1 - 20 of 198 Bookmarks by TMsp
Navigation
List of Bookmarks
-
Tags
Summary
A problem shaped like seven unexpected mercenaries carrying one of the priceless artifacts he stole arrives on Essek's doorstep, but he can handle it. Is handling it. Will be able to handle it, at some point, if he can figure out how to avoid them killing him first.
(Or: time looping your way into a new alignment, one catastrophic failure at a time.)
-
Tags
Summary
"It’s a beautiful day at the Soltryce Academy—the sky is vibrant and the trees rustle with the gentlest of winds as Caleb begins his impromptu Transmutation lecture outside. From the building on the edge of the grounds he hears a muffled bell tolling for fifth period. Somewhere in the distance, a student begins to whistle.
At that moment, Caleb feels at peace.
At that moment, a Purple Worm bursts forth from the soil directly in front of him, and all of his plans for a pleasant afternoon are promptly dashed."
---
Caleb and Essek have finally settled down - more or less. While the beloved and somewhat eccentric Professor Widogast is busy inciting small student-scale riots and teaching tiny wizards morals, Essek spends his days lounging around the house, drinking wine and experimenting with the exotic concept of 'cooking his own meals'. They are pretty sure life is great - until two pre-teen assassins crash-land into the middle of the Soltryce Academy and demand the former Shadowhand be surrendered to their custody. What are the two internationally in/famous mages to do? The answer will shock absolutely no one. -
play with fire by mllekurtz (TheKnittingJedi) for saturdaysky
Fandoms: Critical Role (Web Series)
31 Dec 2021
Tags
Summary
Essek hates parties, especially state dinners with Empire delegates. It doesn't help that the liaison for the Cerberus Assembly is cunning, smart and annoyingly handsome. But Essek is sure he has this Bren Ermendrud under control... until he isn't anymore.
Series
- Part 1 of birds of prey
-
talk in tongues and quiet sighs by Enby_Tiefling
Fandoms: Critical Role: Exandria (Web Series)
04 Feb 2026
Tags
Summary
Essek and Caleb try some more novel experimentation as they figure out what they are to each other
(aka: the incredibly demisexual first time fic)
-
Tags
Summary
“You accused me of treating this like a game. I am sorry if I’ve led you to believe that it is only a game—though I won't deny that part of it is.” Bren gives a disarming smile. “My life is either games or murder, after all.”
“Or mail fraud,” Thelyss says dryly, not even a little disarmed.
“The mail fraud is a sort of game as well.”
A sigh. “Is this your way of telling me that you intend to continue playing?”
Bren smiles again, sharper. “If you would let me.”(In which Bren Aldric Ermendrud decides to seduce the Shadowhand and finds that the best way to convince someone to be vulnerable with you is to be vulnerable in turn.)
Series
- Part 1 of aBiA
- Language:
- English
- Words:
- 103,603
- Chapters:
- 20/20
- Comments:
- 899
- Kudos:
- 1,464
- Bookmarks:
- 413
- Hits:
- 34,170
Bookmarked by TMsp
18 Jan 2026
Bookmarker's Tags:
Bookmarker's Notes
a body in absentia, by nonwal
Shadowgast
47926114
-
Tags
Summary
His skin feels too tight over his body; like his heart is being pulled forward, like it could burst through his sternum.
“What are you doing?” he breathes, barely audible. The words feel like they’re coming from somewhere else.
“Being brave,” Caleb replies.
*
On the eve of Trent’s trial, Caleb calls Essek and asks for a distraction. He doesn’t specify what kind. Essek has always been good at seeing possibilities.
-
Tags
Summary
Essek is horribly embarrassed. It’s just him and Caleb in Caleb’s tower room, not even a single cat in sight, and still, Essek cannot believe he admitted to that.
But... if there was someone he'd admit it to, it'd be Caleb. If there was someone he'd want to admit it to, it'd be Caleb.
Bookmarked by TMsp
08 Jan 2026
Bookmarker's Tags:
Bookmarker's Notes
One of the strangest sex scenes I’ve ever read, but boy is it hot.
-
Tags
Summary
Six months ago, Beau adopted a teenager who loves the Cobalt Soul, but can't stand her. Ten minutes ago, Caleb accidentally summoned his own teenage self into his living room. So you know, they're both going though some shit.
At least Caleb's got experience befriending novice monks with attitude problems. And Beau's got experience befriending Caleb.
- Language:
- English
- Words:
- 103,670
- Chapters:
- 24/24
- Comments:
- 1,010
- Kudos:
- 1,022
- Bookmarks:
- 293
- Hits:
- 19,797
Bookmarked by TMsp
06 Jan 2026
Bookmarker's Tags:
Bookmarker's Notes
The Heartt External, by BeatriceEagle
Shadowgast and Beau/Yasha, but mostly focused on plot
55846816
-
Tags
Summary
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.
-
Tags
Summary
Essek Thelyss comes to Soltryce to deliver guest lectures and, on the side, cultivate the brand new Archmage of Domestic Protections. He’s hoping that Caleb Widogast will oblige him by picking up his predecessor’s interest in conspiring to steal Luxon beacons, after so rudely murdering Da’leth mere weeks before the culmination of their schemes.
Essek is prepared for espionage. He is not prepared to find a love that will change the course of his life.
