#it's allura grabbing keyleth by the shoulders and shaking her until she can pull herself together | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

hope-whispers · 4 years

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okay gather round (or scroll past at your leisure) bc it’s time for another round of meta about content that’s 4.5 years old

and this time we’re gushing about Matthew fucking Mercer

these feelings brought to you by Sing by The Dresden Dolls bc Matt has it on his first playlist to represent Tal’Dorei in general and that’s great on its own but then the Chroma Conclave happened and i’m all kinds of emotions now

because because because this massive absolutely massive story arc is introduced in a blaze of fire and battle and adrenaline but the first several hours aren’t dedicated to getting ready to kick ass. this story doesn’t hit hard because it’s fucking dragons and it’s awesome. it hits hard because Matt is very carefully showing us every single stake he’s set up.

the Chroma Conclave arc isn’t introduced as a challenge. it’s a tragedy.

Matt builds excellent distractions, downtime, side missions and side characters all to make them wonder exactly what will happen next. they just did something huge in Whitestone, but what’s their next step? even the characters start to question it, with Vax’s existential crisis and Keyleth once again questioning their morals and goals

and then all of that gets pulled out from under them when two, three, four dragons arrive to wreck the city. and it’s not enough to see it happen. they face off with two different dragons, back to back, and Matt makes it incredibly clear that they’re not going to win these battles but he doesn’t give them any hint as to what to do about it. by the time they can stop and breathe and think, the players are just as exhausted and confused and scared as their characters would be, and damn do they play it well.

but that’s not enough, nope, not for Matthew fucking Mercer, who takes care to describe the survivors as much as those who died. who tells them there are strangers crying in their keep, scared to death, calling out for loved ones who may or may not be there. he tells them Gilmore is nowhere to be seen, Uriel and his family are nowhere to be seen, you have no idea what happened to this city you love but it’s here, it’s happening

(and comparing this to the Mighty Nein, who don’t have a city to call home. they’ve slept in the hut in the Xhorhouse because they know it’s not truly safe. they don’t have a fortified monument to their deeds, they don’t have a place to retreat to, they don’t have this. but Vox Machina does, and now they’re faced with the idea of losing it and it’s harrowing)

they don’t get a reprieve, either. Keyleth dissociates and Grog is so desperate to fix things he’d attack his own friends and Pike’s desperate pleas to her goddess aren’t answered the way she wants and Vex is taking care of everyone while crying to her brother. and even after Allura arrives, they can settle down but they don’t get to be reassured. instead they grapple with the idea that this is their fault, that they fucked up and they couldn’t fix it. Allura has no answers, not really, but she brings more tragedy. Westruun has fallen. this is worse than they feared. the Fire Ashari might have been completely destroyed. no one knows where the emperor is. no one knows where the council is. no one knows where Gilmore is. no one knows, but they have to do something about it

Matt lets them argue and worry and feel guilty and weak and scared and he doesn’t give them hope. Allura leaves. they set off to find survivors because they have absolutely no way of fixing anything on their own. the emperor is dead and Gilmore wasn’t far behind him.

this arc lasts for how much of the campaign? Matt can afford to tell this story slowly, and boy is he doing a phenomenal job. we didn’t even see Vox Machina build their ties here, but we can feel how much it hurts to have them severed. Allura’s tower. Gilmore. the emperor and his family. the city itself, still burning when they set out again in the morning.

I just...Matt made sure this story stood out. they were sent to Kraghammer and had no hesitation diving in to get the job done. the Briarwoods were introduced and VM broke the law to chase them down and get justice. Zadash falls but the M9 can ignore the war for now. the Iron Shepherds attack and they stop at absolutely nothing to chase them down. even with Obann, which is arguably the best cross-campaign equivalent given that they had to regroup and do side quests and grow stronger before they could defeat him--even then, they chased him down and threw themselves into battles they couldn’t win every opportunity they got.

they can’t do that here, and Matt makes sure to tell them that in the most heart-wrenching way possible. this isn’t about showing them a villain, it’s about showing them every single thing they could lose if they don’t win.

#this post is alternatively titled 'laura bailey and marisha ray cried so i'm already emotional about this arc'#listen. listen y'all #i'm obsessed with the chroma conclave already #critical role #anyway the lyrics #'there is this thing that is keeping everyone's lungs and lips locked / it is called fear and it's seeing a great renaissance'#is absolutely the first day as they're all arguing in the keep #it's allura grabbing keyleth by the shoulders and shaking her until she can pull herself together #it's vex throwing herself into helping people even though she's not the healer she's not the leader #it's the staff running to greet them before hurriedly nodding and agreeing to go help some more #it's vax whispering reassurances to an unconscious gilmore #and pike going to beg sarenrae for help #and keyleth somehow managing to reassure a room full of strangers on her own #as it turns out. plots about the end of the world as we know it hit pretty damn hard in 2020 #oh since it's mostly about him i guess i'll tag #matthew mercer

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tameila · 5 years

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deleted chapter 15 scene

so for no reason other than because i reread it while putting something else into my ‘extra bits to save in case i decide i want them’ doc, here’s an alternative direction for chapter 15 that I ended up scrapping.

to introduce it, it takes places after the scene between Lionel and Pike on the stairs at the University of Emon. Pike ends up running into Allura on campus instead of the ‘Pike calls Allura and leaves a voicemail’ bit that I actually put in the chapter.

in retrospect, it’s not as bad as i definitely thought it was at the time that i scrapped it, and i’m kinda wondering why I scrapped it in the first place. like...it’s a full scene! idk chapter 15 was a wild ride! maybe i’ll even edit this back in someday...lemme know what you think!

anyway! here it is!

