cassandra to gilmore: i mean i think kaylie’s really pretty, for sure, and she’s got these gorgeous eyes that i’d love to lose myself in for like an hour, and look, her magic? that’s just. objectively hot. like even you have to see that. and yeah she’s got really nice hands, and i think they’d fit really nicely in my hands, and yes one time when she killed that nasty ooze thing i lost the ability to speak for a solid five minutes. that’s all true! and yes maybe i fantasize about our wedding sometimes, but that’s a friend thing! all girls do that! all girls want to be passionately kissed by their friends and spend the rest of their lives together in a loving union!
gilmore, who has heard this speech at least three times this week, barely containing the tears in his eyes: please, cassandra, i am begging you,As much as I love the obvious comparisons between Percy and Caleb and their respective tragic backstories I’ve seen as campaign 2 progresses, I still maintain that he is not the best possible de Rolo parallel for Caleb. What about instead, Cassandra? Cassandra who also had her whole family destroyed as a teenager, but who was manipulated, made complicit in her own trauma and in the destruction and oppression of the people and city that was her home. Cassandra who came out of that experience angry and vulnerable, wanting revenge and wanting absolution, reclaiming and clinging to the name that was hers before Delilah Briarwood took it from her and replaced it, hating herself, doubting herself, believing she can’t be trusted by others because how many people has she betrayed already anyway? Cassandra, who battled that feeling and pushed herself to lead a city as it fell into nation-wide turmoil, who rebuilt herself from dust in the midst of grief and fear. Percy is a great comparison point for Caleb to an extent, but I think if I were going to crossover the present cr2 chatacters with any cr1 chatacters, the person I think Caleb could really commiserate with–and the person he could probably learn the most from–is definitely Cassandra de Rolo.
the best modern Whitestone is Whitestone the small mining town that’s the brochure-perfect company town of Whitestone Mining&Lumber, “A Family Business since 1824.” It’s in the Appalachian mountains in southern Pennsylvania, right next to the mine where 1/3 of the town earns the money they spend in the other 2/3 of the town. The de Rolos, aforementioned “Family”, have a summer house a ten-minute drive further up the mountain, built to honor the fact that this is the very mine where FuckifIknow de Rolo I first started mining coal. There is absolutely promotional material for Whitestone M&L featuring pictures of the town, including one where a handful of de Rolos are arm-in-arm with an assortment of smiling miners and some lumberjacks, precisely one (1) of whom is African-American and one (1) of whom is a woman.
The mine is mostly empty by now, but the town has taken up tourism as a side business, “The Last Real Mining Town in America!” Especially since Percival and Cassandra won their company back from the hostile takeover/septuple homicide. The Briarwoods were the sort of people who demanded federal subsidies for their poor, faltering industry while simultaneously cutting safety standards as much as legally possible, and more. Percy and Cass have actually been working on retraining their people, not just in Whitestone but throughout the company, shifting away from coal and into biofuel, and even a serious investment in Pelor Solar. (Aided by the Ashari Environmental Lobbying Group?)
My favorite version of this would be in one of those aus where Percy and Cass won the company back somehow before meeting VM, so the gang can be looking to lay low for a while, maybe on vacation or maybe from the law, and Percy is like, “I, um, have a town…” “You can’t ‘have’ an entire town,” scoffs Scanlan.
[hard cut to VM standing in front of the Whitestone City Hall, which is a real government building but has the Whitestone M&L logo above the door]
Scanlan: I take it back. Percy owns a town.
Percy: I don’t own the town. It’s a municipal entity.
Percy, under his breath: We just employ approximately one third of the people, and own most of the housing.[passerby keep obviously recognizing Percy. A couple have addressed him as “Mr. de Rolo.” He responded with polite nods, bc they’ve been addressing him as such since he was about 10 years old and clambering all over the mining equipment to see how it worked.]
Instead of “rebellions”, Cassandra led, and VM re-initiated, labor strikes. The Briarwoods were…not kind in putting them down.
I’ve seen posts about how pissed Vex and Percy would be if they learned what the Empire was doing with refined residuum, but can you imagine how angry Cassandra would be?
