depmode:

if you think fjord didn’t know what he was doing dangling the phrase aren’t you the least bit curious in front of caleb “i am always seeking books and knowledge and have a very obvious love of all things arcane and magical” widogast idk what to tell you man. everyone wants to put things on caleb because we know what his general goal is, but fjord isn’t a fool. he and caleb have possibly had more one on ones than anyone else in the m9 and especially through this arc they are growing to understand each other more and more.

to be clear, i have no desire to use the phrase manipulative to describe either of their behavior, because i think they were on pretty equal footing here and more feeling each other out and seeing how far their mutual interest in pushing to discover more goes. fjord also has a very obvious interest in magic, and the two of them have traded that back and forth through the whole campaign, so i don’t feel surprised they ended up having such a charged, relationship changing conversation over a magical alter.

we know caleb’s plan, but fjord doesn’t, which i think makes his lack of hesitation to agree to return the favor all the more powerful rather than, i dunno, Big Bad like some might. seriously, he does not pause for a single second to think it over, and he doesn’t simply say okay. he says always. caleb is here for him in this moment but he’s also had his back with avantika (and times before) so fjord is going to return that in kind. for all people still want to bring up the scroll debacle these two do trust each other, because they have put in the work both in word and deed to build that (make it work indeed).

i also don’t feel like rushing straight to a worst case scenario where caleb cackles evilly while he destroys time and fjord has been an unwitting pawn in his scheme, or something. caleb is FAR from his goal, fjord doesn’t even know his backstory yet, trent and the 2 stooges haven’t come back to haunt caleb yet. there are still so so many chapters left in this story and who knows what will come? who knows what these two will build from this. what moment might come where the favor caleb requests turns out to be something entirely surprising, where fjord himself says he is repaying the favor – perhaps in a form caleb didn’t expect. the sky is really the limit here and instead of feeling nervous or dreading the possibilities im so fucking excited, guys. idk man this is all over the place cause i got less than 2 hours sleep LOL im just trying to work through my thoughts… i got too many…