-
give all this and heaven too by KmacKatie (kmackatie)
Fandoms: Critical Role (Web Series)
26 Dec 2020
Tags
Summary
Essek draws out the spool of platinum cord from his component pouch. He loops it around his own wrist before catching Caleb’s wrist and repeating the motion. Caleb blinks, staring down at the wire before meeting Essek’s gaze again. Essek feels him start to tug his hand out, and tightens his grip.
“Do you trust me?”
“I—” Caleb starts, before breaking off, his blue eyes wide.
“Do you trust me?” he repeats, more urgently this time. He has only moments before the door behind him will burst open.
———
In which Essek teaches Caleb the practical application of tether essence.
-
just listen to the rhythm of my heart by KmacKatie (kmackatie) for Loekazz
Fandoms: Critical Role (Web Series)
21 Aug 2021
Tags
Summary
“What if I didn’t care.” The words surprise Essek for how true they actually are. He wouldn’t care if the Nein saw them kissing, they all knew they did anyway. What difference did it make if they had some actual evidence of it?
Caleb’s eyes darkened.
“Essek.”
“What if I decided that I don’t care, that all I’ve been able to think about for the last hour is your hands and I’ve had to sit there and converse—” He breaks off, licking his lips as his mouth is dry. “I want you. I want you and it’s distracting, and you have utterly broken my ability to sit there and pretend that I am not thinking about anything but your hands and skin. What have you done to me.”
---
In which Essek's concentration is tested, the wizards have feelings, and discover that maybe they should pay a slight bit more attention to their surroundings.
- Language:
- English
- Words:
- 8,859
- Chapters:
- 1/1
- Collections:
- 1
- Comments:
- 55
- Kudos:
- 721
- Bookmarks:
- 125
- Hits:
- 7,216
Bookmarked by TMsp
27 Dec 2025
Bookmarker's Tags:
Bookmarker's Notes
just listen to the rhythm of my heart, by KmacKatie
Shadowgast
33385945
-
Tags
Summary
“I would like you to know me,” Caleb says.
It feels like a secret. Like the darkest part of him cracked open; all his months and years of hiding, of wrapping his arms and scratching the bindings, of not loving, not loving anything but an unkillable cat — it’s unraveling around him. He feels naked. He feels the way he did the first time Pumat Sol spelled him clean.
“I find that — I would like you to know me,” he says, again.
-
Tags
Summary
Footsteps pad down the hall and past the stairs. Actual footsteps. Verin can’t remember the last time he saw Essek walk on his own two feet. He feels a twisted knot form beneath his sternum; something isn’t right.
Thinking only of justice and restoring his family's honor after Essek's betrayal, Verin Thelyss finds something he never expected, an Essek he never expected. A mission for justice turns into a race against time and a family finds their world upended.
Series
- Part 1 of Lay Your Bones
-
displacement by mllekurtz (TheKnittingJedi) for saturdaysky
Fandoms: Critical Role (Web Series)
21 Aug 2021
Tags
Summary
After the peace talks, with only silence and loneliness left where the Mighty Nein used to be, Essek thinks he's ruined everything. So why, when he's mysteriously displaced in his own future, does he find only acceptance, comfort and love?
-
Tags
Summary
It’s not like Caleb hasn’t thought about it. He’s thought about it a little too much, if anything: what would happen in a situation in which the variables were only Essek, himself, some privacy, and their mutual willingness to explore each other. In that scenario, he wasn’t even asking for a bed.
Bookmarked by TMsp
17 Dec 2025
Bookmarker's Tags:
Bookmarker's Notes
at the violet hour, by mllkurtz
Shadowgast
41426268
-
Tags
Summary
“I bet Essek has a really cute butt,” Jester declares, apropos of nothing. “He just seems like the type, you know.”
Ten feet away, Essek blinks at the scroll he is reading, sure he has misheard.
***
In which the Mighty Nein have a dubious dinner, Essek flashes some fang, and Caleb loses his goddamn mind.
-
the other things that make us by saturdaysky for LadyOrpheus
Fandoms: Critical Role (Web Series)
22 Aug 2021
Tags
Summary
Essek returns, when he can, to the sanctuary of Caleb's home. The peace of it is a balm against the tedious peril of the road, which has more misery to share than Essek had ever thought. It's nice to have a place where he can lose himself: in a book, in arcane study, in the confusing allure of Caleb's smile.
It's nice. And the cats miss him, Caleb says.
Series
- Part 1 of the other things that make us
-
Attraction is just a form of Gravity by ThreeGremlinsInATrenchcoat
Fandoms: Critical Role (Web Series)
09 Sep 2020
Tags
Summary
Caleb had caught Essek's attention immediately.
And ever since, this strange little neglected attraction has been bothering him. He initiates a mutually beneficial arrangement upon realizing that Caleb's interests match his own surprisingly well. A purely physical, transactional deal.That would be fine, if it were not for the dangerous implications and weaknesses.
Or for those many in-betweens when Essek is far too interested in what's beyond the boundaries of their agreement...
-
we don’t know what’s out there (could be all our demons, darling) by MarsBar2019
Fandoms: Critical Role (Web Series)
02 Feb 2022
Tags
Summary
Caleb knows he's being a little overbearing when he goes to check on Essek after a long day in Aeor, but he gets a lot more than he bargained for.
(Please read the notes!)