Cassandra, who as a child and teenager suffered for years under the hands of three (ex) Dwendalians. Two of whom had some levels in wizard, and one of whom had done illegal experimentation
She’d hate everything about Trent Ikithon
- Allura: "Vox Machina" more like "Stop Talking-a"
- Kaylie: "Scanlan Shorthalt" more like "Man of Many Faults"
- Cassandra: "Percival Fredrickstein von Mussel Klossowski de Rolo III" more like "Person Who Abandoned His Sister to Vampires and Left Her to Rule and Then Came Back and Left Again
- Cassandra: ...the Third"
edit: spoilers for campaign 1!! sorry i forgot
“You know,” Cassandra said, even as she threw her dagger and it landed squarely in a knot on the wall, “I’m the one who got Percy his first workshop.”
Vex, sitting on Cassandra’s bed and fletching her arrows as the splinters rained onto the covers, looked up. “Did you?”
“I was five, I think.” She flicked her wrist, and the dagger flew back to her hand, summoned by the magic bracelet Gilmore had given her last Wintercrest. “Father tried to give him a horse. I told him no, Percy would rather have the workshop that nobody’s been using.” Thunk. The dagger sank into the wall again.
Vex’s lips twitched, amused at the mental image of Cassandra—tiny and dark-haired and belligerent—being perceptive enough and nosy enough to do that. “Did you?”
Fwip. The dagger flew back to her hand. “I did. Percy was delighted. Father already had bought the horse, of course, so I begged him for it.” A slight smile flickered across her face, the merest twitch of lips otherwise flat. “He said I was too young and gave it to Vesper.” Thunk. The hole in the wall deepened.
“Does Percy know about that?” Vex asked, leaning back against Cassandra’s pillows so that she could pick the splinters out.
Fwip. Cassandra caught the dagger and examined its smooth silver surface. “No.” Another flick of her wrist and thunk. “He never found out.” Her smile vanished. “You know, you shouldn’t name your children after me.”
You know what I want?
I want to see Cassandra tip-toeing to Vex’s room and quietly joining Vex and Keyleth (and Pike) for a muted, but much needed, girls’ night.
I want Cassandra, young as she is, to find some much needed support and advice from the ladies of Vox Machina.
I want Cassandra to find some comfort, some solace she might’ve sought from her sisters, from the people who’ve done so much for her brother.
Give that girl a hot chocolate and a hug; she’s doing her best (and her brother keeps giving her more shit to deal with and running off).
cass: i have spotify open, right now on my computer, do you want me to blast you? do you want me to put you on blast? ‘cause i got your history right here in the sidebar:
- “take it back” by jimmy buffett
- “nautical wheelers” by jimmy buffett
- “jolly mon sing” by jimmy buffett
- “steamer” by jimmy buffett
- “treat her like a lady” by jimmy buffett
- “manana” by jimmy buffett
- “when salome plays the drum” by james buffett
- “HAVANA DAYDREAMING” BY JIMMY BUFFET
what the fuck happened to you?
percy: i had a case of the mondays!
cass: are you haunted? are you FUCKING POSSESSED? YOU USED TO BE MY BROTHER.
- “take it back” by jimmy buffett
- scars (percy, cassandra)
This kinda got away from me. Call it the conversation the two of them desperately need to have after this past episode.
*
Percy tells everyone he’s going to his workshop to make bullets. He even intends to do so, but he gets halfway down the stairs before he turns around and heads to Cassandra’s room.
She doesn’t answer his knock right away. He’s on the verge of giving up and going away when he hears the quiet answer. “Come in.”
“Cass?”
When she sees Percy, she nods to the bodyguard sitting by the door. “You’re excused. Thank you.”
The man nods at both Cass and Percy before leaving the room. When the door closes again, Percy takes a deep breath. “Cass, I wanted to tell -”
That’s as far as he gets before she crosses the room and smacks him across the face. He can only raise a hand to his stinging cheek. “I suppose I deserved that.”
I’m not sure they’ll end up back in Whitestone but wow can you imagine Cassandra’s face when oh look Vox Machina and her brother have brought back celestial children for her to deal with/protect.
Cassandra: They’re celestial children.
Percy: Aasimir, yes.
Cassandra: From the Fire Plane.
Percy: That’s where they were, yes.
Cassandra: You’ve started adopting children now?
Percy: Well Vex sort of rescued them from slavery.
Cassandra: Vex did. The person you made a baroness of Whitestone and have absolutely a totally normal level of feelings about. Uh huh. And you thought …
Percy: *ignores her first comment, tries a different tack* This isn’t unprecedented for us really. There were Uriel’s children and well Kynan …
Cassandra: *facepalm* you’re not helping …
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