#hjea

And call me goth!Vax garbage but I’m obsessed with the idea that the Ashari people and the Counsel of Tal’Dorei just started to call him The Raven? The association is obvious, of course, he’s fate-touched, the Raven Queen’s champion, but also personifies a raven’s symbolism? Like you have Keyleth, Voice of the Tempest, who is a storm in her own right, formulating plans for the crisis orbs and only becoming more powerful as time progresses. She tears from one thing to the next as furiously as a tornado, then following behind her like a shadow is Vax, who will do his best to care for the finer details; making sure she’s being heard and her plans are being carried out, but more importantly, that she’s actually listened to and taken as seriously as she deserves. The idea of a raven picking at the remains left on a battlefield is not lost on anyone and slowly it just... begins to stick?

Mainly by way of the Ashari children, who are so eager to give a name to this mysterious, handsome man who follows at the coattails of their vibrant, jovial Tempest. It seems strange to address Keyleth in such a formal, honorable manner and then there’s this half-elf dressed all in black who seems pretty dangerous too, saved Tal’Dorei a couple of times, but just call him Vax I guess? The Raven becomes not just a nickname for his armor or the goddess he champions, but a distinguished title for the man found most often at the right hand (and in the heart) of the Ashari’s most beloved leader.

“Nice place you got here.” Jennifer strolled in with her hands in her pockets, only recoiling a little when Cassie hugged her, hard. “Oof. Wow. We just saw each other yesterday, let’s not go crazy.”

Cassie stepped back, coughing at the smell of patchouli. “Jennifer, it’s been two years.”

“Has it? Oh. That’s the problem with the crazies. Time is meaningless.”

Time had dictated their lives for what felt like centuries. But Cassie didn’t argue. “Cole’s back,” she said like it was a simple thing, and not the earth-shaking moment that had made her finally feel whole.

“I know that. Who do you think drove him up here? I mean, it took Otter Eyes like a full five minutes to realize he had no way to get here and no money so…”

“He didn’t mention that.” He was passed out upstairs, no doubt wiped out by the splinter that had literally ported him back into existence.

Jennifer gave her a lascivious look. “I’d say he was a little busy.”

Cassie laughed. “I’ve missed you, too.”

“’Kay. He wasn’t expecting me to wait around, but, eh, I’ve got time.” Jennifer flicked her hand through the back of her own hair. She seemed far less of a pressurized container for mania than Cassie remembered. She couldn’t tell if the passage of the years had dulled her memories, or if Jennifer truly had mellowed. Primes did tend to disassociate less as they grew older, she knew. And the timeline had fixed itself, which meant that Jennifer might not need to plug in so intimately and intensely. But even mellowed, she still bristled and crackled, pacing around Cassie’s living room, picking up knickknacks, setting them down, running her fingers across picture frames. “Nice place. Homey. Expected more minimalism from you, Doc.”

“A house like this calls for something more rustic. Speaking of, you should check the room at the top of the stairs. On the right.” She added the last bit quickly, knowing Jennifer would happily burst into the left room and wake James up.

“What is it? Some kind of sex dungeon?” Jennifer asked, not bothering to climb the steps quietly.

“Yes, I keep all my dungeons on the second story. Just open the door.”

Jennifer gave her the patented okay weirdo look that Cassie had always felt was unfair, and pushed the door open. She paused in the doorway, brow furrowed. “It’s a guest bedroom. So what?”

“It’s the Jennifer guest bedroom. Yours any time you want it,” Cassie said.

Jennifer stared at the room, her face blank. Or it would have seemed blank to anybody else, but Cassie had seen her at every level from rock bottom to absolutely floating. She saw the tremor in Jennifer’s jaw as she no doubt took in the wallpaper Cassie had picked out (yellow and sunny), the 90s girl group posters on the wall in the corner, the professional drafting table and set of charcoals set off to the side.

But in true Jennifer fashion, she said, “You know I’m rich, right? Like gonzo rich. I have like nineteen houses.”

“Nineteen houses and one room, then.” Cassie shrugged.

