#blupjeansweek2022

[holdmecloser-gandydancer]

Live Like This

my final piece for @blupjeansweek nevermind how late it is <3

Barry is 18 years old when his mother falls ill. He’s newly 18, at that. Winter’s icy grip has finally loosened from Foster’s Gap, the melted snow making the rivers and creeks in town swell and rush for a few weeks.

His birthday comes and goes without much fanfare which is exactly how he likes it. He does reach a compromise with his mother when she does make him a beautiful lemon cake; she tells him not to worry about how she was able to get all the ingredients. She’s his mother after all, she can still work some birthday magic, she tells him with a laugh.

And it tastes like magic.

It’s much too large for the two of them to eat on their own so the day after his birthday, Barry delivers some slices to the neighbors. He starts with Dr. Highchurch next door. He receives them happily, making some kind of joke about keeping it from his wife.

He pays the Burnsideses a visit next, bringing slices for miss Amada, miss Arabella, and Magnus, their boy. Magnus is the one to answer the door, flinging it open with all the force and excitement his six-year-old self could contain.

“Hi Magnus!” Barry smiles at the boy. He’s rambunctious but overall a good kid. Barry’s babysat him a time or two and really all he did was take him to a clearing near one of the ponds and let Magnus tire himself out.

“Is that cake?” He asks past his missing incisor.

“It is! My mom made it for my birthday and we just can’t eat it all. Brought some for you and your moms. They around?” Barry peers past Magnus politely.

“Ma! Mama!” Magnus calls at the top of his lungs.

“Mags, the house is not that big, baby! You don’t have to shout,” Amada says, Arabella trailing behind her. They both give Barry a big smile.

“Barry! Always so nice to see you. What’s this?” Arabella nods toward the plate in Barry’s hands.

“Mom made some cake and we wanted to share.”

“It was his birthday,” Magnus says matter-of-factly. Amada laughs and picks Magnus up, resting him on her hip.

“Well, happy belated birthday! Thank you for this. Now, remind me, you’re off to school soon, right?” Amada asks as Arabella takes the plate from Barry.

“That’s right! End of the summer and I’m heading down south. I’m really excited. I’m gonna miss Foster’s Gap but I’ll be back as often as I can. I’m just excited to see the world,” Barry smiles wide as he explains his passions. He adores Foster’s Gap but feels a pull to the rest of the world.

“Well, just know everyone back here will be rooting for you, dear,” Arabella says with a warm smile.

And Barry believes that.

Not even a week after this exchange and the Burnsideses are at Barry’s home, bringing armful of food to ease some of the stress from Barry. Dr. Highchurch is over night and day, doting on Marlena to the best of his abilities.

[keep reading on AO3!]

#taz #taz balance #blupjeans #blupjeansweek2022 #reese writes #barry bluejeans #lup #taz au #also potential tuck everlasting spoilers??? #this started as a tuck everlasting au but it's really just the [redacted] at this point #[also foster's gap because miss winnie foster :3]

[yaboi-julien]

@blupjeansweek day 6: Family

[ID: A digital illustration of the seven birds from the adventure zone chilling in a pillow and blanket fort.

Lup is a tan skinned elven woman with dark brown hair done up in two buns with bun covers. She is wearing circular glasses, an oversized shirt with the IPRE symbol on it, and cookie-monster print PJ pants and is holding a mug decorated with cheezy flames and is sitting in Barry’s lap. Barry is a fat pale skinned human man with short brown hair and rectangular glasses, wearing a weezer shirt, boxers with prints of tiny pairs of jeans on them, and is holding a green mug with the face of a creeper from minecraft printed on it. He looks over at Taako, a tan skinned elven man with brown choppy hair dyed lavender halfway down and wearing a face mask, head band and a purple house coat, who has one hand on Barry’s shoulder while the other reaches for a box of cookies Magnus is holding out of reach, a frustrated look on his face. Magnus is a dark skinned heavily built human man with straight choppy black hair and black sideburns, wearing a tank top with the gravity falls pine tree symbol on it and red plaid-print PJ pants. In his free hand he holds a beige mug printed with Polynesian artwork stylized fish, as he leans away from Taako and pushes him away with his other foot.

Davenport is a pale skinned lightly built gnome with cochlear implants, short ginger hair and a large ginger mustache, and wearing navy-blue star-print PJs, who sits calmly in front of Magnus, painting his nails and looking up at the commotion. In front of Davenport is Merle, a dark skinned chubby dwarven man who lays splayed on a pillow, his eyes closed, grey hair in a bun and medium beard well groomed, holding a mug depicting a potted plant wearing lingerie and wearing two-piece PJs printed with cannabis leafs. Across from the two is Lucrecia, a dark skinned human woman with medium length black curly hair wearing rectangular glasses, a pink shirt with a cat on it, purple PJ pants, a wrist brace, and holding a mug with the lesbian flag on it. She also looks over at the commotion, smiling softly.

In the background, decorative strings of lights illuminate a fort of pillows, blankets, and couch cushions. END]

#blupjeansweek2022 #blupjeans #IPRE #the adventure zone #taz balance #the adventure zone balance #seven birds #taz IPRE #starblaster #the starblaster crew #lup #lup the adventure zone #lup taz #lup tacco #Barry Bluejeans #barry bluejeans taz #barry the adventure zone #taako #taako the adventure zone #taako tacco #taako taz #magnus #magnus burnsides #magnus taz #magnus the adventure zone #Davenport #davenport the adventure zone #davenport taz #captain davenport #captainport

[herbgerblin]

