1 - 20 of 41 Works by ArtificialHaunting
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Wishes, Weddings, and Bachelorette Parties by ArtificialHaunting
Fandoms: Critical Role: Exandria (Web Series)
22 Nov 2025
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Even before the hag, it had been a long week in Nicodranas between the wedding planning and the chaos that always followed the Nein. When the wizards finally find a moment alone during the reception, they promise to exchange information: what Caleb wished for and what Essek’s plans are for the next date night.
As it so often happens, one thing leads to another, and, with ample incentives, Caleb learns exactly what Essek’s fantasies are.
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Third Time's the Charm by ArtificialHaunting
Fandoms: Critical Role: Exandria (Web Series)
06 Oct 2025
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“Darling, we should get married again,” Vex drunkenly laughed into Percy’s arm. Why she agreed to go to this wedding for a group of adventurers she only just met was beyond even her own knowledge, but Jester seemed fun and it was, above all else, an excuse to get away.
Percy was just as drunk as Vex, “Third time is the charm, I suppose. We could always elope again; why break a wonderful pattern?”At Fjord and Jester's wedding reception, Lord and Lady de Rolo debate the merits of another wedding. After all, they never got to do it properly. Vex reminisces on her life, on the child-free present, and how to catch Exandria's most sought-after bouquet.
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written in the stars by ArtificialHaunting
Fandoms: Critical Role: Exandria (Web Series)
30 Sep 2025
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The night sky looks the same on either side of the Ashkeeper Peaks; the only differences are cultural. After a meteor shower, Caleb and Essek take the time to share their versions of the constellations, Essek learns the real tragedy of humans not having darkvision, and Caleb’s focus is more earth-bound.
AKA- Essek is looking at the stars, but Caleb is looking at Essek.
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the cold heat of memories by ArtificialHaunting
Fandoms: Critical Role: Exandria (Web Series)
28 Sep 2025
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Everyone knows Caleb Widogast's complicated relationship with fire, but few know his challenges with the cold. A few days before they are set to reach the T-dock, Caleb and Essek are forced to camp in Aeor. Essek asks why Caleb chose to specialize in fire, and instead learns why Caleb is fascinated with time.
Aka: the wizards finally have the Caleb Backstory Conversation, and Caleb is caught in that odd in-between, wondering if the T-dock has already worked before they even arrive.
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may i have this dance? by ArtificialHaunting
Fandoms: Critical Role: Exandria (Web Series)
24 Sep 2025
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Summary
Day 3- Waltz
Separated by a lifetime and a continent, Caleb and Essek had two very different experiences when it came to learning how to dance. Years later, Essek is willing to try again, and it just so happens that Caleb is an excellent teacher.
A series of vignettes about dancing and two wizards' different personal connections to it.
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high quality ink and paper by ArtificialHaunting
Fandoms: Critical Role: Exandria (Web Series)
22 Sep 2025
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Summary
Caleb laughed as he kissed Essek’s cheek softly and fell back to continue his reading, “Don’t judge it till you try it.”
“If that is the case, then I will never be allowed to judge,” Essek absentmindedly flipped a page in his book.
“I’m not so sure. I can imagine you with dirt on your face and ink staining your hands.”
“Perish the thought,” was all Essek had to say on the matter before the two fell into a comfortable silence as they read.
The problem was that Caleb could not allow the thought to perish.Day 1- Ink
Caleb wastes some very fine ink, Essek tries to teach Caleb prestidigitation at the worst possible time, and both of them learn that sometimes messes are more fun together.
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“Make my tits bigger,” Veth laughed as Caleb was elbow deep in clay from Essek’s garden. The form in front of him was slowly, slowly, becoming a halfling that would soon walk among them. It was slowly becoming Veth. The real Veth though, the one still in her goblin skin, sure had a lot of thoughts about what she should look like, and most of them had to do with her boobs.
Caleb knew his face was red; he could feel the heat of his cheeks even as he smiled at the clay before him, “As you wish, Frau Brenatto.”
Caleb would do anything to help Veth: learn new magics and cast whatever spell was needed to bring her back to herself. It turns out that in her doubt, what Veth really needed was someone to take her away from it all. Caleb thought he might be able to help with that, too.
An exploration of two broken people being broken together on the night before it was all set to change.
