I love you most dearly because how could I not? How could I not love you as I love myself?”

Lux’s hands tip Essek’s face up so their eyes meet, for a breath, a heartbeat Essek stands outside himself, suspended in the expanse of the Luxon, and sees himself as Lux must. Sharp edges and fractures only better refract the light of a thousand stars dancing just below his skin, and the heavy weight of potentiality that suffuses the air around him.

“You are my most beloved because of how brightly you shine in the dark.”

Lips are pressed to his forehead as Essek’s eyes slip closed, tomorrow he will again question his situation, the how and the why, but for now he will sleep.

Caleb and Essek discuss children, of all things.

--

"Aren't you worried?" Caleb asks softly, his voice full of concern as he holds Essek's hand in his own. "About outliving them?"

It wasn't a topic either of them had brought up: instead, Beau and Yasha has approached them about it, offering to be surrogates should they desire a child of their own. A very sweet offering, but one that prompted a discussion.

Outliving your child was among the worst things most parents could think of.

And yet.

"It is a concern, yes," Essek confesses, giving Caleb's hand a gentle squeeze. "I will not pretend it is not. But...I am a drow. I will likely live for centuries more, unless my own foolishness catches up to me. And you won't be there, because you are human, and if we were to have a child, they would also be a human, or perhaps a half-elf," he presses the gentlest of kisses against Caleb's temple. "And I would outlive them as well, and it would be hard. I'm not pretending it wouldn't be."

He pauses for a moment, taking the time to brush a stray ginger lock back behind Caleb's ear before he resumes speaking. "But if I am lucky, I will live to see our child marry, and have children of their own. And their children will perhaps have children. And five or six centuries from now, we may have great-great-great grandchildren, and one might have your hair, or your eyes, or your nose," he kisses the nose in question. "And it would remind me of you, long after you are gone. I could think of no greater gift you could leave to me than that."

There are tears welling up in Caleb's eyes, but neither of them acknowledge it. "Ja, okay," Caleb nods, and kissed his husband. "Let's have a baby. Let's leave a legacy."

This is definitely how CR season 3 will ends. I’m calling it.

---

[zzaap]

“Oh hi Schatz ! You’re back early !”

“The moon is haunted.”

“What ?”

“The moon is haunted, Caleb.”

---

To all the people who asked what was written on Caleb’s book : 

“Kryn courting : so you’ve decided to date a drow, what to expect in a relationship”

I was thinking about it !! Caleb has very ambiguous feelings about that : on one hand he’s happy to have this unique chance of growing old with his lover, but on the other he feels guilty of making him change his appearance all the time for his sake.

On his deathbed, he asks Essek to take the illusion down, and so he does. Caleb cries as he strokes the perfect youthful face, kisses the plump lips, and tells a heartbroken sobbing Essek he loves him.

May I present to you:

Essek casting Seeming as Caleb grows older so he and Caleb can be old together

Also for your consideration:

Essek taking Frumpkin as his own familiar since he and Frumpkin are going to live a long time without Caleb, and will out-live all of the Mighty Nein

I cannot stop thinking about @foxqueen-katarian ‘s amazing AU, where Essek is the Luxon’s champion, who somehow got a physical child-like body and keeps following him around like a little duckling.

I guess they just floats around, shining like a cosmic diamond, and live their best life (?)

You can find more about it in this thread : 

https://anne-o-nyme.tumblr.com/post/663251925576368128/part-of-me-is-in-love-with-the-idea-of-essek