ID: A digital comic. First image is of Magnus, Taako, Lup, Lucretia, and Merle resting on a mall bench with a bunch of shopping bags. Magnus and Lucretia sitting opposite their companions. They all look in various degrees of bored and tiredness. Merle, a dwarf man, is asleep. Magnus, a human man, rests his head on his arms as his hands. Taako, an elven man in a wizard hat and a hoodie, mutters, "Who's great idea was it to give the van keys to Barold and Capt'n Port? It's gonna take like, two hours to track them down." Lup, holding a cellphone in one hand, raises her other hand to her face and shouts, "BLUE!" into the air. The second image shows a zoomed-out view of the group in the center of the busy mall. The following panel shows the same view, now with a word bubble from somewhere on the second floor, a responding "JEANS!" The third image zooms back in on the crew, all looking puzzled about the shouting, save Merle, who is still asleep. End ID.

it's their version of marco polo

@blupjeansweek beginnith! it's not midnight for me so this counts for day 1 prompt: bluejeans

#blupjeansweek #blupjeansweek2022 #blupjeans #the adventure zone #my art #taz #taz balance #herbgerbart #okay time for sleeps #ipre #taako #lup #barry bluejeans #magnus burnsides #lucretia #davenport

[suraelis]

Blupjeans Week 2022 - Day 1 Blue Jeans

@blupjeansweek

Inspired by the MBMBaM bit where Justin talked about 50 shades of Grey for a really long time

#the adventure zone #blupjeansweek2022 #taz balance #taz lup #Barry Bluejeans #blupjeans #my art

[thesevenofbirds]

@blupjeansweek day 2: clown 🤡

#taz #taz balance #blupjeans fanart #blupjeansweek2022 #blupjeans #clown #idk lol #taz fanart #my art #taako

[mediocre-megs]

Monster

@blupjeansweek

pov it’s halloween and the love of your life has the most evil hands you’ve ever seen and did i mention she is the love of your life

(a little outta left field but i didn’t have time to write anything for today’s prompt so… art!!!)

#blupjeans week #blupjeansweek2022 #the adventure zone #the adventure zone balance #taz fanart #taz #taz balance #lup taaco #barry bluejeans #blupjeans

[barry-j-blupjeans]

@blupjeansweek Day 2: Clown

“He’s back,” Lup said, sitting up a little straighter. Taako snorted, leaning over her shoulder so she could point out the Guy. Said Guy was wearing jorts and heavily applied sunscreen that wasn’t rubbed in all the way on his left cheek. He was squinting through the crowd and the sun as if trying to spot somebody but was getting wildly tossed around between everyone. Lup straightened her comically large bowtie. “Can you cover for me?”

“No one is going to willingly come near us, even if they really want a balloon animal,” Taako said, sinking back down into his chair. “Children don’t appreciate clowns like they used to, Lup.”

“Yeah, I know,” Lup said distractedly, watching the Jorts Guy walk his way through the crowd. He had a hand up over his eyes to block out the sun. “I’ll be right back.”

“Bring me some funnel cake!” Taako called. Lup held up a thumbs up to show she had heard him and dove her way through the crowd. Her shoes squeaked with every step. Clown suit or no clown suit, Lup was determined to get Jorts Guy’s number. Hopefully, just hopefully, he wouldn’t be afraid of clowns.

“Heeeey,” Lup said, tapping him on the shoulder. Jorts Guy yelped, nearly falling back and getting crushed by the endless stamped of fair-goers. Lup caught his arm. The crowd around them parted as if Lup’s clown costume was Moses staff at the Red Sea. Jorts Guy brought his hand to his chest, wheezing out a breath. 

“Hey,” Lup tried again. “You need any help with anything?”

“What?” Jorts asked loudly. The throng of people was still swarming around them. Lup couldn’t blame him for not hearing what she said.

“DO YOU NEED- just- come with me.”

Lup grabbed Jorts’ hand in her big gloved one and dragged him through the crowd. They nearly got disconnected as a horde of children tried to go directly through them, but Lup managed to get them off to the side. They were near where Taako and Lup’s station was now, but far enough away that Lup knew Taako couldn’t eavesdrop without effort.

“Thank you,” Jorts said gratefully. “I’m- I’m sorry, I lost my mom and she’s like, very prone to falling at her age, so I wanna make sure she’s alright-”

“I can help,” Lup said. She tried to tuck a strand of loose hair behind her ear, but her glove prevented that from happening. “Could I have your number?”

“Excuse me?” Jorts said, looking a little more flustered.

“So I can text if I find your mom!” Lup covered. “Y’know, so I won’t have to try to find you again. Not that you’re hard to spot, y’know, with the jorts and that asssss- assets. That you have. Yeah.”

“Uhm,” Jorts said, giving her a breathless little laugh. Lup counted that as a good thing. “I guess, if- if you wanna. But, uhm, I- Can I ask if you want my phone number for anything else? ‘Cus, uh, I’m kinda getting the vibe that you want it for something else.”

“You caught me,” Lup said, raising up gloved hands up in defeat. “A clown girl can try, can’t she?”

“She can,” Jorts said, smiling a little. “I- I do need to make sure my mom’s alright, though, so-”

“I’ll help,” Lup said, much more sincere now. “Clown’s honor.”

“I’m not sure how much that’s worth,” Jorts said, definitely smiling now.

#blupjeansweek2022 #blupjeans #barry bluejeans #lup #taako #mine #ise cube writing

[chaos-lioness]

Hooray I’m actually doing it!!! Very Late day #1 of @blupjeansweek

#blupjeansweek #taz spoilers #taz #the adventure zone #my stuff #I AM SO EXCITED FOR THIS #blupjeansweek2022

[liltaz-asatreat]

Day 2 of @blupjeansweek : Clown

Got a reference for the clown routine from the YouTube video on this website here

You can also read it on ao3!

~

Barry Accidentally Joins the Circus

“Lup, why am I here?” Barry whispers, trying to keep the nervousness out of his voice, though he's sure it wouldn't fool her at this point now that they're 63 cycles in. “Why couldn't Taako go with you? You know he's much better suited for this than I am.”

“He's got a bad cold, and he needs to sleep it off,” Lup whispers, waving her hand toward him in a slightly dismissive way. “You'll be okay, don't worry. We'll be in and out before anyone notices we're not supposed to be here.”