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what happens in the treasury... by ArtificialHaunting
Fandoms: Critical Role (Web Series)
06 Jul 2025
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Vex’ahlia had work to do; important, Coinmistress of Tal'Dorei work to do. Yet, when Percy pays her a visit in the treasury, Vex is instead treated to a fantasy. In it, she learns that the main difference between a fantasy and reality is logistics, but that doesn't make it any less fun.
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how do we atone for the secrets we've been shown by ArtificialHaunting
Fandoms: Critical Role (Web Series)
09 Jun 2025
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Summary
"Two years ago, if someone had told the Shadowhand that one day he would be walking the streets of Rexxentrum perfectly at ease, he would have thought it was a roundabout way of saying the Dynasty would eventually win the war. Yet now there was no war, and Essek, wearing another man’s face, was buying flowers. He felt oddly at ease on these foreign streets and even more at ease doing his own errands. The old him would have felt neither."
During a shopping trip in Rexxentrum, Essek is suddenly faced with the fact that he cannot outrun his past. With Caleb at his side, for once, Essek does not run. Instead, he returns to his towers in Rosohna to retrieve his notes and relive his past. There, Essek is forced to come to terms with how far he has come and how much further he has to go.
Sadowgast week day 7: eyes
Series
- Part 2 of Shadowgast Week 2025
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Summary
Eliot Spencer got shot on a job and it was not the worst thing that ever happened to him. However, when Parker and Hardison invite him to spend the night to recover at their place, the dominoes start to fall on what could be the best- and the worst- thing to ever happen to him.
Eliot has a crisis of self, a night of telling the truth, and a wound that just won’t heal. If only there were two people who knew all the right ways to poke and prod his bruises and accept Eliot for who he is, not who he thinks he is.
E rating earned in Ch. 3, Ch. 6
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the benefits of the slower route by ArtificialHaunting
Fandoms: Critical Role (Web Series)
06 Jun 2025
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Summary
For Jester’s birthday, she gets Caleb a gift; a surprise gift that she won’t tell him anything about. The rest of the evening passes in strange ways but a mage hand is cast, a party attended, and a night is well spent, even if the Nein tease Caleb relentlessly for it in the morning.
Caleb and Essek try to find some time alone at Jester’s party. Essek promises grand plans for the night, but even the best laid plans are no match for the Nein.
Written for Shadowgast Week 2 2025: Hands
Series
- Part 1 of Shadowgast Week 2025
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Summary
Arthur had been told time and time again that the only things he could steal were glances and riches, but for a man like him, glances were dangerous. One warm and rainy night in Saint Denis, Arthur finally allowed himself to look.
Then, when Arthur meets someone he never expected to find, a quiet night turns into something more and Arthur finally allows himself to be seen.
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Caleb Widogast was spiraling. It was six-months after the trial and one week before he was to head into the depths of Aeor to finally fulfill his greatest wish and all Caleb could do was rewrite letters trying to explain what he had done, or what he was about to do. When Astrid's voice broke through the fog inviting him for a night of dancing and reminiscing, There was nothing Caleb could do but agree.
Caleb realizes that some goodbyes are harder than others and perhaps the hardest ones are the ones left unsaid.This is a companion piece to the others in the series but can be read as a stand alone.
Series
- Part 2 of The Truth Has Three Sides
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Quiet is impossible to find at the 4077, but during a summer storm, Hawkeye and BJ find themselves alone swapping stories. It starts innocently enough but when BJ calls Hawkeye's bluff, everything changes.
A line in the sand is discarded, BJ learns about Chicago, and Hawkeye learns that fantasies are better shared. -
Held in Place: Practical Applications of Immovable Object by C. Widogast et al by ArtificialHaunting
Fandoms: Critical Role (Web Series)
17 Mar 2025
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Summary
"It started innocently enough… at least that is what Caleb told himself.
The same question was asked every summer at the Wildmount Wildlings: “When are we ever actually going to use this?” Usually this question was posed during theory, but this year it was during the practicals. The hot and stuffy summer air had made some of the kids more irritable than others, and wizards were not known for their love of the outdoors. However, it wasn’t just any practical that bore this question, but immovable object, a spell with many applicable uses. To the dismay of all the children, Caleb stopped the lesson to list a few. It might have been dry, even boring perhaps after the spell casting, and the sun did not stop beating down, but creative thinking might save them in a pinch.
