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critter-rarepair-reccs · 2 months

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Hello all! Hope your Wednesday is going well. Today we have nine Pre-Relationship fics for you to enjoy! As always, you can find them below the cut and if you check any of them out, I encourage you to leave kudoes and comments to spread the rarepair love 🩷

gravity-bound by hanap (7,591 words, Teen) Pairing: Jester Lavorre/Essek Thelyss (Jessek) Warnings: None

Essek writes poetry under a pen name, Jester is a fan, she writes to him and they start to exchange letters over many years.

Reccer Says: I love epistolary fic, and also its so cute. There's a lot of background details of canon events we can fill in the background through the letters contents, which is very fun.

in the pieces of what's left or what we've found by SeaWitchDreams (14,620 words, Teen) Pairing: Astrid Beck/Eadwulf Grieve/Essek Thelyss/Caleb Widogast (Blumenshadow) Warnings: None

Post canon, Astrid decides what to do with Ikithon's tower, and her life.

Reccer Says: Its a nice long read, and the character beats are complex and nuanced, bc that's what Astrid deserves <3

That Lucidian Glow by fjorests_of_wildemount (455 words, General) Pairing: Kingsley Tealeaf/Essek Thelyss (Shadowking) Warnings: None

Essek needs to put on sunscreen, Kingsley volunteers.

Reccer Says: It's fun and cute moment <3

to be in someone else's coat by jaskofalltrades (1,369 words, General) Pairing: Mollymauk Tealeaf/Essek Thelyss/Caleb Widogast (Shadowidomauk) Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings

After Essek's dinner with the Nein at the Xhorhaus, Molly and Caleb walk him home. Flirting, of course, ensues.

Reccer Says: It's so fun to see how Essek responds to Molly's relentless flirting, filtering through Caleb's observations on how new Essek is to friendship. And how he can tell that Essek wants that companionship so badly! It's very sweet.

though we're tethered to the story we must tell (when I saw you, well, I knew we'd tell it well). by exhaustedwerewolf (4,535 words, Teen) Pairing: Polymachina Warnings: Mentions of backstory typical violence and character death

On one wrist is your greatest love. On your other, your greatest adversary. And for a certain group of fated adventurers, one of these follows a pattern.

Reccer Says: I'm always a sucker for a good soulmate AU and I *love* ones of this flavor. The angst of not knowing which name is which is delicious and the way this fic plays with that for each member of VM is so good! Also love that the love-bonds don't Have to be romantic, I always appreciate that when it comes to soulmate AUs. And the way it all comes together in the end for VM is just... so good. Also the character voices in the narration? Spot on.

know no shame by hanap (4,453 words, Teen) Pairing: Adeen Tasithar/Essek Thelyss Warnings: None

What if Essek and Adeen had crushes on each other as teenagers and were adorable, messy disaster about it?

Reccer Says: It's so cute. Like oh-my-god so cute. They're adorable with each other and baby wizard Essek trying to join the Aurora Watch so he can spend more time with Adeen has my WHOLE heart. The messy teenage feelings! The circumstances keeping them apart! Deirta and Dad Thelyss's reactions to them!!! It's all so so good.

The Sunny Side by dracoqueen22 (1,767 words, General) Pairing: Jester Lavorre/Beauregard Lionett (Beaujes) Warnings: None

There’s nothing Beau won't do if it’ll make Jester smile, even if it means fixing something as minor as a sunburn.

Reccer Says: Cutteee <3 Beau is just so smitten. Plus Cad being his odd self in the first half <3

Today I Love You Even More by wtgw (5,687 words, Teen) Pairing: Yeza Brenatto/Veth Brenatto/Caleb Widogast Warnings: None

Yeza Brenatto is a creature of infinite anxiety, but he’s not blind. He can see how much Veth loves Caleb. He can see how much Caleb loves her back. And he can also see that Caleb is really attractive. But it’s not like he’s not going to do anything about that…

Reccer Says: Yeza Brenatto is just a perfect sweetheart always and there's this scene where the three of them are sitting around drunk complementing each other that is just too cute

Just Between Friends by biorusted (3,624 words, Explicit) Pairing: Ashton Greymoore/Orym/Dorian Storm (Dashrym) Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings

Aspec Dorian talks with Ashton and Orym about how sex has always felt to him and they share their feelings in return. Things escalate from there. Just as friends, of course.