“Lup,” Barry says in a more distressed tone, “we're dressed like clowns.”

“Yeah, and there's enough clowns in this circus that we'll blend in with them just fine. We don't even have to worry about performing! This plan is fool proof.”

The two of them are having this quiet conversation behind one of the caravans parked outside a massive circus tent, and they are, in fact, dressed in very conspicuous brightly colored fashion with colorful wigs and red clown noses. Complete with a face full of make up that Lucretia had a lot of fun painting on them and big clown shoes that Barry is having a hard time walking in. The plan is far from fool proof as far as he's concerned. It sounds simple enough that all they have to do is infiltrate the circus grounds and find the Ring Master's caravan to steal the Light before running back to the ship, but he still feels like something major is going to go wrong. The first concern being that, as they are dressed as performers, they're still going to be dragged into the ring, and the second being that they're going to notice two extra clowns wandering around outside of the tent and into random empty caravans.

This is a bad plan, but he trusts Lup knows what she's doing as she and Taako had traveled with circuses before when they were kids. He just doesn't trust what he's doing which is why he's a little salty that Taako got sick right before this heist.

Lup turns to quickly tap him on the shoulder and points forward to a large and ostentatious looking caravan parked on the opposite side of the circus grounds. “There! I'd bet anything that's the Ring Master's wagon!”

Barry just nods, his stomach clenching slightly. “Right.” He looks around cautiously at the area between them and that caravan. There's a few people running in and out of the back of the tent and around the different wagons, no doubt grabbing things and setting things up for the show to continue. “Right,” he says again, tensely. “And all we have to do is walk over there like we belong here.”

“Exactly!” Lup says brightly. She turns her head toward him and bumps her large clown nose on him as she gives him a quick kiss on his cheek. “Are you ready?”

“Y-yeah.” No he absolutely is not.

“Alright! Show time!”

The two of them step out from behind the caravan and walk briskly toward the wagon Lup pointed out. Barry's heart thunders in his ears as he tries to not look around too much or act at all suspicious. They make it halfway there when someone runs up to him and taps him on the shoulder. “Hey! I need you to stop for a second.”

Barry stops and turns to see it's one of the clowns that actually works here. He seems panicked and slightly winded. Out of the corner of his eye, he sees Lup continue walking at a little bit of a brisker pace. He knows the most important thing is for them to get the Light, and if their cover is about to be blown, she needs to get there as fast as possible. But he still feels slightly annoyed that he has to deal with whatever this situation is by himself.

“Gerald just got sick, and we need someone to fill in for him in five minutes. Do you know the routine after the tigers?” The clown asks hurriedly.

Would it be incriminating if he said no? “Um, sort of?” Barry says. Maybe if he sounds unsure, it won't blow their cover completely, but it will also prevent him from having to do what he knows this clown is going to ask of him next.

“That's good enough for me.” Damn it.

The clown grabs his arm and drags him into the back of the tent. There's people rushing around here too, grabbing props, warming up, and setting stuff up. They pass by a cage with some monkeys fighting over a banana as they go deeper into the area off stage. Please, Lup, bust him out of here before he actually has to do anything.

The clown leads him to a small stack of props, a stool, a couple of short tubes, three small rectangular pieces of painted plastic, some colorful rings, and a few balls. Then he turns to him and says, “Okay, here's the quick run down. I'm going to run into the ring with two of these rectangles and one of these tubes, and I'm going to put the tube laying down between the rectangles and balance on top of the top rectangle.” He puts the tube between the rectangles on top of the stool and rolls the top rectangle side to side. “Then you're going to pretend to push me off, and I'll fall to the floor with my feet up. You put the rectangles and tube just like that on top of my feet, and balance on top of it for a few seconds.”

Barry whips his head around to look at him. “You want me to do what?”

The clown gives him an annoyed expression. “You're going to balance on top of the tube on top of my feet. Then you're going to hop down, I stand back up, place the rectangles and pipe on the ground, and then prepare myself for you to do a handstand on my hands so I can carry you upside down and balance on the pipe where we'll work together to get you to sit upright on my shoulders.”

This is so something Lup would kick ass at and not something a 55-year-old non-acrobatic human with back issues is capable of doing well without prior practice.

“And now, lets give a warm welcome to our very own clown acrobats!” Someone announces from inside the ring, and the crowd goes wild as silly but intense performance clown music starts to play.

“Okay, we don't have time! I'll tell you the rest of the routine as we're up there, go go go!” The clown pushes him out toward the ring, and Barry stumbles into the spotlight, the clown right behind him.

The clown runs up and plops the rectangle sandwich on the ground and jumps on top with his hands high in the air. He's smiling as he gives a barely noticeable pointed nod in Barry's direction. Fuck him running, he's really going to have to do this. He runs up and pushes the clown slightly, and the clown falls dramatically forward, catching himself with his hands and lowering himself safely to the ground as he puts his feet in the air. Barry picks up the rectangle sandwich and places it carefully on the clown's feet. He takes a deep breath and steadies the top board before he puts one foot on, then the other. He wobbles with his hands splayed out to the sides and looks up at the audience who whistle and clap. He gives a nervous smile before hopping backward. He stumbles and almost lands on his butt, but he catches himself and takes the rectangle sandwich off of the clown's feet who stands up and motions for Barry to put it back on the ground. He obliges and looks at him for instruction, and unfortunately, he points back to himself before kneeling on the ground on his knees and puts his hands up above his shoulders like two platforms. Promising support for a handstand that he's only ever had to do on the ground, not on someone's hands.

Barry gulps and walks over and grabs his hands, suddenly very aware of how sweaty his own hands are. “What do I do now?” He whispers, and the clown sighs.

“Put your head down against my neck jump up into a handstand, and as you're going up, we're going to move our arms around so that I'm supporting you with my arms outstretched to the sides.”

Wonderful.

