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crithaus · 1 year

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man hang on hang on, I'm cooking, I'm simmering here...

The Royal House of Whitestone so says Percy

needs some royal regalia (and one day I'll get up on my soapbox and ask the questions that need be asked re: What did Johanna need a full set of armor for and can I watch her crush shit with it), but so obviously Frederick gives Johanna as a part of her betrothal gifts, her wedding accoutrement, a proper bridal tiara right

Like properly, what else is her veil supposed to be held to, and furthermore as the new matriarch of House De Rolo she needs to be gifted a parure befitting a woman of her new stature, and I bet it's an old old piece of white gold, amethyst, sapphires and regular gold, Whitestone colors of course, and it's so old that Frederick got it from his own mother who got it from her mother from her mother from Melanie, for the express purpose of crowning his new bride, that it's passed through every lady of Whitestone's hands,

And as Julius sat there with his hands on her fat belly Johanna thought to herself, well, tradition is as tradition does I suppose, and she might have drafted a new set for their new little duskborn present, their eventide blessing, and that wasn't traditional but who cares, Whitestone prospers and her daughters will have their little trinkets, but I think on Vesper's coming of age Johanna sets her own diadem on Vesper's head with a smile at her slight breach of etiquette, coming of age but not yet married and yet it'll be our little secret, and she's kept Whitney and Cassandra's parures safe in a box in her room for when the time came, the requisite jewels can come and go on their little heads but this diadem was, is, has always been special, a family heirloom and an homage to the bonny and blitheness of their home all in one. The lady of Castle Whitestone settled for a slightly less bombastic headpiece that Frederick found for her in his own mother's belongings and life shifted on, and no one could deny that Vesper wore it well and with pride.

I think Sylas snatches it out of Vesper's matted hair to place it on the new lady of the House, and I think despite the brainwashing that that simple sight rankles in Cassandra's heart like nothing else, and when they kick the Briarwoods out obviously, obviously Percy takes it and sets it just so in Cass's hair, he is the new lord of whitestone after all, for a few more days, hours at least, and She the new lady, and that hurts y'know, it's a good hurt but it does hurt. Perhaps it doesn't fit perfectly but when it's all you have left at the moment, what else can you do?

and then Vex and Percy's first wedding rolls around, and despite it being a secret, a wrapped cushion appears on her bed as she's getting ready for the most important day of her life, a startlingly heavy little package with the most beautiful hairpiece she's ever seen with a little note of "for your special day, Lady De Rolo," tucked into the package string. (Cass puts on the diadem her mother had made specifically for her instead, they found it in the back of her boudoir, hidden and unscathed somehow, and it fits like an absolute dream, and suits her too, and the fact that it does so makes her cry so hard, mother never could have known it'd end like that and yet...) And Percy might have cried harder than he was already going too when he sees Vex but he spares her the sad explanation until after their wedding night, and when Vax leaves and everything settles down and the world stops ending for once, and little Vesper Elaina is sitting directly on her bladder, she takes to wearing it around the castle a lot more. It suits her, surprisingly enough.

(and one day it'll rest on Vesper's head again, and one day Percy will walk Leona and Gwendolyn down the aisle with that piece in their hair and feel a type of way about it)

#critical role #vox machina #percy de rolo #perc'ahlia #vex'ahlia de rolo #Vesper De Rolo #vesper elaina de rolo #Johanna Von Musel #Frederick De Rolo #gangs all here bitches #anyway im normal now ive said my piece #johanna what did you fight girl and can i watch #is that why Frederick wifed you up??! did you slay his enemies??

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blorbologist · 1 year

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Start simple

[Gen / 4k words / Perc’ahlia + Vesper Elaina de Rolo & Vox Machina]

[First two scenes use dialog from Dalen’s Closet; gift fic for @katia-dreamer]

[HAPPY BELATED BIRTHDAY KATIE!! I’m sorry I’m late, between the end of the semester and the conference I’ve been busy as a bee - but this was a wonderful distraction <3 ]

“What’s her name?” asks Scanlan. Even in his arms she is tiny.