Their duck quest leads them down the stairs and halfway across campus, past the Alabaster Lyceum but before The Ivory Tower, where Pike vaguely remembers there being a quaint, little pond.

During the winter, students will skate on the ice there despite administration’s strict rules against it. A lesson she learned the hard way when visiting Kima and Allura in a January some ten years ago. Kima and Allura managed to scamper off the ice before the security guard could see them. Pike, stumbling around like a baby deer, got caught and had to sit in the offices until Wilhand could drive all the way from Westruun to pick her up. She got let go with a warning, but she’s never forgotten that cursed pond.

(Luckily, Wilhand had just laughed and spent the whole car ride back to Westruun telling her stories of his own wild youth.)

(Luckily, Kima and Allura had felt so bad about ditching her that they helped sneak her into the campus bar next time she visited.)

That was a long time ago.

“Ducks!”

Pike shakes from her thoughts to find herself standing in the shadow of the Ivory Tower, Lionel cheering gleefully somewhere behind her. Her skin prickles with chills. Some born from the sun’s absence. Some, she has no doubt, born from the treacherous hope of - Maybe. A student brushes past, mumbling an ‘excuse me’ as they go, and Pike glimpses the ID card in their hand and, more importantly, their path for the Ivory Tower’s entrance.

Leave it, part of her insists, Allura isn’t here.

Pike glances over her shoulder at Lionel, who stands with his back to her, thoroughly distracted by the ducks swimming on the pond.

This is your only chance, a stronger will pulls, so she follows in the student’s wake, grabbing the door before it closes. Maybe.

She doesn’t regret her decision right away.

At first, it’s rather nice to see the building again. The Ivory Tower is designed in such a way that, when standing in the middle of the first floor, you can see straight up to the last. Pike lingers there for a while, enjoying the sun that shines down through the skylight, before moving on to avoid looking too much like a person out-of-place.

But, after wandering the halls for nearly twenty minutes, climbing spiraling staircase after spiraling staircase, she certainly starts to.

Lionel no longer stands by the pond. She checked while passing by a window on the fourth floor which has left her to continue her walk with a bead of dread in her gut. What if he panics and calls Scanlan? What if Scanlan panics and leaves his meeting to come look for her? He’ll go through all the trouble just to find out she slipped her guard to wander aimlessly around a tower. For what? Imagined closure?

Allura isn’t here.

She already checked her office, and despite her efforts which included checking every plague and asking every student she’s passed, she hasn’t been able to find wherever the hell the library is supposed to be.

Ugh.

She pauses, halfway through her walk around the fifth landing, to pull out her phone and set this whole mess to right when a familiar voice calls out --

“Pike?”

Her phone clatters to the ground and straight to the feet of Allura.

For a moment, Pike freezes, blinking, trying to dispel the dream. Allura looks exactly as she remembers her - blond hair neatly braided, shoulders back, chin held regally even as she tilts her head in confusion at the - Pike imagines - much more haggard looking sight before her.

“Shit. Sorry, sorry!” Pike scrambles for her phone, dropping her gaze and hiding her heated cheeks, but Allura reaches down and grabs it before her and - Well, she doesn’t have much of a choice then, does she? She takes it from Allura’s offering hand with a sheepish smile and another mumbled, “Sorry.”

“No apologies necessary, Pike. If anything, I apologize for startling you. I just...didn’t expect to see you here,” Allura says evenly, but Pike’s attention lingers on the falter in her words. Allura Vysoren does not falter. For the life of her, she cannot determine whether that’s a good sign or not.

“Yeah, sorry. I’m in the city with my boyfriend right now who, well, he’s working today and I’m kinda just around so I thought I’d stop by here and take a walk. It’s -- It’s been a while,” She ends abruptly, swallowing hard.

Allura only nods. “It has been.” Then, after a polite pause, “Have you been well?”

“Yes,” Pike answers on reflex, but the word sits bitterly on her tongue. Allura smiles, pleased by the answer, which only makes it worse. It’s not a lie, she reasons for no one’s benefit. She’s doing well currently, for example, and she has been well, in a general sense of the word. Overall. Physically and, for the most part, mentally. For the most part. But -- This is Allura, the big sister she never had, a best friend she let herself lose, and she wavers.