Barry does as he says and puts the back of his head against the clown's neck, and he kicks his legs up as hard as he can. The clown leans forward in shock a little, but he moves their arms as Barry struggles to keep his legs straight and in the air without falling backward over him. The clown stands up and yells before walking over to the rectangle sandwich. He steps on the one side of the top board that is leaning against the ground and takes a beat before stepping on the other side to get him up in the air and rolling on the pipe. Barry closes his eyes as he struggles to keep from falling and starts praying to Pan and every other deity who may or may not exist in this plane to help him through this until Lup quickly finds him again and saves him from this.

Suddenly, the clown starts lowering his arms and him down with them, and Barry remembers him saying earlier that he was supposed to sit on top of his shoulders after this. He opens his eyes in panic as he tries to carefully bring his legs down slowly while the clown raises their arms up, and he does manage to fully make it onto the clowns shoulders. However, the clown does stumble off the platform and almost sends Barry toppling forward and off him. He catches them though, and he lets go of Barry's arms and raises his own in the air and to the side in a congratulatory gesture. Barry copies him while the clown grabs onto his ankles and lifts him slightly.

Does he expect him to jump off?

Barry takes a second too long deliberating about that decision before the clown pushes him upward a little more aggressively, and Barry falls forward. There's a chorus of ooohs as the crowd reacts to that less than stellar display. The clown looks at him reproachfully as he stands up, and he hurries over to him and whispers, “Grab the pipe, and bring it to the stool. There's a board on top of the stool that you need to put on top of the pipe before you jump up and balance on it from side to side.”

“Can't you be the one who does that?” Barry hisses with out thinking, and the clown looks at him exasperatedly.

“That's basic shit! Are you new?”

“Yes?” Barry says tentatively.

“Out of everyone I could have picked,” the clown mutters and rolls his eyes before pushing him toward the rectangle sandwich.

Barry grabs the pipe as the clown grabs the boards, and he looks around to see the stool someone must have brought out during their handstand performance. He takes a second to scan the audience and the curtains in vain, but he doesn't see Lup. The clown motions for him to follow him, and he does so up to the stool where he picks up the board and puts the pipe underneath it. He rolls it from side to side for a few moments to get a feel for it before he climbs onto the stool itself first. He sways a little as the backs of his large clown shoes are hanging off the edge of the stool before he tries to climb on top of the top board. The pipe shoots out from underneath him, and he falls off the stool, hitting the ground with a loud thud. The audience boos, and the clown runs up to him, looking furious.

“Go in the back, find the jump rope, and come back out here while jumping rope. I've got this.” He motions angrily at the stool.

“Okay,” Barry says, his voice shaking slightly. Jumping rope he can do. Just please gods above let Lup be almost done.

He jogs back behind the curtains, and everyone stares daggers at him as someone forcefully pushes a jump rope in his hands. He mutters a quick, “Thanks,” before rushing back out into the ring.

The clown is balancing on top of the pipe and stool, and he glances back at Barry as Barry begins to jump rope forward toward him. When he reaches him, the clown whispers, “Give me the rope, stand there and point to me like you're proud of me and make sure the audience's attention is on me, then go back and grab the rings. Once you come back with the rings, toss them one at a time with both hands to me, and I'm going to toss them back to you as we juggle together. Think you can manage that?”

“I– Yes,” Barry mumbles before handing over the rope. He stands to the side and points up to the clown with an exaggerated smile on his face, and the clown swings the rope around really quickly before he starts jumping rope on top of the platform. Barry stands there mesmerized for a second before he shakes his head and runs back out of the ring. He grabs the rings and hurries back to see the clown throw the jump rope to the side and raise his arms in the air looking for praise, and the audience claps and cheers.

Barry takes up position to the side of the stool, and the clown turns toward him expectantly. He separates the rings into two bundles, and he starts throwing them at the clown. This slight of hand of being able to throw one at a time while still holding onto a bundle in the same hand is difficult, but while the throws are a bit messy, learning card tricks with Merle is helping him a lot in this endeavor. The clown catches them a little sloppily and tosses them back, and over all, the juggling seems to be going a little okay. Barry only drops one every once in a while, but he's able to pick it back up again surprisingly quickly. He smiles a little in relief. Maybe this isn't so bad.

The clown starts catching them, and as Barry throws the last two rings, the clown says quietly, “I'm going to juggle these into the air, if I drop one, throw it back to me. Then when I've juggled them twice and raise my arms to get applause, take the rings from me. Then come back with the ball spinning on your finger.”

“Got it.”

The clown throws the rings up in the air, one at a time in each hand, and he juggles them for a few seconds before he starts trying to catch them. He loses one though, and Barry runs to catch it before tossing it back to him. Then he does it again, but he manages to catch all of them this time. He raises his arms in the air, and the crowd claps and cheers. Barry runs up to him, grabs the rings, and runs around him back behind the curtains where someone greets him with the ball. A flash of fire catches his eye, and he turns toward it hopefully, but it's gone within a second.

Barry walks back out into the ring with the ball spinning on his finger. The crowd claps for him as the ball begins to wobble and slow down, but the clown, now on the ground, quickly grabs it from him. He then walks back to the stool, takes the top rectangle off, and hands him the pipe. “I'm going to balance on this,” he gestures to the ball, “and you're going to take that and the jump rope back before bringing out two more balls, and there's a ball of light in the very back corner. Grab that too.”

Barry starts a little at that. “There's a ball of light back there too?”

“Yeah, it's a new thing the Ring Master found and is really excited abou–”

And it's just at that moment when a loud explosion coming from behind the curtains rings through the tent. The crowd screams and starts running for the exit as flames climb up the curtains and start to set the outer tent ablaze. Barry drops the pipe and sprints out of the ring. It's chaos behind the curtains. There are as many people fleeing the scene as there are people rushing toward the fire. To do what? Barry isn't exactly sure. But he can hear spells firing, and he surmises that whatever they're doing, it isn't good.

He pushes his way through the crowd and finds Lup running through a tear in the tent as spells fly past her. “I've got her! Take care of the tent!” Barry yells at the mob as he pushes his way past them and through the tear too.

