#come on i wasn’t going to kill taako it’s ok

[lazylittledragon]

i wonder how many people went into this not knowing i used to only write angst

original post / part 1 / part 2 / part 3 / part 4 / part 5 / part 6 / part 7 / part 8 / part 9  / part 10 / part 11 / part 12 / part 13 / part 14 / part 15

#taz #taz balance #the adventure zone #taakitz au #lup #taako #barry bluejeans #comic #come on i wasn’t going to kill taako it’s ok #i promise it’s a little softer from here sjshdhhd #yeah writing happy endings is a relatively new thing for me #it's actually because of balance that i write nice things now lmao #my old stuff was dark as hell #edit: the link to 15 should work now! #hospital tw #i should have tagged that sooner my apologies!!

[kravkalackin]

Kravitz had answered the listing as a joke. He had assumed that said listing had been a joke. Now he was wondering if this was going to be the thing that got him murdered.

Reading it over again, it hadn't changed from when he looked at it five minutes ago.

Listing: Fake Boyfriend To Avoid Jogging With Roommate Serious Responses Only

Additional details: my roommate keeps trying to make me go to the gym with him, so I told him I couldn't cause I have a date that day. It worked the first six times but now he's starting to get suspect. Especially because the dates are at 6am. Need a cute boy to stand in as a fake date. If you have a job that would require you to go on dates at fucking sunrise that is a plus. Will pay for breakfast, just need a few photos to throw off the scent

Kravitz wasn't sure what possessed him to reply, other than the picture the user had posted was um, very nice. And it was funny.

The person, Taako he mentioned once they started talking, had asked for a picture of him back. Almost as soon as he sent it he was starting to make plans for a fake breakfast date, and at that point Kravitz felt too far gone to back out.

So here he was at 6am on a Friday, inside of the earliest opening coffee shop they could find. Kravitz was starting to think he got stood up (which somehow felt almost as bad as being murdered) when he saw Taako come in. He didn't have to scan around long before he caught sight of him, the place nearly empty.

"Oh good you're here and don't look like a murderer, things are looking up on cha boy's end," Taako said. Despite how early it was he certainly seemed to be dressed for a date.

"The murderers we were probably supposed to run into doing this are going to feel pretty awkward when they end up trying to kill each other at the same time," he joked, getting a surprised laugh out of Taako.

"Shit yeah, that's gonna lead to a lot of awkward exchanges at the annual cyber killer convention," he said, Taako giving him a very nice smile. "But yeah, thanks for doing this, lemme spot you breakfast and a cuppa Joe and we can grab some pics," he added. Kravitz nooded, following Taako up to the counter. Once they ordered they sat back down and Kravitz hadn't actually thought any of this through. He kinda figured he'd be dead by now.

"So uh, Taako, if you don't mind me asking, " he started, Taako nodding along, "why can't you just tell your roommate you don't want to go to the gym?" he asked, a little surprised when Taako groaned dramatically.

"Ugh, because he gets all sad and whiny about how we never hang out together and how it'll be fun and naturally I have a heart of gold and will eventually give in and fucking take him for his walk like the overgrown golden retriever that he is," he explained. Their food was called up at the counter at this point and Kravitz quickly jumped up to grab it. By the time he got back Taako already had his phone out.

"Ok that's fucking Instagram worthy right there," he said, taking a picture of Kravitz as he held the platter.

"You're not actually going to put that on Instagram are you? I mean you can if you want to, I have no idea how to use the site," he said. Taako seemed to think it over for a bit before shaking his head.

"Nah, these'll be for private use only," he said, winking for good measure. Which was certainly something.

As they ate Taako snapped a few more pictures, including one of a very cutesy kiss on the cheek. It was all a little ridiculous but by the end Kravitz was actually having fun.

And when they parted with Taako thanking him profusely again for the help he almost regretted not asking for a possible real follow up date.

He was pretty delighted when Taako called him back the next day, although he wasn't expecting him to sound so panicked.

"So uh small problem, nothing to freak out about," he said, immediately freaking Kravitz out.

"And uh what's that? Did your roommate not believe you?" he asked.

"No uh, he believed it a little too well and he showed a picture to my sister who showed it to her husband and uh do you happen to work with a Barry Bluejeans?" Taako said, the words all coming out in a rush. It took a few long moments for what Taako was saying to process in his head, but when it did he felt his eyes widen.