“Actually, that’s...not completely true. It’s complicated,” she corrects herself in a rush. Allura blinks, waiting expectantly for further explanation, and Pike opens her mouth to do so but cannot provide it.

However, Allura is patient, as she always is, and kind, of course, and she lays a hand on Pike’s arm in the mounting silence.

That terrible, telltale burn swarms her sinuses, and Pike throws her arms around Allura.

“I’m sorry,” she says, muffled into her friend’s shoulder. “I’m sorry I missed the wedding, and I’m sorry I never answered any of your calls afterwards. I got so busy, and then it’d been so long, and I just - I just thought you were angry when you stopped calling.”

Allura holds her as she sputters with apologies and barely contained tears. “As I said, Pike, no apologies necessary. Your grandfather was unwell. Kima and I never expected nor would we have even wanted you to put everything aside for us.”

“But - But, I never - ”

“Called? Keyleth told us how hard you were working, and we understood. Kima, I’ll admit, took it a bit more to personally, but you know how she is. So tender-hearted beneath all that wild hair and brashness,” Allura explains, her voice dropping to a conspiratorial whisper when she speaks of Kima’s heart. Pike chuckles, pulling away as the tears subside to smile at Allura who finishes her reassurances,“We stopped calling, because we wanted to stop any pressure that might have put on you. You’d reach out when you were ready, we knew that. And, look, here you are…”

The softness of that admission almost has Pike in tears all over again. “Here I am!” She sniffles before pulling Allura in for one last bear hug that wanes into a fit of giggles when Allura winces and mutters under her breath - “still as strong as I ever, I see”.

“So, how are you truly?” Allura asks once they’ve settled, walking arm-in-arm down the stairs towards the lobby. “How is Wilhand? Grog? The temple?”

“I am well, but it’s complicated, like I said. But -- Wilhand’s great! Still goes to temple every Sunday, and he’s been getting into the routine of meeting up with his friends at the community center once a week for old people games,” Pike says, beaming. “He won his Bingo game last night. All-or-nothing. Blackout. He was very excited! Oh, and you’ll never believe what finally happened…” Pike pauses to allow the anticipation to build, watching Allura lean closer, before stating as coolly as she can while grinning ear-from-ear, “Grog and Keyleth.”

Allura gasps. “No! Are you serious?”

Pike bobs her head, while Allura melts into a preen, stating with no little amount of smugness, “I told you it would happen.”

“You did not!” Pike retorts. “I’m the one who always said it.”

“You always said you had a hunch, dear, but I knew.”

“That’s probably because Keyleth told you or something. Meanwhile, she never told me anything, fearing it’d be awkward, so all my assumptions were built on observations and inferences. Thus, my claim is the most valid!”

Allura laughs and, after a brief attempt to remain argumentative, her eyebrows doing some impressive furrows, Pike joins her.

They exit the stairwell to the first floor, stalling in the middle of the room, still arm-and-arm. “And, how is the temple?” Allura asks. “Has the workload lightened for you?”

Pike scrunches her nose. “I’m on a bit of a break right now actually....That’s the complicated part.”

“Oh.”

“No, no, but it’s good. What lead to the break wasn’t good. That was...Bad, but the break itself has been exactly what I needed,” Pike assures her, offering Allura a comforting pat on the arm when her friend grimaces, surely thinking she ruined the conversation. “I’m figuring a lot of things out that I need to figure out, and I’m happy, like, Allura, listen, I’m happy.”

Allura softens. “Truly?”

“Yeah. I mean, I’ve been going to therapy. I left Westruun, Allura. I never thought I could do that without losing my mind or something. But, I did, and I got to see you again!” She drops her voice, a secret thrill at the thought of saying it out loud, “I have a boyfriend, and I love him in that, you know, really gross way that I used to make fun of you and Kima for being.”

Pike expects Allura to tease her, maybe pull one of those sisterly ‘I told you so’ cards that she was always so fond of them in their youth. What she expects less is to be pulled into a hug that lifts her right onto her toes.

Bang!

Her and Allura both startle, swerving to face the doors where, much to Pike’s relief and mild dismay, Lionel stands. His face is smushed against the glass, his hands bang and rattle the doors in their frames, and he bellows loudly, loud enough to be heard over his own knocking, “PIKE!!!”

“Is that…?” Allura doesn’t finish her sentence, but Pike reads the questioning lilt.

“No, no, that’s not my boyfriend. That’s….” Huh. She snaps her lips closed and ‘hrmph’s. There really is no easy way to explain that the man causing a public disturbance in her name is her boyfriend’s bodyguard, is there? To Allura’s wide-eyed, scandalized stare, she only offers a shrug and an unconcerned,

“We have a lot to catch up on.”

#The Sun Always Rises #Pikelan #sometimes you just gotta have a doc for bits that you don't currently like #but that you'll be pissed off if you just delete because you MIGHT want them later #it's like the writers' version of hoarding #my writing

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