It looks like his ruse worked a little bit as half of the people who were fighting their way toward her don't follow him, but there's still four or five people on their tail. Lup glances behind her and grins when she sees him. She slows down a little and grabs onto his arm before saying, “New spell I've been working on.” She points her wand to a space in front of her and mutters a few words before a rift opens up, showing the back side of one of the wagons.

They run through it, and Lup grabs his arm and pulls him back up against the wagon as the rift closes behind them. She puts a finger to her lips, and they listen to the people screaming and shouting and the flames roaring behind them. A group of people come close to the wagon, and they can hear them debating about which direction they should go to find the two of them before they split up and run in different directions. None of them notice them pressed up against the wagon.

Lup smiles devilishly at Barry. “Got the Light,” she says as she opens her bag to show him. He looks down at it with a small smile as she quickly shuts it again, so it doesn't give away their position. “Also, I got to see the last bit of your performance.”

Barry blushes and looks away from her. “I probably could have done better if I had known what to prepare for.”

“No, you did great! I didn't know you could toss rings like that, babe.” Lup says genuinely.

Barry smiles and looks back up at her. “I guess that part was pretty okay. I did fall off the stool though when I was trying to balance on the pipe.”

Lup nuzzles her face against his neck. “Can't blame you for that, but I did hear the crowd cheering before that, so you must have done some other pretty cool things.”

“Yeah, I guess managing to do a handstand on someone else's hands while they balanced on the pipe was pretty cool.”

“You're a genuine acrobat! Maybe the circus is your true calling.”

Barry laughs quietly and kisses her on the top of her head. “While that may have been a cool moment, I can guarantee you I'd much rather remain a scientist.” Lup laughs quietly too, and it warms his chest. “Come on, let's get back to the Starblaster before they find us.”

#blupjeansweek2022 #taz #taz balance #taz fanfic #blupjeans #barry bluejeans #lup #taz lup #stolen century #written works of Gab

[anistarrose]

Chapters: 1/1

Relationships: Barry Bluejeans/Lup

Characters: Lup (The Adventure Zone), Barry Bluejeans

Additional Tags: Angst, Hurt/Comfort, Canon Compliant, deals with late-stolen century thru post-story and song, lets dig into all those juicy complicated emotions about lichdom and collateral damage, Blupjeans Week (The Adventure Zone)

Lup and Barry have just become liches, and among all their new powers, seeing the essence of suffering wasn’t one that they'd expected...

...

Lup and Barry have just led the creation of the Grand Relics, and seeing Faerun’s suffering doesn’t make watching the Relic Wars any easier.

*

I’m late for both the week itself and especially for the prompt, but this is for the @blupjeansweek prompt of May 29: “monster”!

#taz #taz balance #blupjeans #blupjeansweek2022 #barry bluejeans #lup taaco #taz balance spoilers #rosalia writes fic

[holdmecloser-gandydancer]

@blupjeansweek day 2: clown

Thursdays at the antique shop mean a couple things; strictly speaking, the shop isn’t open so Barry can do intake of everything that people have dropped off during the previous week. Truthfully though, most of that requires sifting through the garbage people think would work well in an antique shop. There’s some good stuff, he can’t lie, but there are only so many commemorative Hercules plates from McDonald’s that he can sell, you know?

Tedious as the work is, it’s nice to have a midweek break, especially before the weekend where he’s guaranteed to have a veritable deluge of customers and browsers alike.

Several hours of mildewy, dust-filled boxes later and Barry’s nearly done. Everything stickered and reorganized and Barry’s already thinking about the large stack of still unread books on his coffee table at home; tonight he might start on a fun classic, if those words aren’t mutually exclusive, that is.

Three short raps on the front door interrupt Barry’s grand scheming for the rest of his evening. He suppresses an eyeroll as he makes his way through his self-made labyrinth. Thursdays also mean people will essentially ding-dong-ditch boxes of their family junk outside the door. Which only means he’s bound to be at the shop for hours and hours longer than he plans. Waiting for him on the doorstep is a plain brown box. It looks to be no bigger than the size of a shoebox. The only note on the box is a hastily scrawled label indicating that the contents are fragile. He peeks around just in case the previous owner of the box is there. No such luck. Judging by the ease with which he lifts the box, there can’t be too many items inside. He just might get to tackle Dracula tonight after all.

--

Barry’s no stranger to…peculiar items. People give weird shit to antique shops all the time. He was once given a box of human hair. Another time someone dropped off their mom’s long dead stuffed cat. He’s dealt with a lot. But the contents of this newest box are puzzling, to say the least. Upon first inspection, it’s just a porcelain clown doll; seems to be a harlequin style dressed in reds and golds. There’s a faded tag attached to it that says “Item one of two of set.” Odd, but not outrageous. As far as clown dolls go, this one is finely crafted. The face is hand-painted with soft and sad features, delicate embroidery weaves over the smooth satin clothes, and the tips of her hat even have little bells.

Barry does a quick appraisal, gives her an appropriate price tag, and places her on a shelf near other dolls he’s got for sale.

He then goes about his closing duties, locking the back door and wedging an old dresser in front of it because the lock is more decorative than functional at this point and he frankly cannot be bothered to replace it. Quick wipe down of all the large furniture pieces, rearranging the little bowls of knickknacks at the register, putting the new clown doll back with the other dolls, and he’s nearly done.

Wait.

He stops and stares at the doll. She almost looks like she’s smirking. He must be losing his mind, he decides. That’s the only explanation. No time to dwell on that. Besides, if he leaves now, he can grab some takeout on the way home.

--

Barry has to be hallucinating. Maybe he ate some unwashed lettuce or something. Because that is the only explanation as to why that goddamn clown doll is sitting sentinel at the register when he walks in on Friday. He shakes his head and returns the doll to the shelf of all the other dolls. The Raggedy Andy almost looks sorry for him. He has half a mind to put her back in her box to collect dust but that feels cruel. Instead, he sends her a stern look, feels ridiculous for doing that, and sets himself about doing opening tasks.

