Hello, I am Percival Fredrickstein von Mussel Klossowski De Rolo III from Critical Role’s Vox Machina Capmaign (not Legend of Vox Machina, sorry), and I’m looking for any of the rest of Vox Machina, especially Vex. I’m 18, and I’m okay with talking to anyone 16+. I’m not interested in finding some specific timeline, I just miss you. If you see this, please DM me, and I can give you my discord if you have discord.
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Finished Kith & Kin today, and it's really good! It does a good job of digging into why the twins are the way they are, and remains faithful to what we know of their characterization from the early campaign while still making reasonable inferences about what they'd have been like before. There are many potential ways to write a relationship like the twins' very poorly, and Marike Nijkamp avoids all of them—the twins are there for each other no matter what and are incredibly devoted to each other, but they also bicker and argue like siblings and aren't afraid to push against each other if they think they should. There's a lot of good attention paid to even some small details, like what we know about how the twins behaved in Syngorn and how Vex studied harder than Vax. At some point I'd like to reread it and find some of the lines that really stuck out to me, because there are some great moments all throughout.
Nijkamp is also clearly aware that readers need a reason to be invested in a book whose main characters' fates are a foregone conclusion, because the overall conflict isn't one. They've developed a really strong cast of supporting characters over the course of the story whose fates aren't set in stone, and you're hooked into caring about them regardless. The characters and story all fit in perfectly with the world of Exandria; rather than simply prequel fodder, they feel like additions that have simply been there all along. The intrigue is engaging and balanced, the characterization is strong, and the various plot elements work not only as both direct and inverse functions of the twins' respective strengths, but also as reflections of the conflicts both between and within them, foreshadowing the points where we know their paths will ultimately diverge.
If you're a fan of the twins, I highly recommend this book! Honestly, if you can, see if you can pick it up in hardcover. I did, and I'd say I more than got my money's worth.
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"Holy crap, you look like hell."
Let's make this about the twins.
"Holy crap, you look like hell."
It was just a hunt. That's the annoying part. Hunting is what Vex does. It shouldn't have resulted in...this.
It started with the rain. Whatever. Rain happens. She trudged through Bramblewood, her threadbare boots soaking up every ounce of mud and water they sank into, and she was louder than she should hav been. Normally the rain dampens the sounds of her footfalls, but not today. Today, the squelching and the tripping and the swearing made her twice as loud as usual.
Which should have been her cue to throw in the towel—but no. Goat girl, that's what her mom would call her, as in stubborn as a. Whatever. She pressed forward anyway, belly rumbling like she knew Vax's would be back in the shithole they've been renting in Westruun. The hunger is probably why she wasn't thinking clearly, which is how she missed the culvert. She takes a step, expecting solid ground, and instead tumbles ass over teakettle ten, twenty, thirty feet, until she lands on her face in ankle-deep water.
Fuck this entire day.
She spent ten minutes collecting her scattered arrows, cursing Trinket for not wanting to drag his lazy ass with her, and cursing herself for not taking his lead. Another twenty minutes to haul herself up the sheer, slick side of the culvert, and this should have been the cue to go the fuck home.
She pressed on. Stubborn as a.
The good thing about being soaked and exhausted was that she couldn't feel her toes anymore, so if they hurt, she had no idea. The bad thing about being soaked and exhausted was that she wasn't entirely sure how she was going to get home, except for the fact that she'd rather pull her own teeth out than admit that she was lost.
She wasted an arrow on a deer who slipped like soap through the trees, another on a fat pheasant who took off just as she loosed the arrow. She was so hungry by midday, she took less than ten seconds to make a hazardous guess as to the edibility of a handful of berries she scrounged up before shoving them in her mouth. If they killed her, at least she'd be free of this fucking day.
By the time the sun started to dip into the sky, all she had to show for her hours of grueling effort was a squirrel that, in all honesty, was probably too sick to eat. And because she waited so long to give up the fruitless hunt, she was forced to navigate the forest with the shadows pulling long and the crepuscular things emerging from their daytime naps. She found herself caught up in the brambles of the Bramblewood no fewer than three times, so by the time she emerged on the edge of Westruun, starving and seething, she was covered in a thousand screaming scratches.
Which is how she ended up here, wet squirrel in one hand, useless bow in the other, dripping and glowering at her brother from the door of their hovel.
He slowly looks up from the dagger he's been sharpening. "Holy crap, you look like hell." She throws the squirrel at him. He dodges deftly. "So...no dinner then?"
She stomps to their bedroom and slams the door. She's never going to feel clean and dry and warm again. As she peels the sticky, muddy layers off, she hears her brother pick the squirrel up from the floor and begin skinning it. As skilled as he is with a blade, he's not as good at preparing kills as she is, but this day fucking sucks anyway, so what's a little fur in the two ounces of meat she's going to end up with at the end of all this?
It takes a solid thirty minutes for most of the filth to be toweled away, and her hair is beyond salvaging until she can have a proper bath. When she emerges from their room, it smells...good? Her face crumples in confusion.
Vax stands by their tiny woodstove, stirring something in their one pot. He sprinkles in some kind of spice—since when can they afford spices?—and looks at her over his shoulder. "You hungry?"
She's ready to eat the leather from her boots. "What are you making?"
"Your squirrel, plus the potatoes and leeks I bought from the market today, plus this nice Marquesian spice blend I swiped on my way out." He ladles half into their single bowl and sets it on the table. "Eat it before Trinket does."
The bear in question lows from the corner, offended.
Vex does not have to be told twice. She curls over the bowl, forces herself to eat as slowly as she can. It's fucking good, and not just because she's starving. "Seems like you had a more successful day than I did," she grumbles between mouthfuls.
Vax shrugs, eating his own half straight from the pot. "Last week you dragged an entire buck in here. It all evens out."
It does, because they take care of each other. It's what they're best at. Vax reaches across the table to tug at her nasty braid. "Which do you want me to take care of first, the hair or the cuts?"
The cuts are probably the bigger issue, and the last thing she wants to do is get infections in any of these things—but oh, the idea of having her hair brushed right now is enough to make her instantly drowsy. She examines the end of her braid. "Fix it for me?"
"Of course." And they finish their meager dinner in silence, and for the first time all day, Vex feels warm.
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