It’s by some fluke that he’s the first of Vox Machina to hold her. Keyleth was, as luck would have it, far from any trees and a fair flight besides. The whole process had Tary a little lightheaded, so he is recovering from a fainting spell in the drawing room. Pike is tidying up after the whole ordeal, and Grog stampeded off to fetch Cassandra and water and snacks in no clear order.

Vex’s heart beats empty with her daughter - her daughter! - a few feet away, pulling each inhale taut until she can hold her again. It’s a new feeling. It’s terrifying - and altogether exhausting, moreso than the whole birthing business.

Percy brushes sweaty hair away from her temples for the nth time - neither have the strength to rebraid the tangle to keep it that back. She can’t quite tear her eyes away from their baby to see his face, but from how his voice stumbles over the smallest sounds she knows it’s messy with adoration.

“Do you want to -”

She shakes her head. “Oh no, it’s all you.”

He takes a breath so big she feels it tremble against her back. “It’s Vesper.”

(Vesper is an old Celestial word for the evening star - fitting, then, that the sun had only just closed its eyes before she began to squall.)

Scanlan’s smile widens. He half-nods, or maybe readjusts his angle to get a better look at her. “Oh,” he says, “that’s pretty good.”

Vex lied, earlier. It’s not all Percy. “Vesper Elaina,” she adds, because that’s her mother’s name and she knows Scanlan. Knows how he fights off tears too big for him with an even bigger grin.

“Vesper Elaina de Rolo,” Percy finishes. She suspects he’ll never grow tired of saying it. Doubts she will, either. It feels revitalizing, a healing word, their daughter’s name a spell on them.

Finally, after a long silence, where Vex’s heart beats too loud and her ears prick for even the faintest gurgle of protest and all of her -

Scanlan’s eyes flit their way, coy. He rocks over, all gentleness Vex has never known to him, and makes to return the baby to her parents. Pike is stirring, so who knows how long they have. “Just one middle name?”

“Start simple,” says Percy.

[Keep reading on AO3!]

#critical role #campaign 1 #vox machina #cr fanfic #critical role fanfiction #perc'ahlia #percahlia #vesper de rolo #de rolo family #vex'ahlia #percival de rolo #keyleth #pike trickfoot #grog strongjaw #just a whole lotta VM and family fluff #Vesper collecting nicknames like Vex earned titles <333 rlly runs in the family #ft: aasimar!Vesper. Trans!Vax'ildan2. why I think Gwen has those extra names. just a lot of fluff

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hayleysayshay · 1 year

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In my headcanons Vesper and Julius have a larger age gap than the rest of their siblings. Like Johanna had Julius then four years later had Vesper then had Percy a few years later and then after Percy decided to have quite a few more children in rapid succession before she got too old and wanted a big family. So Percy was around 17 when the Briarwoods attacked, Whitney and Oliver being around 15/16, Ludwig around 14 and then Cassandra just turned 13. So there was over ten years between Julius and Cassandra.

Percy absolutely pretended he was part of the older lot than Whitney and Oliver because Percy liked to pretend to be an adult. However Vesper did used to dote on Percy as he was her first younger sibling and he used to toddle after her when he was three and she was six.

Percy was the tallest de Rolo in the family, and Julius was totally not annoyed about that, but Percy knows that they never really saw if Ludwig or Oliver would catch up.

The only thing is that I feel like these older siblings may have had engagements already but I just explain it that Vesper hadn’t had a chance yet and Julius had already fucked up an engagement by being a manwhore (also a himbo).

#vox machina #critical role #percy de rolo #de rolo family #Julius de rolo #vesper de rolo

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saintdollyparton · 2 years

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Something I just realized is Vex and Percy’s oldest child is probably around Imogen’s age now. Vesper was shown to be 23 as of 836 PD in Tal’Dorei Reborn. It’s now 843 PD in the Bell’s Hells campaign. I wonder if she’s off adventuring or if she is a mature, responsible adult instead lol.

#critical role #cr spoilers #vesper de rolo #bells hells #bell's hells #imogen temult #vex'ahlia #percy de rolo #randa rambles

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essayofthoughts · 10 months

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Any angst HCs for crunchy moments as the quarter elves grow up? Close calls, or bad illness, or being lost, or assailants in Whitestone, or a parent scaring the kids, anything that'd give Vex and Percy nightmares? >:3c

Some of these are crunchy, some are just tasty, all are some flavour of angsty. Some definitely give Percy and Vex nightmares, some are just awful moments that stick with a person in a different way, a lasting underlying worry that persists afterwards while never being so much as to fully form a nightmare.