--

Barry really and truly thinks he is fully losing it. Like “I-must-spend-the-summer-by-the-sea-for-my-health” losing it. Because that’s the only explanation as to why this godforsaken clown doll is back by the register when he emerges from the back of the store.

 He stomps over to the counter and crouches so he’s eye level with the doll. “I’m a grown man and I’m talking to a doll. This is what this has come to, huh? You are impossible and I for one cannot wait until some poor bastard comes in here and buys you so you can be someone else’s problem.” He shoots her a look and goes to open the door.

“Well, mister, that’s not a very nice way to talk to a lady, now is it?” A voice behind him says, a few bells jingling as she sasses him.

Barry turns in horror to see who he can only describe as the life-sized version of the doll sitting on the counter, idly swinging her legs.

He goes down like a sack of bricks.

--

Barry’s dead, he thinks. Dead or dying and the lack of oxygen going to his brain is causing this end-of-life horror show. His eyes are still screwed shut because he frankly doesn’t want whatever “gift” his subconscious is giving him in his last moments, especially since this gift is tapping him on the forehead with an icy cold finger.

“Leave me here to die,” Barry moans, acutely aware of the fact that this fainting spell has undoubtedly done something to his back.

He hears a few bells jingle in annoyance before the voice begins again. “Not gonna do that. You’re not dead yet so up and at ‘em. Besides, I have several bones to pick with you.”

“Are any of them my spine?”

“You’re the one who decided to be dramatic and faint.”

Barry opens his eyes in protest and looks up at the woman squatting at his side, examining him like a worm. “I didn’t do it on purpose, you know.”

She hums noncommittally before standing up and beginning to wander around the shop. Barry scrambles to his feet as quickly as his complaining body allows. “So is it safe to say that this isn’t some kind of freaky vision I’m getting because the shop has some kind of carbon monoxide leak?”

“Nope, it’s all me.”

“Uh-huh. A-and who are you, exactly?”

She holds up a wooden turtle in front of her face, scrutinizing it a little. “You can call me Lup. That’s what I got called a long time ago. I like it.”

“Okay. Lup. Okay. Well, I’m Barry. Uh, next question, and don’t take this the wrong way, but what are you? Like are you the doll?” He gives her a wide berth and watches as she picks up and examines items as though she’s in the mood to make a purchase.

She huffs and rolls her eyes before motioning back to the counter. “Obviously I’m not actually the doll, Barry. She’s still hanging out on the counter.” And clear as day, the doll is slumped against the cash register. “I just live there.”

“You live in the doll,” Barry echoes numbly.

“Sure do!”

“Of course a goddamn haunted doll showed up on my doorstep. Love that for me. Absolutely great trajectory my life is on,” Barry tosses his hands up in the air and paces around.

“I dunno that calling me haunted is very polite, you know,” Lup says, suddenly back over by the doll.

“Jesus Christ, can you not do that?” Barry asks as he whirls around. This is a lot to deal with before 10 AM. He can’t tell if he hopes for customers to stay away or to start banging on the door. Truth be told though, he’s not quite sure how Lup would react to that.

“Not do what?” Lup’s voice is syrupy sweet and directly in Barry’s ear. He jumps at the sudden presence.

“That!” Barry jerks away from Lup and frowns. “Okay, fine. I won’t call you haunted. Just please, please stop…evaporating like that.”  

She rolls her eyes before walking over to the counter and hopping on it, throwing her arms out. “Happy?” she snarks, pulling her legs up under her.

“Little bit,” Barry affirms. He pulls up a rocking chair and sits in front of the counter. “Now, I do have a few questions for you if you’re amenable to that.”

She nods and cringes as the bells on her hat jingle. “Yeah, sure. What’s eating at you?” She asks, removing her hat and setting it beside her.

“So, you say you don’t like being called a haunted doll. What exactly are you, then?”

“Mmm. Hard to say. I’ve been here for as long as I can remember. Always with her,” she motions towards the doll next to her. “Hard to say who came first, chicken or the egg. I like to think it was me, though.”

“Right. And uh, your tag says you’re part of a set?”

Her face falls and the makeup only serves to make her look truly like a sad clown. “Yeah. Me and my brother. Don’t know where he is though. It’s been at least….God, human time is so weird. Maybe ten years? Yeah. Ten years since I’ve seen him last. I’ve been trying to track him down but it’s real hard to do it by myself.”

“Well, I can help, maybe,” Barry blurts, his mouth moving faster than his brain. “I mean, he’s uh…also a doll? Right?”

She huffs out a little laugh. “Yes, we’re both functionally dolls if that makes following this line of logic easier for you.”

“Oh, I bet I could find him easy then.”

She brightens almost in spite of herself. “Really?”

“Sure! I mean, it’s probably gonna take some time but I know enough people in the industry that if I start putting feelers out now, I might be able to get you two back together by the holidays.” The look on Lup’s face seals it: Barry’s gotta find this doll. He grabs a piece of paper and scribbles a haphazard note letting customers know that regular hours will return in the next day or so. A hasty tape job and Barry returns to where Lup is sitting, the doll she lives in now sitting in her lap like a kind of security blanket.

“I’ll tell you something else, Barry, $35 is really underestimating my value.” She says, ripping the price tag off.

“Right. Well, there wasn’t a lot of information to go on. Sorry.” He sheepishly grabs his laptop from his bag and boots it up. “Now, let’s work on finding your brother.”

