!! Spoiler For Peeps Who Don't Know The Majority Of The M9 Campaign Events !!

Thinking about how Essek is, like, the elven equivalent of 22 at the time of C2, and imagining him at like five or six hundred looking back at his youth floored by how reckless he was/the stupid stuff he did.

I'm not even talking about everything with the Beacons and the Assembly, but like: "Shit, how did I EVER think it was a good idea for Me, a Wizard, who relies solely on magic, to travel to Aeor, -alone-, with only my Wizard lover, who -also- only relied solely on magic, in a place WELL KNOWN to be brimming with Extremely Deadly Anti-Magic Creatures, Anti-magic Fields, and a surplus of Anti-Wizard Traps???"

Just a small DM-Moment, but I REALLY like how when Caleb is trying to manipulate Toya a bit in the boat/ensure her cooperation and Liam has to roll Persuasion and rolls like dogshit (RIP that 6™ XD), instead of taking an easier route of having Toya merely dismiss his words (ofc there are times and places for a players words to genuinely be ineffective!! But it can feel bad if you're trying real hard/speaking with alot of thought and you just roll real bad), Matt has it so that Toya is simply. . Very, very understandably distracted by the presence of the scary lady who choked her to unconsciousness just an hour or so earlier XD 😬 😂

Feels like such a good choice that opens up further roleplay (esp. since Beau/Marisha hadn't spoken up too much in the convo w/ Toya thus far), without discounting Liam's really good speech (unfortunately weighed down by that 6™ XD 😂)

Essek really do be a Starboy™, huh?

Okay, so this is an extremely stupid thought, is in no way plausible, is totally a crack theory/headcanon, and I’m not gonna do anything with it. But it was 3:30 AM when my brain came up with it, so just take a moment, don’t think, and just imagine this concept with me:

Essek is the physical embodiment of the beacons that have already been found.

I did a watch-through of c2e1 a few months ago so I'm going off my memories of that, but I recall realizing that - during the Circus Performance - Caleb was clapping a little along w/ everyone else during each performance (which in itself felt more to me like he was blending in). . . Until the fire act.

I've seen others mention how still he gets when stuff from his past is brought up, and I forgot if he went fully still here, but it stood out to me that while the others were clapping, impressed, he wasn't clapping at all™

Amelia: “When the Infinity Train appeared to me, it took on a futuristic appearance, promising a world of unimaginable technology and advancement that could potentially bring back Alrick…”

Grace: “The Infinity Train was gilded and beautiful, with a literal red carpet laid out for me, clearly beckoning to me as a star who deserved the world…!”

Tulip: “It took the appearance of a regular old train, but one heading to my destination: Osh Kosh!”

Jesse, who had the Infinity Train appear as Thomas the Tank Engine to him:

A Very Cursed Thought;

So, Essek has his wrist pocket spell, yes? I have read a few fics where it could be dispelled, but most usually in the Fanon I've seen it has been ruled that it drops when he is killed.

Please please imagine that Essek gets got (and no worries, he has 2 (two) Clerics and a whole rest of the Nein invested in his eventual survival, he'll be fine), but yeah he Gets Got and, as the stuff spills out of his dimensional wrist pocket, please imagine the sound Sonic the Hedgehog Makes when he gets got and the golden rings pop out.

That is all XD

i think actually the key to successfully doing tumblr (and especially doing fandom on tumblr) is realising that your blog is your little house and you can post about whatever you like there. once you realise you are just living in and decorating your very own silly little online house you start focusing on what makes you happy rather than constantly performing for & compromising your tastes for & placing all your self worth on little scraps of clout, and you will be a lot happier for it

"and genuine hot boi!"

Honestly the fact that the other Assembly members are helping Ludinus is a surprise. But it also is kinda expected. He thrives in the viper’s nest, he always has. Even the Vanguard has tenuous relations and I doubt he has any misgivings about how that is. He’s been the head of the Cerberus Assembly for centuries, he knows backstabbing and undermining like the back of his hand. And Ludinus probably loves that shit.

Because truly he can’t handle genuine relationships. Sincere care or compliments. It’s why Jester throws him off so much. Because her smiles are real. Because her compliments are genuine and not backhanded.

The fake smiles and promises, the underhanded slights and backstabs is the world Ludinus moves like water through. He plays the political game so very well. Delilah, the charismatic witch, herself said it. Everyone knows Ludinus is a snake but they all fall for his traps anyway. But people like Jester throw him off because it breaks his world view. It breaks the idea that the world is dog eat dog all the time and you have to play this game to get yours. He rejects these genuine connections, romantic and platonic because “it’s beneath him”, but truly also because he can’t fathom the idea of those things meaning something real, having worth in a world in which those are all tools to manipulate and gain something from you, distractions from a larger goal.

The conversation he had with Essek is reframed in this light. It is not just that he thinks Essek gaining friendship is a distraction, makes him weak. It’s that he cannot see how a wizard similar to him can believe in such things. “Maybe you should try friends” was a sick burn but also there is this notion that Ludinus doesn’t get that. He doesn’t believe that is possible. True friendship isn’t something good or meaningful, it’s supposed to be a tool. In his mind Essek should have used the M9 to get further ahead.

Oh yes I do believe he does care for Liliana in some way. But it is also in the way that he needs her for his plans. Everything he does is framed around his goals, his needs. Because he cannot see relationships as anything but transactional. Subconsciously perhaps he desires deeper connections, but he will consciously bar himself from committing to such a thing because he has no faith in such a thing.

So yeah he is going to surround himself with people that hate him, people that he knows will backstab him at some point. Because he gets that. That’s familiar to him. He can deal with hatred and jealousy, but he can’t deal with genuineness.

there's something so funny about how the early Nein talks like Fjord has a high charisma but only took intimidate and lie as his skills and also only talks when it's clear everyone else has fucked the situation so bad he has to step in. Jester, Molly, and Beau all have proficiency in lie but all three of them have +0/+1 to Charisma and prof bonuses aren't that great at early levels and also none of them will shut up. Sam has a negative to charisma and cannot stop trying to talk because he hasn't really registered that he's not Scanlan any more. Caleb has both a decent charisma and also has a proficiency bonus to lie but he really only uses it in PVP. the ONLY person who took persuade was Jester.