"Oh, um, yes. Yes I know him," he said.

"Yeah so my brother in law and sister are demanding I bring you over for dinner and I figure I should warn you before you get bombarded at work," Taako said, and Kravitz had to take a moment to take a deep breath before he responded.

"Should I bring a dessert?" He asked. There was a moment of stunned silence on the other end before Taako burst out laughing.

"Fuck, keep that up and I might have to upgrade you to fake fiance," he said, and Kravitz couldn't help but grin at that.

This was fake, he knew it was fake.

But at least it was fun.

#taz #the adventure zone #taakitz #taako #Kravitz #long post #maybe ill make this a whole fic #been a while since I did fake dating

[nillial]

ok pick your fave: "why are you whispering" or "you don't see me" with kravitz and lup and maybe also taako? :0

Kravitz’s shift is almost over.

Almost. 

Until a woman runs into the Fantasy Hot Topic, her hair out of place, her arms full of what he can only assume is stolen goods, and shouts over the towers of folded clothes, “You don’t see me!” Then she throws her merchandise into the bowl of pins, pulls up her hood, and pretends to browse the hats.

Two seconds later, security skids onto the carpeted floor. After scanning the room, he asks, “Hey, you seen a lady come in here? Elf, long undercut, bad dye job? She stole some candles from Bath and Body Works. And then makeup from Sephora. And jeans from American Eagle.”

He glances at her. She bristles as the ‘bad dye job’ comment.

Kravitz returns his attention to the mall cop at the entrance. “She didn’t come by here,” he says. “How’d she hit three different stores without anyone stopping her?”

He furrows his brow. “I’m losin’ her, gotta go,” he says, running off in order to avoid the hit to his ego.

The moment the coast is clear, she tugs her hood off her head and grabs her stuff from where she’d tossed it. “Bad dye job,” she mutters under her breath. “Fuckin’ wannabe Tom Selleck, ugly mustache, power-tripping piece of shit. Bad dye job. My hair is impeccable, thank you.” 

Kravitz leans onto the cashier counter. “Candles?”

-

She turns towards him. “They smelled good,” she tells him. “Here. Sniff.”

She shoves one of her candles in his face and Kravitz, who doesn’t know how to say no, complies and takes a sniff. It really does smell good— it’s some kind of fruity pineapple scent, but, in Kravitz’s opinion, it’s not worth running from the security guard to get. 

He holds out a hand and lowers the candle away from his face. “Uh huh.”

As she’s rummaging through the rest of her things, she asks, “Hey, can I have a bag, bud? My purse is too small for all this shit.”

He’s already covered for her and agreed to smell some candle she stole, so why the fuck not? He produces a plastic bag from behind the counter and hands it to her. She starts piling her stuff inside. “Oh, yeah,” she says, sticking a hand out for him to shake. “I’m Lup. Thanks for covering my ass.”

He takes it. “Kravitz. My shift ends in two minutes and I don’t wanna have to deal with a shoplifter.”

“I promise I don’t usually get caught. I’m good at this.”

“But not at dying your hair?”

She presses a hand to her chest, offended. “Ouch, Krav. Ouch.”

“Krav?”

“Like— like Kravitz. I mean, it says Dan on your nametag.”

“Yeah, I don’t know who Dan is.” He peers over the counter and into her bag. “What’d you need all this stuff for, anyway?”

“I didn’t need it, per se. But I do have a date with my boyfriend later, so…” She pulls a red off-shoulder crop top out of her bag. “What do you think of this? Too much?”

Kravitz is saved from having to answer by a man who looks almost identical to Lup striding into the store and yelling, “There you are, you fuckin’ backstabber!”

He is, admittedly, pretty handsome. Kravitz ignores this fact and instead focuses on how to slip out without either of them noticing. He wants to go home.

Lup swivels around to face him. “I’m not a backstabber! I was shopping, Taako! I almost got arrested!”

“Seems to me like your chattin’ it up with some guy who never left his goth phase.” The man, who, evidently, is called Taako, saunters up to the counter and leans against it. “No offense, my dude.”

He glances down at his attire. “I don’t— I— I just like dark colors.”

“Uh huh.” Taako turns back to Lup, who Kravitz assumes must be a sister of his. “Hey, you’ll be happy to know I wasn’t kidnapped and killed at the food court where you left me to die.”

She holds up her bag once again. “Shopping!”