I hope you enjoy.

Vesper

So, you know I don't think that Vesper is actually an aasimar. I think she's planetouched, I just don't think she's a full aasimar. And... I think that gets to her as she's growing up? Because look. She has the white hair, she learned Celestial practically at her father's knee, she knows so much stuff about Pelor thanks to her mum but-

She's not angelborn. She's just a person. And I think there's a lot of people who try to put her on a pedestal because they want to believe that she's an aasimar, especially Whitestone natives. What better shows the healing of Whitestone from the depredations of necromancy and undeath and demons than an aasimar?

So I think she feels a lot of pressure growing up from this, from being put on a pedestal of expectations and belief and I think she struggles with that a lot! Who wouldn't! And she's her parents' firstborn and after so much loss as well just- that's a lot on this little girl's shoulders!

I think there's probably a total screaming, crying, sobbing meltdown at some point when she's about six or seven after some kid at a big diplomatic gathering says something to her about angels and she just finally breaks over it which I think is the point Percy and Vex intervene. I don't know that they'd necessarily noticed it before, especially because a lot of it would be small, or only directed directly at Vesper as she grows, or would be things easily passed off as, well, Vesper is the firstborn of the newly renewed de Rolo family.

I think this may also be why she ends up supporting Cass more as she grows, because Cass too knows what it's like to be faced with a huge amount of expectations and, moreover, to have to shoulder it, and so I think she understands Vesper's struggles better than most, and in turn, helps Vesper see what she can be regardless of others' beliefs and expectations. But yeah, I do think she gets treated quite gently for a bit after the melt because... well. I think she's very well behaved for the most part - partly due to her own nature and partly due to the expectations, kind of a hint of Gifted Kid Syndrome.

This said, I think this also means she understands Gwen and the difficulties Gwen is likely to face a great deal better than most except for like. Zahra and other actual tieflings, and I think Vesper is probably Gwen's favourite sibling for that exact reason.

Leona

Look. She didn't like glasses. She didn't. Yes they mean she can see but they're right there, dad! right at the end of her nose! All the time! I think she takes some time to get used to them and is never particularly pleased with the fact she needs them. I think she's also more than a bit jealous that clearly Vex's perceptiveness evened out to perfect eyesight for all her other siblings, hey mum, no fair!

I don't think she ever did something terribly reckless about it, like looking up spells supposed to help eyesight and trying to cast them... but I think she definitely looked them up. I think she also looked up an awful lot of hare-brained schemes and constantly gave her parents heart attacks over what new deranged idea she'd come up with.

But I think the worst is when she ran off into the woods after some kind of argument, likely with Wolfe, confident in what ranging she'd learned from Vex to keep her safe...

Only it was dark and she was upset and she got lost.

And then. It started to rain.

It was a very rough night out in the woods in those circumstances. Leona knew enough to climb into a tree, out of reach of most of the predators, and in hope of being able to perhaps spot a landmark in day, but it's hard to stay balanced while you're sleeping so she dozed but didn't really get much rest.

When she woke there was a Wolf at the bottom of the tree.

Not a Wolfe, to be clear. At that point, Wolfe would be welcome. But a Wolf, very much deserving of the capital letter because it was big, and it was watching up at her with very clever, aware eyes.

Oh no, Leona thinks. I'm going to get eaten.

But the Wolf doesn't try to jump up. There's no scuff marks on the trunk suggesting it might have. Indeed, there's a whole puddle of wolf footprints of various sizes around the foot of the tree, but only this one Wolf waiting.

Softly, the Wolf barks, and turns to point it's nose towards a slight gap between two bushes. When Leona looks in that direction, pushing branches out of her way-

She can see her father's clocktower.

Oh. Hadn't her mother said there was a giant wolf in the woods? Galdric, companion of the last Champion of the Raven Queen?

Well, she's always been down for a harebrained scheme. She clambers down the tree carefully, bit by bit, never entirely sure the Wolf wouldn't attack - she's harebrained at times but not stupid - but it never jumps, just occasionally whines a little until she plants both feet on the ground. Then it sniffs around her once, twice, and starts walking in the direction it had looked earlier. When it gets to the bushes it pauses, glancing back.

