Beauyasha

Beauyasha is the femslash ship between Beauregard and Yasha Nydoorin from the Critical Role fandom.

Curious Beginnings
Beau is sitting at a table with her traveling companions, when two strangers walk in. One of them, Molly, sits down at the table while the other, Yasha, stands behind him. As Molly reads Jester's fortune, Beau asks Yasha if she's also in the carnival. She's not, she just sets things up. She and Molly leave to set up for the night.

Late, the group arrives at the carnival and see Molly and Yasha. Molly tells them that they have to give their weapons to Yasha, before they enter, much to their displeasure. They eventually agree and start to hand over their weapons. Beau tries to keep her staff, telling them that she also uses it as a walking stick due to a previous injury. Yasha suggests that she take the staff and then just carry Beau to her seat. Beau hands over her staff and says yes to these conditions. Once she has everyone's weapons she goes to Beau and fireman carries her into the tent.

Once inside, Beau tells Yasha that she overheard her talking about Jester. Yasha quickly starts to feel awkward, but Beau says that Jester doesn't have a significant other so she could go for it. Yasha starts to say that she's not looking for a relationship, but Beau interrupts and asks if Yasha will carry her through the whole show. Yasha says that she can do it for an extra charge of five gold. Out of Beau's price range, she suggests paying five silver to sit on Yasha's cloak, but Yasha doesn't remove it. She says that Beau should keep her money as she places her on the ground, and Beau calls that fair.

Zemnian Nights
The next morning, Beau and Jester see that Yasha is now gone. Beau suggests that she was a ghost the whole time, while Jester suggests that the lightning exploded her. Beau calls that metal, but Jester offers that she walked off at lost her memories. Beau things that is a possibility, but feels that Yasha probably just went off to do Yasha stuff. Jester agrees, and both decide to ask Molly and head downstairs.

Jester and Beau tell Molly that Yasha left after starring at the storm. Beau asks if Yasha sleeps, which Molly says she does. Beau thinks it's creepy, but also hot. Jester feels like she's protected and safe, which Beau kind of agrees with. Beau says that she's mysterious, but Molly assures her that she's good, just going through some personal stuff.

The Chase Begins
Jester and Yasha spend time in the hotel room, talking about what it is that Yasha feels for Beau and how she wants to proceed. Jester provides helpful insight, having already talked with Beau about the same thing. In the end, Yasha writes a poem, with input from Jester, to give or recite to Beau. Afew conversations of shnuggling later, and Jester pretends to fall asleep to eavesdrop on the pair.

When Beau stumbles into the room, Yasha and Beau do small talk and have an awkward conversation before everyone falls asleep.

Curious Beginnings

 * Beau tells Fjord and Jester that she liked Yasha.
 * Beau tries to get Yasha to briefly hire them so that they won't have to give up their weapons.

Disparate Pieces

 * Beau comments that it was cool that Yasha roughed up some of the guards.
 * Beau thinks of Yasha as one of the group.

Zemnian Nights

 * Beau and Jester wake up to see Yasha staring out to the storm outside.
 * Beaus says Yasha looks scary at night, which Yashs gets a lot.
 * Beau notices how pale Yasha looks.
 * Beau asks if Yasha's alright.
 * Beau thinks that Yasha is allowed to go through personal issues

Fanon
Fans were quick to ship the two after "Curious Beginnings" when Yasha carried Beau to her seat at the carnival.

Fans were amused by Beau's enthusiastic flirting. This helped coin the "Disaster Lesbian" nickname for Beau, referencing her initial failures to woo women early in the campaign. In later episodes, Yasha would compliment Beau and, in a fluster, would compliment everyone else in the room. This led to fans considering Yasha a Lesbian Disaster as well. Being a monk and a barbarian, Beau and Yasha were always paired up to fight in the front lines. The community began referencing these team-ups as "Sentinel Babes". Both terms were later used by Marisha Ray. The pair are often called Beauyasha or Yashaguard, combining both characters' names. In smaller fandom circles, Cracklepop is often used. This is referencing Beau's gauntlets dealing lightning damage, Beau's catchphrase "pop-pop", and Yasha being a follower of Kord the Stormlord.