“Stealing,” Kravitz corrects her.

Lup shoots a glare at him. “Shh.”

“Yeah, I figured.” Taako snatches the bag from her, shuffling things around inside until he finally finds one of the candles she took. “This is mine now. Penance for abandoning me. Hey, guy, who are you?”

Before Kravtiz can say anything, Lup cuts in with, “My best friend who got the mall cop off my ass. The mall cop who told me I had a bad dye job. Can you fuckin’ believe that, Taako? If you saw him and his stupid goddamn cheap toupee— God, what an asshole.”

“Best friend?” he asks. “I just now met you.”

She glances over at him. “What, you have another bestie?”

He stays silent. She’s got him there.

Lup tugs her bag over her shoulder. “Well, if you ever wanna hang, me and Taako stop by the food court for lunch, like, all the time. We’re easy to find. And, uh, I promise I won’t hide out in Hot Topic next time Paul Blart comes after me.” She digs around in her bag one last time and sets down the fruity candle she showed him earlier. “Here. For your trouble.”

Taako removes his elbows from the counter. “See you, um…” He glances down at his nametag. “Dan.”

“Kravitz,” he tells him, stepping out from behind the counter. “And my shift is officially over. See you at the food court some day, I guess.”

The two of them wave him goodbye and make their way out of the store, talking in low voices about “How did you get caught, you dingus?” and “It’s not my fault, it’s this lady who…”

Kravitz stares at the Bath and Body Works candle on the counter. It stares back at him.

What the fuck just happened?

#taz #lup #kravitz #taako #lillian writes stuff #SORRY THAT TOOK SO LONG I WAS WRITING THIS WHILE ALSO WATCHING BELOW DECK #can u believe malia narced on hannah. smh. u know she and bugsy were both in on that. like i dont even like hannah but wtf. anyway #but thank u for the ask and also thank u for requesting lup and krav. i love writing them so much #like listen. i know theyve spoken like 1 sentence to one another in canon but. they are best friends. #i just know this #ALSO. for the anon that requested lupcretia i will write it tmrw sorry for the wait :( #but i will do my best to make it good!!!! i will #<3 <3 <3 #ask #terezis

[dork-empress]

The Time Travelers (Immortal) Husband Part 1

A/N: I’m gonna try putting this up as short tumblr posts at first, see if i can get some rhythm going since I like, spat out this first part. we’ll see how it goes, it’ll be on Ao3 eventually I imagine but for now: 

(CW for blood, temporary character death, and ritual sacrifice. Necromancers, amiright?)

The first time Kravitz met Taako, he was dying. 

After having been kidnapped, stripped, and tortured with symbols carved into his body, suffice to say, he already wasn’t having a good day. As his torturers dragged him, still bleeding to the summoning circle to be killed, he knew he had nothing to lose. He had no instrument, but started singing a low song beneath his gag the cult couldn’t properly hear. 

Two of his captors dragged him naked to a dark room lit by torches. There were no windows, and he assumed he was underground, but he couldn’t tell. When they weren’t looking, he managed to get one to trip, putting him off balance long enough to knock him down and grab his weapon. 

The others rushed over, a swarm of cloaks trying to overwhelm him. He was already dying, he knew, but he would not be a tool used by these monsters. 

He was stabbed through the gut, his blood spilling across the stone floor, but everyone elses was too. He was a wild animal more than man, he cast silence in the room, nullifying the enemy wizard’s spells, and also his own screams. In the deafening quiet, he killed every last one of them, 5 men all together. He recognized them from a concert he had attended. 

In later centuries he’d speculate about these men, about how they had gone there to scope out a target. It soured the memory of that concert, the first, and it turned out only, one he had been able to conduct. But in this moment, all he knew was the life was dripping out of his body….and right now, that was a relief.

“Oh damn,” a voice said, alerting him of a new voice in the room, and that the silence spell had ended, “You warned me it was grisly, but you really weren’t kidding. Blegh, no wonder you weren’t grossed out by that Machete movie, cause damn.”

Kravitz tilted his head up ever so slightly, his vision blurring. He could just make out a figure, an Elf if he were to guess by the giant ear-shapes at his head. He was wearing a ridiculous pointed hat, and holding a staff. It was kind of thin for a staff, though, and had a point at one end, and a bobble on the other. 