It's different in a wolf's face than a bear's, but Leona recognises Trinket's "aren't you following?" look.

In a few hours, she's at the treeline. A few minutes after she's at the town wall, her hand buried in Galdric's fur - it has to be Galdric - as he walks her the last few steps to the gate. As soon as one of the Hunters runs up to her, he turns and heads back off to the woods.

(Leona cries when Vex runs up to her and wraps her in a hug. It's okay - Vex is crying too.)

Wolfe

I think he at one point had quite a nasty fall.

There's a lot of ravens in Whitestone, especially after Vax's passing, and some of these ravens I imagine end up getting very bold. Whether they're RQ ravens or regular ones, corvids are smart and I wouldn't be surprised if over the years they get bold enough to pull a seagull - stealing food, landing on people's heads, etc.. And... I imagine all of the children know about their mother's brother and the gaping hole it left in their family and they know the ravens are linked to that. I strongly believe that being visited by the ravens becomes something the children impute meaning into, whether or not there's any divine influence in play - see the next entry on this in a second - and that they see it as meaning they're on the right path, what fate intends, that they're being watched over by their uncle.

I also think that children are little shits and probably like to play stupid games with each other and even with animals. So... I can see them chasing around some of the bolder ravens, encouraging them close and playing something like tag with them. Ravens do play, and there's magic in whitestone which is in the mountains around the city and would seep into the plants and thus the wildlife - I would be unsurprised if there was a little magical hint in the local area making animals a little smarter or more magical.

So... Wolfe chasing one of the ravens for tag. Running around the gardens, climbing trees and up to a tower window and on to the ramparts...

Except. Ravens can fly.

Little boys can't.

Between Vex and Keyleth and Pike, I think Wolfe is fine, physically. I think he is very afraid of heights for a good long while after, if not his whole life, and I think there's times when, despite all that magical healing, he remembers how it hurt to impact the ground like that, and want to curl small, to protect all those raw edges.

I think that's why he tries to stand so tall otherwise. Not unlike his father with all his shielding layers, I think Wolfe tries to find ways to hide or obscure the hurts he wants to forget ever happened.

Vax'ildeux

Well, for a very simple one: I think Danny saw his brother fall. I think he was the one to get their parents, and I think the visual of his brother crumpled on the ground stuck with him for a good long while.

But I promised ravens and their imputed meanings for this one so: as some of you may know, I have a very firm headcanon that Vax2 is trans.

Now, him being trans isn't too much of an issue. Exandria is by and large all for gender rights, and his family is more than wealthy enough to enable him to transition to whatever degree he wants. I think it was a bit tricky for him figuring it out but once he had I think telling his family wasn't too much trouble.

I think the trouble came for him in picking a new name.

Looking at the various de Rolo siblings several are named after lost family members (Vesper Elaina, Wolfe, Gwen (Melanie)) and while we don't know for certain that Leona or Wolfe's middle "Kristoff" are lost family members for Percy I also wouldn't be surprised. I think, therefore, it is not unlikely that Vax2's deadname also referred to lost family members! And shedding it feels a bit disrespectful, and that's even before picking a name which feels right and appropriate - I think it took him a long time to settle.

I think he absolutely considered his dad's brothers for names - Julius, Oliver, Ludwig - but given none of the children are named for them, I'm almost inclined to say that Cass called dibs on getting to use their siblings' other names if she ever had children. And I imagine the kids love and respect their Auntie Cass, so those names were out unless he wanted to go begging to Auntie Cass - which he absolutely could do but I think he probably felt was a bit intimidating.

So... his dad's brothers' names were out... but what about his mother's brother's?

But he knows that name is a raw thing not just for his mum but for his dad and for his Auntie Keyleth, so could he, really? Could he take that name on? It's a heavy name too, one with meaning to a lot of people, and him taking it on would mean something, and of course he couldn't be Vax2, but-

It's a long name. "Danny" rolls easily enough off the tongue.

And the more he thinks about it, the more he likes it.