#blupjeans #blupjeans week #barry bluejeans #lup #lup taaco #reese writes #taz #taz balance #beep beep beep beep beep welcome to haunted doll watch #also im almost certain this is not an original idea of mine but i cannot find the post to credit it for the idea ahhh #blupjeansweek2022

[yaboi-julien]

Day 2: Clown

Day 2 for @blupjeansweek! I was at a little bit of a loss for this prompt, but I think it all worked out lol

[ID:

 A four panel comic in a cartoony flat-coloured style. In the first panel is Lup in her litch form, a red-robed figure with hands reminiscent of smouldering charcoals and a little spout of flame poking out of her hood where her hair would fall. Under the hood it’s completely dark, except for two glowing white eyes and two sharp white canines. She looks down dejected as she wanders down a darkened street with old-timey shops in the background, the moon and stars in the sky. She is thinking: “want to hug husband want to hug husband want to hug husband”.

In the second panel she looks up, a large lightbulb appearing beside her as a sign on one of the buildings in the background reads: “necromantic wares”

In the third panel, we see Lup’s red robe from the back as she looks at a shelf inside the store. On the shelf is the clown doll from the MBMBaM TV show’s Haunted Doll Watch segment with a tag underneath it saying: “Ready-to-be-haunted doll. Sale! 400 gp”. A thought bubble coming from Lup says: “Perfect.”

In the fourth panel is Barry, a human man with short brown hair wearing a white tank top, as he is sleeping soundly in bed. The clown doll, now posessed by Lup, looms over him in preparation to give him a hug. A thought bubble coming from Lup in the doll says: “This couldn’t possibly go wrong”.

END]

#the adventure zone #blupjeansweek2022 #blupjeans week #blupjeans #blupjeans week 2022 #taz #the adventure zone balance #taz balance #lup #barry #lup taz #lup the adventure zone #barry bluejeans #barry the adventure zone #barry taz #mbmbam #haunted doll watch

[noodyl-blasstal]

The final @blupjeansweek day 7: Free Day. This one relates to a longer-form fic I’m noodling with at the moment. Can you guess who the new librarian is? 

These have been my first fics, and I’m supremely grateful for this challenge, it gave me the motivation to actually have a go!

Anyway, read here or on A03 (some implications of/joking about sex, but nothing explicit in this one)

Why wasn’t Barry home yet? Lup had an idea, and it was a GOOD idea. She obviously needed to run it by him, but he knew how important it was for her to speak things out into the universe and then bounce the concept backwards and forwards between them until it was hammered into shape. She had texted him three times, surely, surely that was a strong indication to hurry. He’d said he was on his way so where was he? Sure she only got his text less than 10 minutes ago and it was a 20 minute journey, sure he said he could ring, but she wanted him here now and she wanted to do it in person. This process was one of their rituals, and she was impatient to get it started.

Lup flopped down on the sofa, legs kicked over the arm. Instead of getting grumpy, she was going to get her pitch together, and she was going to make it a good one.

Barry’s keys clacked against the door right on time - he never used to be a keyrings guy, but now he had five with assorted photos of her, them, and the family. Thinking of the ways she brought little bits of chaos into his very much not-chaotic life always made her feel warm inside. He made space for her, got keyrings for her, and generally just loved her. Sometimes she wished it hadn’t taken them quite so long to get it together, but now that they had she definitely planned on keeping him.

Barry opened the door and was met with an arm full of Lup, smothering his face in lots of little kisses. When he started to giggle she almost lost her train of thought, but this was important. “Head in the game Lup!” she muttered to herself.

Lup stepped back abruptly, straightening the blazer she’d thrown on over her tshirt.

“Dr Bluejeans, I’m so glad you could make our meeting, I have a proposition, would you like to follow me to the board room?”

His face broke into a downright unprofessional smile, but he managed to reply

“Why thank you Dr Tacco, I’d love to hear your concept and hope we can work together on it” ruining it by adding in a whisper

“...is this a date night thing? I thought that was Friday? Lup, it’s laundry day, you absolutely cannot laugh at my pants”

Lup glared over her shoulder

“Behave Barold! This is serious business!”Although there was no heat in her words, he nodded once and changed his demeanour slightly, moving his hands away from her hips and following close behind instead. Lup missed the contact, but she did make a note to find out exactly which pants he was referring to later.

The boardroom turned out to be the kitchen’s breakfast bar. Lup had set up their projector, splaying a powerpoint onto the newly-photoless lounge wall. “If you’ll have a seat please Dr Bluejeans, I would like to talk you through a new project.” Barry settled himself into one of the seats facing the projection, grinning as he saw the pen and notepad laid out in front of him. Lup was pleased to see that his smile grow even wider as he spotted the glass of wine she had added on a whim.

Lup stands next to her laptop and presses the spacebar, setting off a chain reaction of explosions on the screen. The words ‘Pyro Techniques’ are left behind in the aftermath. Barry chokes on his wine and looks back at her.

“It’s okay, we can workshop that bit” she says dismissively before he can open his mouth. He smiles and shakes his head fondly, turning back to the projection.

Lup hits the spacebar again, and a photo of her pops up to the left, then one of him to the right. One more tap and another series of explosions spread across the space between them on the screen. Barry waits for the next slides, possibly for slightly too long, before realising they’re not coming.

“Er, Lup, I love it, great work with all the explosions, but I’m afraid I’m not quite sure what you’re getting at here.”

Lup stopped grinning and grabbed her own wine glass. “Oh, yeah, sorry, I had 10 minutes and I spent most of it on the special effects… but, they were baller, right?”

“Baller” Barry agreed solemnly, making a quick note of that on the pad in front of him.

Lup cleared her throat. “Okay, so, we’re both geniuses right? Like, we’re brilliant scientists, great at our jobs, and get to do high level shit all the time. I really enjoy that, but, what if we could also teach some smaller, more basic stuff? Grab some equipment and show kids how to blow stuff up safely? Educational, fun, get some baby nerds inspired.” Barry had cocked an eyebrow at the ‘safely’ comment (he had met Lup before thank-you-very-much). But he had to admit, it sounded fun. He smiled and nodded encouragingly.

Lup ploughed on

“Ango has been talking about some of the new sessions at the local library since Ms Hotchkins finally retired and they sound so sad, Bear. Apparently there was a guy doing a music class, but all the songs were super miserable and he couldn’t even pretend to be enthusiastic. There was something about an incident with a spider magician or something too, but Angus said he wasn’t allowed to tell me anything more while the investigation is still underway.” Barry opened his mouth to ask more, clearly decided it wasn’t worth it, and shut it again.