“Sorry to bother you, bones,” the elf said, “Just waiting on a-oh! Here he is.”

The elf nodded to a point in the room, where a light appeared. From the light formed yet another man, this one in dark robes like the cultists. “There you are, Reaper,” he said, and it seemed like he was talking to Kravitz, “Now I will stop you before you even begin--”

“Buckets!” The elf yelled, and threw the staff like a spear at the new man. The point of it landed straight at his heart, and he unspooled like he was made of thread, falling into a heap of string on the ground. 

The elf hummed something and scooped up the string. “Pretty cool, huh?” he asked Kravitz. 

Kravitz spat up blood. 

“Right, right,” The elf said, squatting by his head, “Look, this is….awkward, I know, but I can’t really save you,” he said, and he was close enough Kravitz could see his face. He was beautiful. “It’s complicated, and you're kind of like, dying, so I don’t even have enough time to explain, but uh,” he swallowed, and some of his calm facade melted away, “You’re going to be ok, ok? I know that’s hard to believe right now, but really. You’re pretty amazing and uh, the afterlife’s got some pretty crazy shit for you. 

Kravitz felt cold. So, so cold. He couldn’t feel his feet anymore, and each breath felt like it was stabbing him again and again. He gasped, trying to ask this stranger how he knew, WHAT he knew, but his mouth couldn’t form words any longer. “Here,” the elf said, and held out his hand, “I gotta get back, but, I’ll stick with your for this, ok?”

Kravitz had just enough energy to take his hand in his own, gripping onto it, his last connection to the world. His breath couldn’t come at all anymore, and he fell limp, his vision blacking out.

“Catch ya later, babe,” was the last thing he heard, before he was suddenly on a dark island made of stone, sitting before a throne with a large woman seated inside, wearing a raven mask on her head.

Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5 Part 6 Part 7 Part 8 Part 9 Part 10 Part 11

#taz #taakitz #taz: balance #taako #kravitz #the adventure zone #writing #my writing #laura writes #fanfic #my fic #TTTIH

[desiree-harding-fic]

Oh man for the ask meme probably "i have seen the fields aflame"

Omg thank you!! My favorite fic to date 🥰 I’m glad you associate it.

Ok so for the meme my fun fic secret is I actually had an alternate prologue that I workshopped for a long time before I came up with the one that got published. This one was way more Taako-centric and ultimately, I cut it because I wanted this to be a lup fic. But. Here it is:

*~*~*~*~*

Taako was in his third year of culinary school when his sister decided to go abroad.

It would be fun, Lup said, and she wanted to go to a new place before she was out of college when she’d have to travel on her own money instead of scholarship. It would only be Spring Semester anyway, she’d said, so sure of herself, and she would be back before summer even started. And she knew that hey hadn’t ever spent so long so far apart; but really, she wasn’t going to be gone so long, and Barry would be here too, so Taako really wouldn’t be alone at all.

And like an idiot, Taako agreed with her.

But she was far across the sea, and the skype calls were few and far between, and one day she decided she was going to tour a few of the surrounding countries for a weekend, and she told Taako that there was a big protest movement going on near, and, well. Lup was never one to stay home when there was change to be made. She was the kind to go find trouble and plant herself right in the middle of it.

But on Sunday, she didn’t skype him back like they always did, and Taako saw the tear–gassing on the news, and then the gunshots, and then the bombs, and he called and called and called Lup and bit his nails down to stubs.

And Lup didn’t respond.

And Taako called and called some more, and Barry reached out to her program and the administration at the University, and Lup was nowhere to be found. And March turned into April and the semester ended, and Taako’s summer job at a local catering company fell through when he didn’t get the forms done because he was lying in bed listening to Barry on the phone for days, it felt like, and he didn’t eat, and Barry didn’t sleep, and the news was always, always on.

April turned to May and May turned to June, and Taako’s classmates catered weddings and fancy galas, and Taako didn’t move.

June turned to July, and Taako got a call. A call from the program that the search for his sister had turned up no leads, that she was gone, vanished into thin air.

They didn’t say the word dead, but Taako knew it was implied.

July turned to August and Barry got on a plane.

August turned to September and Taako didn’t go back to school.

September turned to October and Taako got evicted.

He slept on Magnus’s couch, and he showered maybe once every three days, and he hardly ate, and Magnus and his weird landlord Merle shot Taako worried looks when they thought he couldn’t see. Lucretia came by and dropped off tasteless food and talked to him for a long time while Taako stared off into space, and Davenport, Lup’s mentor, even came by the apartment to give his condolences in person.