Reccer Says: Aspec Dorian my beloved <3 always love the dynamics between these three, they fit together so well.

Thank you for joining us this week’s recc list! All the love to everyone who submitted a fic 🩷 All enclosed recommendations were submitted by the community via our submissions form, which you can find here. All fic information is as it was provided by the reccer, so it may not be accurate to the author’s intent or the precise contents of the fic itself. Please assume good intent from all parties 🩷

Submissions for next week’s list are already open! We’ll be featuring Canon Divergent fics. If you have any you’d like to highlight, you can send them in here. The week after that, the theme is Keyleth Rarepairs and the weeks after that we’re taking recommendations for Polyamorous Ships and Enemies to Lovers fic! Submissions for all of these themes are currently open.

If you want more rarepair fic, check out @cr-summer-wildflowers and their event collections on ao3! If you want some friendship after all this romance, take a look at @critter-genfic-events and their recc lists! And if you’re interested in everyone’s favorite wizards, you can’t go wrong with the lists at @aeor-is-for-reccing !

Thanks all and have a lovely day/night/timezone! 🩷

#critter rarepair recc lists #jessek #blumenshadow #shadowking #shadowidomauk #polymachina #adeen x essek #beaujes #yeza x veth x caleb #dashrym

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critrolesideblog · 3 years

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"Oh, Essek!"

At the call of Jester's singsong voice, Essek looked up from Change and the Potentials of Transmutability to find Jester and Luc floating in the center of the library. Jester was holding large blanket, folded up and tucked under her arm, while Luc carried some small, stuffed simulacrum of a creature. They were both wearing pajamas, and their faces and hair were flecked with paints of every shade... or possibly cupcake icing... The blanket and pajamas both looked like loans from the Clays, thickly-woven and soft with use. The arms and legs of the pajamas were rolled up many times over to accommodate the smaller limbs of their current inhabitants, and something about the smile on Jester's face told Essek she had a plan up one of those sleeves.

"Luc is having a sleepover in my room, because it's the best!"

"Aunt Jessie let me draw on the walls!" The little boy exclaimed, his brown eyes wide with excitement.

"Yeah, we drew on the walls, and we ate lots of sweets, and we played some games." Jester ticked each item of the itinerary off on her fingers as she said them. "And now, for the last item on the list we need your help."

Essek's eyes were drawn from Jester's ever-charming smile to the little boy currently taking advantage of the center column's weightlessness to attempt a series of acrobatic maneuvers next to her. Essek had been doing his best to maintain a wide berth around the Brenatto family, while they were all taking their ease in the Grove. The little boy did not know it, but Essek had caused him and his family a good deal of pain. It seemed to him the best way to make amends at present was to inflict himself on them as little as possible.

"I am tired, Jester," he replied at last, apologetically, and it was not untrue. He had spent the better part of the day helping the Clays tend to the Grove, and his muscles ached. Luc ceased his spinning.

"Awww, c'mon, it'll be fun. Please?" The little boy made a truly pitiful pleading face at him, and a sharp pang of guilt drove like a spike through Essek's heart. He searched his mind for a compromise.

"Perhaps, your Uncle Caleb...?" He looked over to where Caleb was seated at a nearby desk, hunched over both his and Essek's spellbooks, and saw that route was a dead-end. He knew the look of a wizard mid-transcription when he saw one.

"Busy," Caleb muttered after a moment, his eyes not leaving his work.