The more he thinks about it, the more he notices the ravens sitting at his window as he mulls it over, tries to think what name to go with it - not one of his father's brothers' names, obviously, but what about his grandfather? His father bears a piece of his father's name, so that's a name Percy has dibs on, not Cass, so.. Vax'ildan Frederick. That sounds right.

And the raven watching caws.

Well. That settles it.

The really really daunting thing is talking to his parents and to his Aunt Keyleth, to find out if they'd be okay with his new name. If it wouldn't be too much. If it wouldn't hurt them if he claimed it - it would help him to have a name that fit, yes, but he doesn't want that at the cost of hurting his loved ones.

Isn't it lucky, after all, that they think it fits as well?

Gwendolyn

I think the thing that prompted the family moving from the manor and into the castle, out of Vex's own personal home and to Percy's family home which holds so many bad memories for him, is that someone made an attempt on Gwen's life.

After all, she's a tiefling, how can that be right or true! Her mother is a divine champion, her father freed Whitestone (and made a demon deal AND a devil contract, but how many people know about that? None likely to share them, except for Scanlan, and Scanlan is capable of tact on a rare day) - obviously this is some awful joke that needs to be Fixed.

"Fixed" just happens to mean at the end of a bloodied knife to some.

So someone got into the manor and someone attacked Gwen and between Trinket and the other children and the Grey Hunt members in the manor at the time, the person does not make it out well or even possibly alive. Gwen is unscathed.

But Percy and Vex have the very difficult discussion of what to do. Stay at the manor and try to increase security? And the manor is ideal for Vex, for diplomatic jobs to Emon (tree teleport with Keyleth), generally leaving out the main road) or jobs in the Parchwood (just outside city limits) or dealing with Hunt business (it is Grey Hunt headquarters) and it's hers, it was given to her by Percy, it means, so much - but their children mean more. And after the Briarwoods, Cass (who knows all the castle's secret passages) has made it frighteningly secure. They cannot make the manor the same kind of secure.

(The other children, the older children, are having nightmares, terrified that they'll wake up and find Gwen gone, or wake up and find someone standing over them with a knife, terrified in their own home-)

So they move up to the castle.

Gwen is so young she barely remembers - she learns later through some comment made by one of her siblings - but the rest of them remember. The rest of them cannot forget.

#vesper de rolo #leona de rolo #wolfe de rolo #vax'ildan de rolo #gwendolyn de rolo #blorbologist #ask #living up to my username #cr headcanons

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you-poopin · 11 months

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I JUST HAD A THOUGHT and it's so painfully cute.

Say Vesper goes to school, right? And the school does a little concert/recital thing and of course Percy and Vex are there, as well as Cass.

And Scanlan and Pike and Grog and Keyleth and Kaylie and Tary.

They take up one entire row.

#critical role #campaign 1 #vox machina #post campaign #campaign 1 spoilers #vesper de rolo #critters #percy de rolo #vex'ahlia #percy x vex

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littlebosslady7 · 10 months

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Top 5 Perc’ahlia headcanons?

Percy and Vex can DANCE. It’s expected of nobles to know various waltzes. But they can swing when those horns blow. They can most certainly tango. But their favorite way to dance alone is just swaying in each other’s arms to someone crooning or a jazz ballad.

Vex likes finding Percy various hard cover or leather bound books he would enjoy in almost any city they visit.

Percy makes Vex a music box There’s a specific type of wood, similar to Vermaloc. But it changes with her mood. He ensured the design is Slyvan Elvish with Keyleth. The tune is something she hums to Vesper in the womb.

Percy and Vex can sing well, but what melts them is when either one or the pair them sing to their kids in Celestial and Elvish.

Percy draws Vex at various stages in their marriage— sexy, pregnant with their babies, at events to avoid peopling, and even when they have grand babies.