But none of it helped. Taako’s sister was gone, probably dead, and what could Taako do?

October turned to November, and Magnus started preparing for Thanksgiving.

They were going to host at Magnus’s apartment, “so Taako can be here” Magnus said on the phone. Which meant Magnus was making plans for the meal, and every word he said was wrong, so fucking wrong, that one day, at the mention of a store–bought pie, Taako leapt up off the couch, snatched Magnus’s phone from his hand, and hung up on Lucretia mid–conversation.

“If you let Lucretia buy us a pie, Magnus Burnsides,” he threatened, grip on the phone so tight his knuckles were white, voice cracking and thin from disuse, “I will personally murder you.”

Magnus promptly burst into tears, threw his arms around Taako, who squirmed out of them without a word, and headed for the kitchen.

For a week, Taako worked. He cooked, like he hadn’t in months, and it was good. Taako was good.

It wasn’t as though the scent every spice didn’t almost cripple him with the feeling of missing her. It wasn’t as though every dish he made didn’t carry memories strong enough that he wanted to just lay back down and forget the entire world. It hurt. It hurt so badly that at one point, on Wednesday afternoon, while Taako was preparing for the Turkey roast the next day, he had to sit on the floor and breathe for a full fifteen minutes just to keep himself from throwing up.

It hurt. But for some reason, the demand of the impending disastrous meal kept him going.

Until the day itself.

It was just… his friends were over, all of them, except Barry and Lup, Lup wasn’t there, and the whole group was off–kilter with her gone. No one talked the same, and Taako, standing on his own two feet for more than a few minutes for the first time in months, just…

Snapped.

He made some excuse about picking something up at the store for the meal, and brushed off Magnus’s offers to go with him, and wandered out of the apartment and onto the street, and there was snow coming down –

And Lup was gone.

Lup was gone.

Taako wandered the streets, no destination, not a thought in his head except that Lup was gone.

Lup was gone. There was no Lup anymore. Not really. Not if they couldn’t find her. Not if she was presumed dead. And without her, what was Taako?

It hit him, all of a sudden.

Without Lup, his heart, his other half, what was the point? Every minute of the rest of his life would be saturated with the knowledge of her absence. Taako would have to wake up every morning knowing that his sister was gone. He would have to look at his face in the mirror and know that it had no pair. He would never be able to say “I have a sister” ever again. There would be no more “twin time” or bad movies or hustling stupid pricks at pool. There would be no nicknames and no singing from the shower and no one to throw flour at him while baking and no Lup. Not anymore.

There was a terrible simplicity to it, a certain matter–of–fact flavor to the thought:

Taako would never be whole again.

Tragedy cannot be reversed. Taako’s sister was gone, and therefore Taako was alone, and therefore happiness, which only last year was attainable, was now nothing more than a simple, factual impossibility.

Suddenly everything in the world was too bright and too loud. Suddenly every light in the nighttime streets hurt his head and made his heart ache all the more. Every sound pulsed against the inside of his skull and thrummed with the words gone, gone, gone, and Taako couldn’t take it.

He didn’t know how he found himself in Pennsylvania station. Maybe he took a cab, maybe he walked, but his phone was dead and all he had in his pocket was his wallet and a set of keys to Magnus’s apartment that he dropped in the nearest trash can he found. If there was one thing he couldn’t do, it was go back there.

Because to go back meant the pitied looks from everyone he ever knew and Lup being gone, and if his sister was going to be gone from his life, gone from the world, then Taako wasn’t going to live as a shadow of her in the space she inhabited. Taako wasn’t going to live with her ghosts. He couldn’t.

And then he saw it.

There, on the board. A late train right down to Washington D.C.

Taako didn’t know what came over him, but before he could second–guess himself he was buying a ticket onto that train. Perhaps he had a fleeting thought of finding the people who killed his sister, of marching right up to the lobbyists and politicians and telling them in person what he, what the world, had lost. Perhaps he thought to burn the capitol building down. Perhaps it was the way the numbers looked together on the board and nothing more. But whatever it was, Taako found himself on a train speeding to D.C., head against the cold window, staring out into the still night.