"Besides Essek, it has to be you. It's your area of expertise. C'mon, follow us!" Jester beckoned him with a dip of her horns, flashed him a fanged smile, and, without waiting for an answer, dropped quickly out of sight. Luc gave a whoop of delight and followed after her, flailing his arms and legs in a vague imitation of swimming.

As quiet settled on the library again, it occurred to Essek that he could simply not follow them. He could return to his book as if nothing had happened, and they would likely find someone else to rope into their scheme, whatever it was... But they needed his expertise, Jester had said. What expertise of his could a four-year-old have use of? Perhaps they wanted a parlor trick of some kind, for him to manipulate gravity in some entertaining way. Or, perhaps they wanted Fortune's Favor to carry out some prank. Just as likely, he was being lured out into a prank himself.

Alas, there was only one way to find out. With a sigh, Essek set aside his book and slowly rose from his alcove by the fireplace. He cast his levitation cantrip with a practiced flick of a finger and glided out of the library after them.

The darkness of the starlit Grove was soothing to Essek's light-weary eyes, and it did not take him long at all to spot them. Jester's eyes flashed up from among the plants some yards off to check if he was following. As he got closer, he could see Jester was smoothing out the blanket over a small clearing in the brush. Luc had already thrown himself down diagonally onto the cover, his feet holding down one corner, his stuffed animal hugged close to his chest. When he spotted Essek approaching, he said, half-whispered, as though it was a delicious secret, "We're looking for shooting stars!"

"Yep!" Agreed Jester brightly, as she laid herself down on the blanket near him, positioning her head close to Luc's, so they made a V. "And we need you to tell us cool stuff about the stars while we look." She reached across herself to pat an empty portion of blanket, apparently meant for Essek. He raised an eyebrow at her.

"You think stars are my area of expertise?"

"Well, yeah," she said as though it were obvious. "Your magic is all gravity and time and fate and stuff." Her voice dipped dramatically on each descriptor, her hands waving through the air for emphasis. "You've gotta know a lot about stars. I bet they're one of your favorite things." She gave him a look that playfully dared him to challenge her, and he felt a sudden and intense warm rush of affection for the tiefling. How long had it been, since someone had looked at him, looked at his magic, and thought here is a man who loves the stars, rather than here is a man who loves power? ... Ninety years? Ninety years since a representative of the Lens approached a young man named Kai in the Marble Tomes conservatory about his paper on the theoretical use of scattered potential from alternate timelines. Possibly even longer than that. After all, hadn't he wanted to be approached? Hadn't he hungered for significance even then?

Essek turned his eyes up toward his old mentors. There wasn't a single cloud in the sky, and it was Highsummer. "You have picked a good night for stargazing. There are often meteor showers this time of year."

"What's a merrier shower?" The little boy asked.

"Me-te-or." Essek enunciated. "Meteors are--"

"I thought you were tired," Jester cut across him. She reached over and patted the spot on the blanket again. "You can explain from down here." There was a victorious little grin on her face. The little boy was looking at him, wide-eyed, waiting for an answer.

Essek suppressed a sigh of defeat and lowered himself to the ground, laying his head near Jester's. "Meteors," he began again, "are another name for shooting stars. They are actually not stars at all, but small bits of rock that get pulled by gravity into Exandria's atmosphere."

"What's a amosphere?"

Essek took a moment to consider how best to explain it to a child. "Well, it is the air we breathe. There are layers of it around Exandria, between us and space."

"Why?"

"Why what?"

"Why..." Luc frowned up at the stars, considering how to word his question. "Why-- why is there air?"

It went on like that for some time. Each answer begot a new, slightly sleepier, question. Jester diligently searched the skies for meteors all the while.

"What's that?" Luc yawned, interrupting Essek's explanation of black holes. He raised his small hand, dyed blue by the starlight, heavenward to indicate the bright subject of his question, and for just a moment, it was Verin's hand.

"Mitä tuolla on?" The scents of lunar jasmine and evening glories were heavy on the breeze as his little brother pointed up from their spot in the garden.