It started innocently enough. Caleb had no ulterior motives when he mentioned it to Essek a week later. "One summer, Caleb mentioned students having difficulty with the practical applications of immovable object. Essek knew a particular use that should not be discussed in mixed company. A private lesson in Graviturgy occurred, and a private lesson followed.
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"In the quiet cold moments before the dawn, Vex’ahlia realized with a start that she missed life on the road, and immediately felt guilty for it. It was not that she disliked the life she had now, it was the opposite in fact: she loved Percy and Vesper, her friends, her titles, and her standing.The thing was that Whitestone was cold."
Two years after Dalen's Closet, Vex felt trapped by the mundane nature of the life she had fought so hard to get. When she mentioned that she wanted a vacation, what Vex really meant was that she needed an adventure. Thankfully, Wildemount and Tary had just the quest to help relieve some of that tension. So, Percy and Vex went on a trip... and of course Vex needed a reward for a job well done.
E rating earned in chapter 2
Can be read alone, not necessary to read the other installments in the seriesSeries
- Part 4 of Whitestone is for Lovers
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Summary
"Like all children of the Zemni Fields, Astrid grew up on ghost stories; stories of creatures from the woods that were repelled by iron and silver. The creatures in the stories stole children’s faces and spoke in pantomime voices. In the stories they were always beaten by a clever girl with a cunning eye and a sharper tongue. Astrid used to like those stories best. As she looked at Caleb, his face warm in the dance hall and his eyes shining, she wished it could be that simple.
In some ways it would have been easier if he had died."Astrid realizes, six months after the trial, that Caleb was right: he is not Bren anymore. As she is suddenly forced to come to terms with the reality of Caleb's situation, she soon finds herself reflecting on more than just past relationships.
Like any good Volstrucker, Astrid soon realizes these feelings require a more hands-on solution.Not necessary to read the other works in the series
Series
- Part 3 of The Wound That Never Heals
- Part 1 of The Truth Has Three Sides
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The Affection that Holds Us by ArtificialHaunting
Fandoms: Arcane: League of Legends (Cartoon 2021)
05 Jan 2025
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Summary
A year and a half into the wonderful experiment that is Hextech, Viktor and Jayce are invited to a Winter Festival party thrown by Counselor Shoola. When Jayce has an unfortunate slip of the tongue at this party, Viktor is forced to reconcile with the reality of what his life has become... and more importantly, who he considers to be a part of it. Later, when Jayce shows up at Viktor's doorstep, an apology on his lips, the truth finally comes out.
No matter how this night ends, Viktor's life will be unequivocally changed. He just hopes that it is for the better.
Part of the Replicable Results series but can stand alone
Series
- Part 3 of Replicable Results
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Welcome to the Lanes by ArtificialHaunting
Fandoms: Arcane: League of Legends (Cartoon 2021)
29 Dec 2024
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Summary
Viktor and Jayce might have been business partners for the past seven months, but Jayce has found that there is still so much he doesn't know. He doesn't know who Viktor was before he walked into his apartment and saved him, he doesn't know what Viktor does in his spare time, and, most importantly, he doesn't know why they haven't talked about their apparent one-night-stand a month before.
When Viktor brings Jayce to a store in the undercity to buy supplies, Jayce learns far more about his partner than he ever hoped. When Jayce brings him back to his apartment, he can only hope to learn how Viktor feels about him.
Part of the Replicable Results series but it can stand on its own.
Series
- Part 2 of Replicable Results
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Wishing you were anywhere but here in Aeor by ArtificialHaunting
Fandoms: Critical Role (Web Series)
24 Dec 2024
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Summary
Two years before the Solstice, Essek and Caleb take their third trip to Aeor. They are not sure what they are hoping to find, but it certainly isn't death. Death finds them, though, when Essek is mortally wounded in the depths of the ruins.
Caleb is able to get them home to Jester, but the resurrection and what happened in Aeor take its toll. What follows is two wizards trying to figure out who they are, what they mean to each other, and realize what really matters in a world on the brink of change.
E rating earned Chapter 1, 6, and 9
Part of Letters from Exandria but can stand alone
Series
- Part 8 of Letters from Exandria