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As you orbit, gravity throws me to the ground by SkyScribbles
Fandoms: Critical Role (Web Series)
04 Sep 2020
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Caleb has a mind that counts things.
He counts coin. The passing hours. His remaining stocks of spell components. And, right now, the number of seconds since Essek Thelyss met his eyes and died.
(In which Caleb makes use of his transmuter's stone.)
Series
Bookmarked by jaymaymo
06 Apr 2026
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The Blooming Grove is beautiful and in the wake of the final battle Essek Thelyss doesn’t know what to do with himself. Might as well talk about how Trent Ikithon is gonna hunt him down and murder him. That sounds about right. Caleb Widogast has a different conversation in mind.
Bookmarked by jaymaymo
31 Mar 2026
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“I apologize for not warning you, I simply wanted…” to see you. To come home. To tell you I…
“Well, you did promise you would come home soon.” And then, as easy as breathing, accompanied by an upward curl of lips, crinkling, blue eyes, a new, healthy softness to his cheeks: “I missed you.”
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Essek comes home in the middle of the night, after a crucial realization.
Bookmarked by jaymaymo
23 Mar 2026
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They return from the city, the Astral Sea and Aeor.
And Essek is ready to look into the future, when he has to stare at his fate, instead.
Written for Shadowgast Week 2021
Day 2: Future & Fate // Shared Fears- Language:
- English
- Words:
- 6,178
- Chapters:
- 1/1
- Collections:
- 1
- Comments:
- 86
- Kudos:
- 413
- Bookmarks:
- 66
- Hits:
- 1,864
Bookmarked by jaymaymo
21 Mar 2026
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There is nothing keeping Caleb awake but his thoughts, this night. Or, there was nothing keeping him awake, until he heard a voice in his mind.
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Desperation and anger in the night is not a good start, but then, what is?
Bookmarked by jaymaymo
20 Mar 2026
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Essek freezes partway through turning a page in his spellbook. "Pardon?"
"Regrets. If we die tomorrow, anything you might regret?"
There is a long sigh before Essek finally responds, "Too many to count, I fear."
A discussion of regret, goodbyes, and maybe even love.
Bookmarked by jaymaymo
20 Mar 2026
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It used to be if you don't like it you could leave by thought
Fandoms: Critical Role (Web Series)
19 Oct 2021
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In which the humans do a politics, the Xhorhasians learn about potato's, and everyone decides five hundred years of living in disguise and on the run isn't actually a great life plan, Essek.
- Language:
- English
- Words:
- 24,252
- Chapters:
- 1/1
- Comments:
- 101
- Kudos:
- 1,170
- Bookmarks:
- 386
- Hits:
- 13,117
Bookmarked by jaymaymo
14 Mar 2026
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"Unfortunately, our progress has stalled out somewhat," Ikithon says, slowly circling the beacon on its stand. Under any other circumstances, that would be the thing that drew Essek's eye.
Instead, his gaze is fixed on the man sitting in a chair at the circle's center. A picture of misery, he is bound hand and foot to the chair with thick iron cuffs. His face is mottled with bruising, his rust colored hair hangs in limp, tangled clumps, and his clothes are torn and burnt. Wide, frightened eyes the color of daylight sky whip frantically back and forth between them.
Essek knows that face. He knows it all too well. Not two months ago, that face kissed him on the forehead and told him that he was still capable of good.
The bottom drops out of Essek's stomach. Please not him.
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After the peace talks at sea, Ikithon approaches Essek with an offer he can't refuse... But dearly wishes he could.
- Language:
- English
- Words:
- 27,347
- Chapters:
- 8/8
- Comments:
- 260
- Kudos:
- 1,482
- Bookmarks:
- 301
- Hits:
- 15,749
Bookmarked by jaymaymo
14 Mar 2026
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After they explore Aeor together, Caleb asks Essek to move in. It takes Essek ... A while to figure out exactly what he means.
- Language:
- English
- Words:
- 51,812
- Chapters:
- 8/8
- Collections:
- 1
- Comments:
- 293
- Kudos:
- 1,490
- Bookmarks:
- 421
- Hits:
- 18,458
Bookmarked by jaymaymo
12 Mar 2026
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There is a gravity that has pulled them together many times. It pulled Caleb’s lips to Essek’s forehead, and Essek’s hands to Caleb’s arms when a tower collapsed upon him. It pulled Caleb to Eiselcross, now, to be at Essek’s side as his life as the Shadowhand dies.
Now, it could pull them together into Aeor.
(Two wizards venture into Aeor - and find that something has woken in the dead city's depths. Something dangerous. Something that will force them to decide what their pasts mean to them, and what they mean to each other.)
