M9 - Tumblr Posts
I am 100% convinced the Bright Queen knows exactly where Essek lives. I assume she’s quite furious, at times irrationally so. But I also feel once she becomes aware he’s Caleb’s partner, it really changes the strategic calculus and she calls off the assassins.
She owes Caleb a great debt and respects what the M9 have done for the Dynasty. It’s entirely in the Dynasty’s best interest to watch from a safe distance while Caleb and Beau continue to hunt down corruption in the Empire. Wildemount is a better place for having the M9 around to reunite occasionally to fight something no one else could. They are a real asset as things currently stand. She is not interested in becoming their enemy. She could easily have thrown them into the dungeons when she met them. The power dynamic’s really changed since then. They’re incredibly powerful, and they have allies.
There’s no way she doesn’t have people scrying on the M9 occasionally for general situational awareness. Knowing what the M9 are up to is important, especially in times of chaos. Caleb and Beau’s ongoing business is definitely of international interest. They’re more discrete than the others, but not flawlessly discrete.
The rest of the M9 have zero discretion. Caleb tries so hard early on. “Where’s Essek? Is he coming with you?” “I have no idea what Essek is up to,” stern look, sounds aloof, changes the subject. It’s a lost cause. The M9 keep using their secret wizard’s real name in open conversation, no matter what disguise he wears in public. It doesn’t take a genius to figure out who Seth is.
Most importantly, the Bright Queen is damn near immortal. She can afford to play a very long game, even longer than most elves. As long as Essek keeps his distance from the Dynasty’s affairs, he is safe as long as the rest of the M9 are alive. After that she has a wealth of time at her disposal to reassess.
TLDR The Mighty Nein are incapable of keeping their second wizard a secret, and the Bright Queen is no fool. In this essay I will
Empire Kids + "I won't let them put their hands on you”, perhaps?
25. "I won't let them put their hands on you."
Beau paces. She cannot fight, she cannot run, she cannot claw her way through the marble walls of the courthouse in Zadash, so she paces in this tiny antechamber, round and round and round and round until Yasha claims she is going to be ill and steps outside for some water. Beau just cracks her knuckles and continues, her mind whirring into overdrive with the practice questions the lawyer Yudala Fon had assigned to her gave her to answer. She's probably recited the story of her kidnapping to Yasha, to the bathroom mirror, to the midnight stars a thousand times, and yet every time she imagines herself in the courtroom, telling it just one more time in front of everyone (in front of Zeenoth, in front of her father), her tongue becomes a sailor's rope, knotted and briny.
It's stupid, to be so nervous. She is an Expositor. It is her duty to find the truth, and this is a truth, her truth. If she were to approach this like any report she'd give Dairon or Yudala Fon or anyone else at the Cobalt Soul, her insides might not feel like the deck of a ship on choppy seas.
(But she can't, because it's not a report, dispassionate and stale. This is her life, fucked-up and raw and bruised and hers. And she is being asked to go before all of those eyes and be seen? Fuck, this is worse than being kidnapped.)
There's a knock at the door, and Yasha's adorable request for entry, as if Beau would ever say no, okay, that's a nice little distraction. "Yeah."
The door creaks open, and instead of long, wild white hair, a mop of ginger appears, tired blue eyes and three-day scruff just below. "Are you busy?"
Beau lets out an ironic laugh, and finally, she stops her pacing. "No, actually, just thinking about laying down for a nap."
Caleb must take her sarcasm as an invitation, because he steps inside, closing the door behind him. "Yasha is just out in the hall. She seems...well. Not much better than you seem, if I am being honest."
Beau crosses her arms over her chest defensively. "I'm fine. It's whatever. It needs to be done, so I'm doing it."
"Ja, well, we know that sentiment well, no?" Caleb takes the chair that Yasha had abandoned, and somehow, his eyes feels worse than the dozens of unfamiliar one's she about to face. "This is the worst part, I promise."
Beau doesn't need to ask what he means. He's just come off the heels of his own trial, where he stared down the man who undeniably did worse to him than Zeenoth or her father ever thought about doing to her. Her eyes land on the slightly pushed-up sleeves of his jacket, on the few scars she can see. "I just want it over with."
"I know."
"I just wish I could..." She sighs. "I don't know! Write this shit down and have someone else read it. I don't know why it has to be me."
"I know."
"And why do they have to be there?" She doesn't say who she means. She doesn't have to. "I mean, Zeenoth, whatever, fuck that guy, but my dad? And, shit, I have no idea who else from the Soul is gonna show up, and you know that there are more people involved than just Zeenoth, people who aren't gonna like what I have to say. And...you know, with Yasha there, I just..." She stumbles back to slump against the wall. "I just want to go home."
There is a long silence, during which they stare at each other, these two Empire kids, so much bullshit between them, until Caleb rises and crosses the antechamber to stand before her. "You are Beauregard Lionett." He lays his hands atop her forearms and gently pries them apart, and it's only then that she realizes what a death grip she's had on her own torso. "You are the strongest person I have ever met. I am a very smart man—" She rolls her eyes. "—and I am telling you know that of all of the things that I know, the thing I know the most is how capable you are. And you are capable of this."
She's so fucking pissed at the way her eyes prick. "And what if I'm scared?"
"I said you were strong, Beauregard. I did not say you weren't human."
She runs her wrist beneath her nose with a sniffle. "Yeah. Yeah okay. Yeah, fuck them."
"And do not forget, Yasha and I will be in the room with you, ja? I will not let them put their hands on you. Neither of us will. You may stare down the world, Beauregard, but not alone. Never alone."
And much to her own dismay, she throws her arms around his neck, sinking her weight into this scrawny wizard who somehow, when she wasn't looking, became the closest thing she has to family. "Thank you, Caleb."
He squeezes her tight. "Of course. Now, let me go get Yasha before she tears her hair from her head."
Beau lets out a wet laugh and nods, releasing him. "Yeah, okay." And she watches him head for the door, and for the first time today, she thinks that maybe she's gonna be alright.
Kinda incredible that all he has to do is make this face for me to feel immediately comforted.
Drawtober Day 16: Insect 🪲
I was in a serious amount of pain this day so here it is now.
Prompt list by: @/artsy_opossum_ on Instagram
This crossover is everything. I can’t wait for Jester to try and convert Fearne to the traveler. I can’t wait for Fjord to find out Orym was given an exalted sword from the wildmother and he’s not even a paladin. I can’t wait for a single battle with 15 initiatives where Liam simultaneously goes first and last.
nott the brave
(Click for better quality)
coloured in sketches from catching up on cr3 ^_^ ✸
(this was my first time in a while drawing cad because all the recent things ive posted of him are from multiple weeks ago or after these drawings, but i got inspired by th ruidusborn theory lol)
[image ID: digitally coloured sketch pages of various characters from critical role. the first image has four portraits of Imogen, wearing a hat, with her hair in braids, and one with a scarf on her head and saying "that's above your pay-grade". there's also one sketch of Liliana, and an unimpressed Beau, and a shins-up drawing of Imogen cast in red and purple light with red lightning and flames in her hands, her hair flying up in the air and an intense look on her face. there's moons and red stars and notes scattered on the page too. the second image is two portraits of Caduceus, one at a three-quarters angle and one from the side, with his hair tied back. above his head is a red eye and a blue and red moon. the notes "forgot how to draw him" and "ok" are written above him too. end ID.]