"Hmmmmmm, I'm not sure," replied Nanny, in that singsong way that meant she was pretending. "Do you know, Kai?"

"That is Corellon, named after the Archheart. That one is a planet, as we discussed a few moments ago. It appears in the sky at Midsummer and remains until Winter's Crest. And do you see that small, diamond-shaped cluster of stars next to it?" Essek pointed, and the little boy made a drowsy noise of confirmation. "That constellation is commonly referred to as The Moonlit Star, the Archheart's symbol."

"No way," objected Jester. "That is The Nine Heroes!" She declared with gravitas, before launching into a story about nine friends (Calen, Beth, Fiona, Oskar, Jo, Tad, Princely, Tasha, and Fessek) protecting a village from a terrible sea monster. Luc was snoring softly well before the sea monster ever showed up.

Essek tilted his head to look over at Jester and gave her a small smile. "Well done, Aunt Jessie."

Jester grinned. "We are a pret-ty good team." She said, proudly, and held her hand out, palm up, expectantly. He gazed sidelong at her grin, feeling a grin tugging at his own lips, and then, clapped his hand down onto hers softly. A low-five, he thought, but as soon as their palms touched, Jester wrapped her cool hand around his and rested them, clasped, upon the blanket. She tilted her face starward again. "Okay, so tell me: what is your favorite thing about the stars?" When she said "favorite thing," she dragged her other palm across the sky above her as though hanging up a banner.

The entire field of astronomy seemed to lay out before Essek, as vast as the sky above him, his mind bouncing from point to point. How could he pick? "That is a difficult question, Jester. Are you sure you would not rather hear more about black holes?"

"I mean, I totally do want to hear more about black holes. It sounds really crazy, but not right now. C'mon, just the first thing that pops into your head: favorite thing about the stars." The first thing...

"Well, perhaps it is that some of the stars we are seeing now are not really there."

The jewelry on Jester's horns and ears chimed gently as she tilted her head to regard him. "What do you mean 'not really there?'"

"It takes time for light to get from its source to our eyes. It may seem instantaneous, when we light a candle, for example, but that is only because we are so close and the light travels so quickly. Stars are almost inconceivably far away, and it can take the light years, centuries, to reach us. The light we are looking at now was generated years ago, and when a star goes out, it takes just as long for us to perceive its absence, because its last burst of light will still be traveling to us years after it is produced. So, when we look at the stars, in truth, we are looking at the past. It is a sort of time travel."

Jester considered this for a long moment. "Whoa," she said at last. "So... we're looking at memories right now."

"That is another way to put it, yes."

"Okay," she said, after another long moment. "Next question: what is your favorite memory of the stars?"

A warm breeze rustled the leaves around them, and Essek thought he caught the scent of jasmine in the air. Mitä tuolla on?

"The first one that comes to mind?"

There was another light jangling of metal as Jester nods her head.

"When I was small, our nanny would set out blankets in the garden, and we would look at the stars and pester her with questions, just like this. When I was very small, it was really just Nanny and I. Verin was sleeping or crawling around, trying to eat things he should not -- not that he ever managed it. Nanny had the eyes of a roc. But I asked Nanny questions about everything, and as we got older, Nanny would encourage me to answer Verin's questions. If I could explain it, then I knew it." Well said, little star. "Those evenings with the stars taught me the joys of curiosity, of asking questions, of learning."

The starlight glimmered off Jester's pink eyes as she turned to look at him. "Aren't you glad you came out here, then?" She gripped his hand tightly. "Now Luc has that memory, too. It's a little bit of light you've shined into the world, and it'll keep going, even after we're not here anymore, right?" He squeezed her hand back, turning his eyes skyward once more. Trails of light streaked across his vision.

"Right."

Notes: Big thank you to @neverlain for advising on the Finnish!

Update: This fic is now available on AO3.

#ficlet #featuring some well-intentioned Meddling by JesterTM #essek thelyss #jester lavorre #luc brenatto #my writing tag #donutmancy #Jessek

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