#perc’ahlia #vesper de rolo #cr1 #cr3 #cr headcanons

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neo-somnovem-thirst-account · 2 years

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I saw people pointing out that the Tal’dorei campaign guide has Gwendolyn at around the age she is in c3 right now but it’s dated 10 years before c3, and i was confused by this too. I figured maybe matt fudged some ages cuz he wanted to showcase Percy being a big softie for an 8 year old.

but it just hit me, she’s of elven decent…like i immediately knew vex “looked” 30 but is in her late 50’s maybe 60’s, but it somehow didn’t occur to me that Gwendolyn, and by that metric all the De Rolo children, might ALSO be aging slower. Like, Vesper is in her 30’s (maybe late 20’s idk she’s roughly Beau’s age), but she might look like she’s in her early twenties or maybe even her mid-late teens. idk how does quarter elf aging work? (i know matt called the twins, Wolfe and Leona, Half-elves but whatever). It’s fully possible the Gwendolyn we’re seeing is in her teens but only looks 6-8.

(i know that according to official d&d lore elves, and by proxy half elves, are supposed to age like humans till maturity then slow down…but that makes absolutely no sense to me)

idk has matt talked anywhere about how elf/half elf aging (both before maturity and in general) work in Exandria specifically?

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darkdisrepair · 2 years

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there's just something so devastating about how vex probably looks younger than vesper at this point.

like- judging by the posts i've been seeing gwen is supposed to be a teenager? and vesper, as the oldest, has to be in her twenties, probably mid twenties.

white hair ages you more than you should, and matt said vex looks like she's in her thirties.

how long will it be before the people of whitestone are accidentally calling vesper "lady vex'ahlia?" how long before they turn to her, when the two of them are side by side, not knowing that the younger looking of the two is vesper's mother?

it's like being called vax all over again, for vex, but maybe this time is worse, because it's another reminder that this is her daughter that she's outliving, this time.

#cr spoilers #critical role spoilers #vox machina #vex'ahlia #vex'ahlia de rolo #vesper de rolo #i'm sorry in advance #campaign 3 #critical role

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w1zords · 2 years

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de rolos&!

#critical role #perc'ahlia #percival de rolo #vexahlia #vesper de rolo #de rolo bbs #yes it’s the yotsuba pose #yes im valid #yes percy is on his tippy toes #🤷‍♀️

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isagrimorie · 1 year

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i wish we got to see vesper de rolo too. i’m curious about the eldest de rolo daughter and what she’s up to.

and why is her hair white like percy?

percy’s hair was white because of trauma. same as why laudna and cassandra have white streaks, because of the trauma the briarwoods inflicted on them.

what is your story, vesper? who are you more like?

tell me more, matt!

#critical role #vesper de rolo

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criticalbeauregard · 2 years

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what if matt has percy and vex be indisposed (so he doesn’t have to play 3-4 vm members) and they send vesper or something in their place??

#I want to meet her so bad #critical role #cr spoilers #obviously I want vex and percy most but #c3e35 #vex’ahlia de rolo #percy de rolo #vesper de rolo

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blorbologist · 1 year

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Just wanted to be brave like you

Gen | 1.7k | Perc’ahlia and little Vesper | Modern AU | Just fuckin sad

Cross-posted to AO3

She’d warned him.

Vex had taken her husband aside when it became clear this film was on the agenda for the day. “Percy, darling,” she’d said, all filed edges and feather soft, “you don’t have to-”

“I do,” he’d insisted just as gently. “I’m not missing out on time with the women of my life because of a movie. Not an obligation, but a pleasure.” Then, wry: “Besides, we’ve both seen worse. Been through worse. The reviews are great, Keyleth has recommended it for as long as I can remember. Now is as good a time as any.”

“Are you sure?” And she’d pulled back to scrutinize him. Vex’ahlia is and always has been very good at that. There are no lies in him for her to find, though he suspected that’s not what she was looking for. “Percy, it made Vax sob the first time we watched it after our mother-”

She fell short of words, so he went the extra mile to find some for her: “I know, I know, dear. But it’s Vax. He’s like that. It’s a silly movie, and I have you both to protect me. It’ll be fine. Please?”

“Alright, darling. If you’re sure.”

She’d warned him, and he hadn’t listened.

Percy buries his face in Vex’s shoulder, waits for the music to pick up a little louder, and uses all this to cover a pathetic, wet sniffle.

Peeking through his lashes, it does not seem like Vesper noticed, too enraptured by the television screen.

She clutches her stuffie to her chest with a gasp. The dusty scene glides slowly over the still golden form of a magnificent beast.

“Dad?”