- Language:
- English
- Words:
- 163,598
- Chapters:
- 18/18
- Collections:
- 1
- Comments:
- 750
- Kudos:
- 1,591
- Bookmarks:
- 415
- Hits:
- 45,890
Bookmarked by jaymaymo
11 Mar 2026
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He has a soulmate, and he must manipulate them and use them. He has someone whom he cannot lie to, and he must deceive them.
He has someone he might be happy with, and he tore that chance asunder three years ago, when he slipped two Beacons into his wristpocket and teleported away to the Empire.
(In which you cannot lie to your soulmate. Which makes things difficult, if you are Essek Thelyss, and you were raised a liar.)
Bookmarked by jaymaymo
09 Mar 2026
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I wake up more awake than I've ever been before by SkyScribbles
Fandoms: Critical Role (Web Series)
08 Apr 2021
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‘Essek,’ Caleb says, very quietly. ‘Are you telling me that you went into this fight convinced you would never get up if you went down?’
Essek places a hand over the centre of his chest, the place where Lucien’s blade hit. The place where Jester’s diamond shattered. ‘Yes.’
(In the battle with the Tombtakers, Essek falls. His friends bring him back. And each of them has a request to make of him.)
Bookmarked by jaymaymo
01 Mar 2026
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Essek uses more high-level dunamancy in battle, and Caleb tries to reverse-engineer it when he can't sleep.
AKA What if we were both wizards and I cast Tether Essence on us to save your life?Bookmarked by jaymaymo
01 Mar 2026
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After a spellwork accident, Caleb slips through time. Centuries in the future, Essek Thelyss is waiting to catch him.
Bookmarked by jaymaymo
28 Feb 2026
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Remus Lupin comes into Sirius' pub every single Friday night, and Sirius lives for those nights. Except one week he is missing, and Sirius realises he has to do something about it. When Remus returns the following week, he takes Sirius home where he discovers a few things about Remus' past. In the morning he meets Remus' son, and from that moment on, Sirius realises he's exactly where he belongs.
Bookmarked by jaymaymo
12 Feb 2026
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“Beauregard – you said she is outside?” Essek half-turns in the direction of the front door. “Should we invite her in?”
It feels like there is something stuck in his throat. “In a moment. She is, ah – giving us some space.”
Essek turns back to stare at him. Repeats quietly, dangerously, “Space.”
Caleb forces himself to swallow. “Yes.”
Essek’s attention is a palpable thing now, sharp like a knife’s edge against his cheek. “Explain.”
One moment makes all the difference during the battle at Blumenthal. In the aftermath, the Nein grapple with what comes next.
Bookmarked by jaymaymo
10 Feb 2026
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i know several lives worth living by neinofthem (jeyneofpoole)
Fandoms: Critical Role (Web Series)
16 Feb 2025
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Beau begins by sighing exasperatedly, which is typically not ideal for selling a pitch, but what the fuck, right? “I wanted to ask you,” she says, carefully now, “If you would maybe be interested in working with the Cobalt Soul. In a more, uh, official capacity. Like with a salary and everything, or whatever.”
There is a silence which is somehow worse than the silence that they were sitting in before. Essek makes a small sound that must be unconscious, sort of like a death rattle. Beau didn’t know such an undignified noise was in his repertoire.
Bookmarked by jaymaymo
08 Feb 2026
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“So,” she says, breaking the silence. “Not much of an adventuring type, are you?”
He tenses a little, clearly surprised to be addressed, but he recovers quickly. “Not particularly,” he agrees. “I have always been more of a man of research.”
Beau mulls this over, before deciding fuck it. “What are you doing here, then?”
Bookmarked by jaymaymo
08 Feb 2026
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The first letter Essek receives from Caleb Widogast is secreted into his pocket at some point during a tense interview with the Bright Queen. For the life of him, Essek cannot figure out how it was done. He doesn’t recall so much as brushing against the other man as he escorted the Mighty Nein out of the Lucid Bastion.
Yet when he returns to his office, there it is, tucked into a nearly invisible pocket in his mantle — a piece of subpar parchment folded to vaguely resemble a cat’s face with tiny pointed ears.
- Language:
- English
- Words:
- 61,367
- Chapters:
- 14/14
- Collections:
- 1
- Comments:
- 302
- Kudos:
- 867
- Bookmarks:
- 261
- Hits:
- 14,102
Bookmarked by jaymaymo
07 Feb 2026
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The Mighty Nein erupt into Essek's life, teach him to love them - and then leave him behind. As the weeks pass, and the people who changed him do not return, Essek learns to change himself.
(Or: five things that change in Essek Thelyss after he parts ways with the Mighty Nein, and one thing that doesn't.)
Bookmarked by jaymaymo
04 Feb 2026