Due to her busy schedule, Ashley (and, by association, Yasha) had to leave the group often and for long bouts of time. This meant that scenes of the pairing were few and far between, but were substantial enough to keep shippers engaged. The most notable was their night watch talk in "Chasing Trees". Fans of the ship normally point to this moment as their favorite.

As these periods of absence grew longer and more frequent, critiques started to arise. The first was within the fandom and how the ship was treated at the time — particularly in fanfiction. Beau x Yasha was often a background couple instead of a leading pair. Some fans became disillusioned with the ship after Ashley's absenteeism became more and more prominent. This led to migrations to other ships that had more content in canon and fanon (art, fics, meta discussions, etc). Other factors deterred some fans, including the reveal that Yasha was a grieving widow and Beau's confirmed crush on Jester in "The Threads Converge". The ship slowly lost focus within the community. The cast and fans alike were overjoyed to see Ashley return permanently in "The Cathedral", and interest in the ship steadily grew again.

In "Ghosts, Dinosaurs, and Stuff", there is a direct callback to the first episode. Beau asked the barbarian of she could be carried after a battle. Yasha gladly obliged, with Ashley Johnson adding that she was excited to see fanart of the moment. The scene helped influence some fans to return to the ship as more artwork was posted online. This popularity continued to rise after several large developments, such as; Yasha carrying Beau for her maiden flight in "A Fog Lifted", Beau admitting to Fjord in "Traveler Con" and to Jester in "Frigid Propositions" that she had feelings for Yasha but was hesitant to peruse it due to Yasha's tragic past relationship, and Yasha confirming her crush to Jester and writing a love poem about her in "The Chase Begins". Ashley Johnson and Marisha Ray were more open to discussing the pairing on Talks Machina and liking artwork of the two on their personal Twitter accounts.

Because of all this, the ship has seen a tremendous resurgence of fanart, fics, discussion and renewed interest. Long-term fans of the ship are jokingly referring to it as The Beauyasha Renaissance.

General consensus concludes that fans like Beauyasha for their adorably awkward interactions and the themes that the pair embody. Beau and Yasha share similar arcs; healing after past trauma, their shared inability to open up emotionally, and the subsequent difficulty that comes with trusting people. The two characters have been ostracized by their families after finding out about their partners — Beau and her partner in crime Tori, Yasha and her late wife Zuala. The allegory was not lost on LGBT+ viewers. Fans draw on these themes and create headcanons of them bonding and overcoming these struggles together. In canon, Yasha often uses Healing Hands on Beau. Many artists/fanfic writers have used this as metaphoric healing in their work.

On AO3, Beauyasha is the most written ship for Yasha and for Beau. It is also the most written ship for Campaign 2 and in the Critical Role tag overall.

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Trivia

 * During the Mighty Nein Intro, Beau blushes as she looks at Yasha.
 * Beau and Yasha's rooms are next to each other in the Xhorhaus.
 * Beauyasha week takes place between May 25th to 31st.
 * Whenever Travis Willingham had to play Yasha, he would have her flirt with Beauregard more often.
 * In Yasha's first and second playlist, there are songs alluding to her having feelings for someone in the group. Through the hints given, many theorize it's Beauregard. (This was confirmed to be true in Episode 112.)
 * In Beauregard's second playlist, Yasha is name-dropped. Marisha writes that Beau has "a crush forged from battle" on her.
 * Included in this playlist is Kesha's "I Need a Woman to Love". The description reads that Beau longs to be held by a woman. It's debated if this is a reference to Yasha, since "Ghosts, Dinosaurs, and Stuff" had aired the week prior.
 * The Exandrian Art Pin-Up Calendar pairs Beau and Yasha together. This page is used as promotional material on their site.
 * The artbook Critical Role: The Chronicles of Exandria has a paragraph written from Beauregard's perspective. In it, she calls Yasha cute by accident. This line was stricken out[5 ].
 * Beau x Yasha is the first f/f ship to reach over +1000 fics on AO3 for the Critical Role fandom. It hit this milestone on the 16th of October, 2020.

Variations

 * Bashter refers to the ship between Beauregard, Yasha and Jester Lavorre