Vesper mouths no - he thinks, because his eyes are burning and he really can’t look a second longer. Percival de Rolo has another embarrassing, probably snotty sniffle in his wife’s (his, but she’s stolen it) sweater.

Why the fuck is he, a grown man, getting weepy over animated lions?!

Bless his wife - no I told you so, just a calloused hand running through his hair, over and over.

“Dad, c’mon,” begs Simba - he thinks it’s named Simba, “you gotta get up. We’ve got to go home.”

And fool that he is he looks up just in time to see the cub tug at his father’s ear - oh gods, just like at the beginning of the movie when he woke him up for the patrol - and the horror, the realization -

Percival does not say fuck because he is the father of a five-year-old. He comes close, though, because even a vehement “Fudge,” is wholly incapable of conveying how truly wretched he feels.

He knew the stupid lion was going to die. The film is just about as old as he is, and Vex had warned him repeatedly. For all that he never watched these movies growing up, Percy was not found under a rock either - everyone knows Mufasa dies.

It’s just something else, to be presented with the desperate loneliness again. This can’t be happening. He can’t be gone, they can’t be gone. Help - somebody, anybody, help. (And no one did.)

“Percy?” Vex murmurs, and he can hardly hear her beyond the raspy breathing. His raspy breathing. Oh dear.

“‘m coping,” he gets out.

They both freeze when Vesper starts whimpering. Percy just has time to see her cheeks become tantrum-red before she bubbles into hiccups.

“Vesper, sweetheart - what’s wrong?”

The words are a trigger - springloaded, she spins around to bury her face in Percy’s chest with a sob that breaks his darned heart. “I don’t want you to go-” she sobs, and that heart crumbles to dust in tiny hands when she takes fistfulls of his shirt.

“Dear,” and he’s so watery, he doesn’t want his baby to see him like this, surely it’ll make it worse, “I’m not going anywhere-”

“He promised! Papa, he promised!” He gets a shaking hand to the nape of her neck, rubbing soothing circles that do little to make him feel better. They don’t seem to help Vesper, either, who clings tighter. She also makes a very obvious smear of snot, which, really, is enough to get a choked laugh from him.

Vex might have paused the television - Percy can’t be sure, when she shuffles around to hug them both. “Vesper - little Whisper,” Vex whispers, barely beyond tears herself, “what do you want, sweetheart?”

“I want Daddy,” she sobs, “and - and you, and me, and - and-”

Vex’s free hand takes up running through as much of Vesper’s hair as she can. It usually works on her just as well as it does Percy - instead their little girl jerks back, almost offended her mother thinks she can soothe this new pain.

“He’s alone! His - his Papa’s dead and he’s alone and he promised-”

“It’s just a movie,” Percy warbles. Takes a moment to sound less devastated than his child. She needs him. “Vesper, darling, it’s okay. There are no stampedes here, no evil lions. We’re not going anywhere - I promise, I give you my word.”

He can’t promise that.

He knows better than anyone, anyone at all. There’s worse than wildebeest, worse than evil uncles. Long live the king, death to the de Rolos, there’s little difference.

But he’s a father, now, he’s Vesper’s father, and if this is her reaction to the understanding that he could die - that he could be gone - he will build every bulwark, every defense against her ever experiencing this heartbreak as he has. Fuck tragedy, age, accidents - he won’t leave his family. He won’t. Death will have to face him, and he’s got good odds that death will lose.

Death had won back then, though, which makes him clutch Vesper tighter.

One day. But he will fight for each one he has with them. And knows well Vex will do the same.

It goes around like that - the DVD player faintly whirring in protest, here and there, as Vesper keeps repeating the tragedy in her mind, as Vex and Percy keep trying to soothe her of it.

Vex shoulders most of it. Percy is still in much of a state himself, to his shame. Bouts of comfort before he needs to take some for himself: Vesper’s hazel eyes made dark grey by the film of tears, or his grief-rough voice sounding like his father’s to his ears.

It’s not fair to Vex, to be juggling the both of them. He hates this, badly, but struggling to keep his breathing even just makes it buck his control and throw him into more crying.

He has a family, now. Vex and Vesper and Cass and Vax and Keyleth and Velora and those bound to him by no law but forces greater than them. No one here is alone, and never will be again.

“Daddy, you’re sad.”