She knew well enough to brace herself before Jennifer could tackle her and send them both tumbling down the stairs. And she was pretty sure the other woman called her a dweeb, but coming from her, that was an I love you too. Missing James had felt like aching for a phantom piece of her soul. Missing Jennifer had been like mourning a sister.

the latest episode with Josephine Baker and fucking Hemingway being annoying as shit yet weirdly endearing was so good as well. And the little team has such a good dynamic. I really don’t want it to get the chop!

they’re just so invested in making sure that these historical figures seem like real people in a way that i deeply appreciate

Vex & Keyleth: "Why is EVERYONE so much cooler than me?" "Fake it 'til you make it, darling."

Keyleth gasped and spun around, her eyes wide and her jaw dropping. “You’re faking it?”

“Please.” Vex let out a small laugh. “You’ll find that I actually am as cool as I seem. I happen to be the exception to the rule.”

“No, she’s not,” Vax said. He appeared out of nowhere, gave his sister a wet willy, and vanished into the shadows just as quickly, instants ahead of the arrow that sparked as it hit the bricks behind him. Keyleth could hear a mocking laugh, but she decided it was kinder not to mention it. “Love you, too, sis!”

“Ignore my dear brother, he doesn’t know what he’s talking about,” Vex said, slinging her bow over her back. She stuck her pinky in her ear to clean it out, grimaced, and patted Trinket on the head as he wandered over to check on her with distinctly ursine worry on his face. “It’s the curse I bear, to be born cool and to carry this coolness around for the rest of my life.”

“You do look so very troubled,” Keyleth said, unable to stop the sarcasm, and a smile broke out over Vex’s face. “So burdened. You carry it with class, though.”

“Why, thank you. Though I do think you’re selling yourself a bit short.”

“What?” Keyleth asked. “How can I be? You’ve seen what an idiot I make of myself all the time.”

Vex hopped up on Trinket’s back and gave him a scritch just below the edge of his armor. “So? We’re Vox Machina, we all make idiots of ourselves. It’s practically our group motto. It’s all in the recovery, darling, and carrying yourself with the poise and confidence afterward.”

That was easy for her to say, Keyleth thought. She had a giant bear that adored her every move and guys falling all over her all the time, while Keyleth just stuck out like an awkward thumb. 

But before she could reply, Vex went on, “And for the record, I do think you’re just as cool as everybody else here. Nobody else could’ve brought the Sun Tree back, or looked as cool getting arrested in that bar that one time.”

“I like that those are the two accomplishments you picked out,” Keyleth said, unable to stop the laugh and the warmth that flowed up through her chest. 

WHEN YOU WRITE VEX/EVERYONE I WILL BE THERE WITH BELLS ON. MAH GIRL! MAH BEAUTIFUL, SARCASTIC, LOVING, FUCKED UP GIRL.

ngl, I really liked the sara/john stuff they did in s1, but I really wanted them to form, like, a decades long “understanding”, where yes they’re in love but there’s careers to be made and maybe they’ll get married in their 40s/50s whatever, WHAT’S THE RUSH?

omg John does NOT need a new fiancee especially when the trailer has already showed us him giving another Big Declaration of Feelings to Sara. I know nothing about this woman and I already feel bad for her.

the craziest part is that NONE OF THIS IS FROM THE BOOKS, John and Sara are never a thing there because she’s focused on having a career and he respects that also also just isn’t really interested. so the show brings in this poor woman (her name is Violet, apparently) just to throw a drama bomb into the John/Sara dynamic, which they also invented out of whole cloth? every adaptational decision these showrunners make is so, so bad.

lol, yeah this was pretty much my experience when i watched it. the whole thing is riddled with plot holes and bad choices, and despite all that i'm still looking forward to the second season. why???

it reminds me a lot of The Terror in that it’s a show adapted from an older book which has some . . . problems . . . but while The Terror writers worked to reconstruct/remove the worst parts of the book (giving Hickey more depth, removing the Crozier/Silna romance and aging up Silna, cutting Manson entirely) the writers on The Alienist leaned into all the novel’s worst choices and added several of their own (apparently Mary was white in the original book, and while generally I think colourblind casting is a good idea, casting a Native American woman in a role where her main plot function is to get fridged . . . not great, Bob!)