“Anyway, I think something with more oomph would be better, and oomph? Oomph we got in spades.”

Lup cleared her throat, looked Barry dead in the eye, and then jumped into a half squat and did jazz hands.

“Hereby endeth my presentation. Whaddya think?”

Barry snorted, thankful he hadn’t yet taken a sip of the wine which was on its way to his mouth. Lup was spontaneous, yes, but she knew her stuff. The University might even sponsor them to do it as it fitted with their targets for outreach and public engagement. He made a few scribbly notes on his pad as he mulled.

Despite her anxiousness to get started, Lup held back from asking Barry for an immediate answer. She knew he needed a few minutes to get his thoughts together, and he was scribbling away in the notebook which was a good sign, that meant he was planning. She fiddled nervously with her glass, alternating between taking sips and twirling the stem backwards and forwards in her fingers. Lup loved a ridiculous idea, they often talked about all manner of things which they both knew would never happen - their all denim Jothing line was a great ongoing dream, most recently diversified into Jitchenware. But this? This seemed like it could be good. Like it could do good. She knew the library had been trying to engage more in community work, Ango couldn’t stop talking about the new librarian and how he was improving the service. It made a change from him complaining about how terrible the previous management was, and if this new guy was good enough for the World’s Greatest Detective then he was good enough for her.

Barry looked up from his notes, at some point he’d cracked his laptop too

“Dr Taaco, I’m absolutely in. I accept your proposal.”

Lup eeped her excitement, grinned wide, and skidded round the counter to kiss him right on his beautiful face.

Between kisses Barry gasped out

“I’ve…”

“...downloaded the…”

“...outreach forms from…”

“...work, I…”

“...think we can get funding!”

Lup leaned back slightly to look him full in the face.

“Barold, you truly do know how to get a girl excited.”

Then she leaned into him to whisper, low and sultry in his ear

“Now, I believe I have an underwear puzzle to solve…”

Barry turned bright red, gods. There was no way out of this one… unless… He placed his hands on Lup’s hips, standing to deposit her on the counter. She squeaked happily and wrapped her legs around his hips as he knew she would. They stayed there a while, and he calculated his next move. The sofa was on the way to the door, he could definitely do this. Running his hands slowly from hip to the top of her thighs, Barry scooped Lup up, carrying her across the room. She looked absolutely delighted.

“Carrying me to bed, Barold? Chagirl could get used to this” Lup’s voice was absolutely intoxicating, but he knew that it was absolutely not worth the years of merciless teasing. Feeling guilty, he approached the sofa, muttering

“Not quite” as he deposited her there, upside down and completely confused. He was already running for the bathroom by the time she yelled his name. Gods, he was in trouble.

Lup pounded on the door, she couldn’t believe that sneaky bastard had got her like that. She was proud, and she was furious about that fact. Barold had been around Taako too long and it was absolutely unacceptable.

“You’ve been corrupted Barold, old Barry J Bluejeans would never have done this to me!” she yelled through the door

“He was a man of integrity, a man of decorum”

“A man too scared to say no to you because he thought you were a perfect ethereal being” Barry shouted back through the door, quickly adding

“Not that I don’t think you’re a perfect ethereal being now, but you also taught me everything I know.”

“I hate you” Lup shouted through the door

“Just show me your pants”

Barry just cackled

“NEVER! I’ll take these to my grave”

Lup was mid-way through turning a hastily retrieved butterknife in the lock when the door opened in front of her and she fell forward. Barry looked incredibly smug as tendrils of smoke wafted past him into the hall.

“Did you…? Barold!” Lup looked past him to the fine layer of ash in the bath.

“Like I said, love, I learned from the best. Now… I believe we were en route somewhere” Barry winked, and Lup glared up at him for a moment before breaking into raucous laughter.

“I truly do love you, you ridiculous, awful man.”

Lup held her arms up and giggled as Barry braced for her to swing her legs back around his waist so she could kiss the stuffing out of him again.

It was there, in her hallway, wrapped around the man she loved, that Lup was hit by an overwhelming sense of appreciation. She and Taako had come from so little, they raised themselves and worked so hard for every scrap they had. Now? They had family and friends, and so so so much love in their lives. Lup knew she was grinning into Barry’s lips, this was all so joyful. Future plans, this evening’s absolute silliness, it was all just her life now. Her heart felt so full, Barry was always willing to listen to her, to make things real and concrete instead of dreams. Lup loved him, she loved everything they were, and everything they were going to be.

#blupjeansweek2022 #blupjeans week #blupjeans #barry bluejeans #lup #lup tacco #taz fic #taz balance #Noodyl Writes

[suraelis]

Blupjeans Week 2022 - Day 2 Clown

@blupjeansweek

I just listened to Taako calling Lup a clown in the podcast so the timing was perfect

#blupjeansweek2022 #the adventure zone #taz lup #taz taako #Barry Bluejeans #my art

[frickrichums]

Here's my contribution to Blupjeans Week 2022 !! The next three chappies are on their way, but I wanted to get this out in time !

@blupjeansweek

#blupjeans #barry bluejeans #lup taaco #taz balance #lup #blupjeansweek2022 #the adventure zone #taz #blupjeans week #ao3 fanfic #ao3 link

[thesevenofbirds]

OKAY, I did day 1 of @blupjeansweek 2 days late. Ask me why this is where my brain went when the prompt was just “blue jeans?” I dunno. But!!! I’m incredibly happy with it 😂 so enjoy!

They’re getting ready for a party,,, GOTTA get the good matching clubbing outfits goin!

#taz #taz balance #blupjeansweek2022 #blupjeans week #blupjeans #Barry bluejeans #lup taaco #taz fanart #taz balance fanart #blupjeans fanart #sturdy denim and blue #my art