Well, so much for hiding it. Percy cannot exactly wipe away the tears regardless - hands full and all, and unlike his progeny he is not going to wipe snot on his shirt. “I guess I am,” he admits.

“You -” Vesper has to pause to work through the words - stuck somewhere in her throat, he thinks, maybe wiggling in her mouth like a frog, he knows the feeling. “You don’t-”

He leans into Vex’s touch. An anchor for the wave he knows is coming. He takes the time he can to measure his breathing before Vesper says, “I - Daddy, you don’t have a daddy.”

“No - no, sweetheart, I don’t.”

(He doesn’t include the list, the tombstone-script of names. He’s lost so much more than his father, but he supposes that’s a good place to start. Let alone Vex’s mother. One at a time, or he’ll break again and break worse and Vesper doesn’t need that.)

Vesper looks up at him with streaming eyes. “I’m sorry, Papa.” She squeezes him with all her might - which is considerable, to him. So much love to give and with no remorse. Those perfect little brows - more Vex’s than his - furrow something fierce, and she struggles just free enough of his hold to offer her stuffy. Who is also covered in snot. “’m sorry. Will - will Bauble make it better?”

And oh, fuck, he isn’t ready for that.

“Thank you, dear,” he says solemnly. “Yes - yes, Bauble makes it better.”

He lets Vesper press the owlbear (it was supposed to be a bear, but - Velora, dear, that’s a beak) to his chest, where his heart struggles to pet it.

“I love you, Papa.”

She says it often. More than daily, more times than he can count - and he has tried, diligently, to count and treasure each one.

This one makes his face melt into something awful, and Vesper looks so worried, so scared, and it’s because of the stupid animated lions -

He must have made a gods-awful sound, this time, because there’s a racket of tags and claws on the hardwood as a brown blur bounds over from the kitchen and launches himself at the couch.

Which he’s not supposed to be on, strictly speaking, but who could keep Vax from encouraging the habit? And who would dare fault him now when all the de Rolos shriek.

“Trinket,” Vex scolds, hardly scolding at all. “Down, buddy!”

He just wuffles and noses Vesper’s ear until she wails with giggles, shoving her open palms at their dog. Those get licked too.

It’s very hard to cry when a huge fluffy dog is whining at you for every whimper and licking at your mouth until they turn into laughs.

Percy will be sure to sneak him a little ham, later.

“Tell you what,” says Vex, in his ear. Vesper wiggles to look up at her, too. What must their daughter see? Vex is too close and his eyes too damp to make out much of her beyond redder than normal and shaky. What a portrait, what a distressing sight. “You remember what the daddy lion -”

Sniffle. “Mufasa, Mama.”

She smiles. “- what Mufasa said earlier? About the great kings of the past?” Trinket’s collar rustles when Vex ruffles his soft ears. “Later tonight, after supper, we can go look at the stars, and… talk to them. Would you like that, darling?”

Percy is fairly sure she means Vesper. But when their daughter pinches her eyes shut - overwhelmed? To think? - she’s looking at him with eyes he’d surrender his fears to.

Would he like that?

“Yes, Mummy,” Vesper burbles, with a final rub of her fist to her nose. She then pats Percy’s arm, snot and all. “Can - can we keep watching the movie, Papa?”

“It gets scary,” Vex warns gently. A glance at the screen confirms that Scar looms, some shadows in the dust behind him. “If it’s too much, just tell us and we can stop, alright darling?”

“Trinket will protect you,” Percy adds quietly. The thump of a stubby tail seconds that.

Vesper nods so bravely. “Alright.”

Dutifully, Vex - the only one with a free arm to reach the remote, and with the least gross hands - presses play, and soon enough the thrilling music and fast-paced chase have Vesper distracted again. Even Trinket watches, with his old eyes, laying his head on her little lap.

Percy brands a kiss to Vex’s brow. As hard as he dares.

She hugs him a touch too tight. It’s a promise.

#im Fine im totally Fine im so Fine im So okay I dont have Issues regarding dads dying i swear #critical role #cr fanfic #critical role fanfiction #perc'ahlia #percahlia #percival de rolo #percy de rolo #vesper de rolo #de rolo family #vex'ahlia #modern au #my writing #just a lil ficlet to get over some writer's block

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