Four hours he sat on that train, and he didn’t speak to a soul. And when he was deposited on the platform of Union Station, and walked out into the cold night, something about the wind cutting through his sweatshirt (Lup’s sweatshirt) brought him back to reality.

And Taako, amidst the white stone of D.C., stared at the flags flapping in the wind across the street, and wondered what in the hell he was going to do next.

#taz balance #taako taaco #i have seen the fields aflame #lup missing au #lup taaco #my fic #ask game #literalliterature #she speaks #asked and answered

[skip-to-my-lup]

that’s not my name pt. 5

Previous

The fifth time hurts a bit.

It's been over a month and Taako has yet to hear from this Lup girl.

He shouldn’t be all that disappointed. There was also a part of him that understood all of the logical reasons why. They didn't even know if they were really related.  They were effectively strangers. And, if they weren’t actually related. Then, there was no real reason for them to include each other in their own lives.

It's just... there's another part of him, a small part mind you, that's almost worried. Did something happen to her? Did she second guess all of this?

Is he not worth her time?

No matter how much he's tried to reign in his hope, it had grown ever since that first old man first mistook him for this Lup girl. And while he has gotten used to forgetting about his childhood hopes to find his family (a family, really). The thought that he isn't completely alone in this world has rooted itself deep in his heart and refuses to let go, despite his doubts and attempts to get rid of it.

Waiting it out takes a lot out of him, though. And Taako was already tired from his job all of the time. So he does his best to forget about all of it.

Kravitz and his son, Angus, fill a lot of his time, which helps. A lot.

If Taako is being honest, involving himself with someone who has a child scared him quite a bit at first. He's more of the free-spirit type. And he didn't usually do the whole kids... thing.

Much to Taako's surprise, though, Angus is easy to get along with.

It helps that the kid is smart. And not even just book smart, which he very much is, he is also, oddly enough, quite street smart. He's always looking into mysteries and his ability to suss out a situation could be downright terrifying if the kid wasn't also kind of cute.

And, to top it all off, he only got annoying when Taako was tired. Which, all things considered, isn't because Angus was actually annoying. It's not like the kid can help Sazed's worsening attitude or something.

And Kravitz...

Kravitz is a godsend.

Granted, their first date alone had been pretty... awkward to say the least. Not like he could really blame the guy. He loves his kid with all of his heart. It was only natural that he had to make sure Taako wasn't going to just waltz in and out of their lives leaving a brokenhearted kid behind. It's something that Taako respected immensely that night and can't help but admire more and more as the days go by.

Once he knew that Taako wasn't going anywhere anytime soon, though, he warmed almost immediately. Now he gushes about the things he loves (mostly Angus). And, to top it all off, he isn't afraid to give Taako the best hugs that he's  ever received.

Best part was that they didn't have to do the whole song and dance thing that usually came with dating someone. No awkward kiss after the third date. No posturing to appear to be so much cooler than either of them really were. Since Kravitz and Angus are a packaged deal, skipping to just chilling at the McDonald house just... made sense. And felt so much more natural than any sort of dating formula that Taako used to follow.

They did go on a fancy date or two. But it was probably going to be an infrequent thing. Which would make them special. And Taako adores the idea of planning a special night instead of worrying about if he can afford lavish dates. Not that he wouldn't take Kravitz on as many wonderful dates as he could. There just wasn't any rush.

Today, though,Taako is out and about with Angus.

Kravitz had mentioned needing to find a baby sitter for the kid so that he could go to an event or something for his job. He'd also mentioned how he'd love it if the two of them bonded on their own. Now, Taako isn't a genius, but sometimes he comes up with baller ideas. And, the idea of killing two birds with one stone was almost too easy to come up with.

Kravitz was ecstatic when he mentioned it to him

Taako had been so proud of himself for coming up with the idea. But, now that he's out with Angus, by himself. It scares him a bit (a lot) to be wholly responsible for another person's well-being. Also, impressing this kid seems super impossible.

But, in the end, it's surprisingly easy, all things considered.

All of the places they visit are places that Taako normally wouldn't go to by himself: the park by the lake, a local cafe, and the library. Taako'd had no idea how to entertain a kid, so he'd asked Angus to take him to all of his favorite places. And the kid had delivered, quite enthusiastically. And, while they're all in wildly different places in the city, he couldn't bring himself to be annoyed. Despite how much his feet hurt from the day before...

The kid's excitement is far too infectious for its own good.

They're in the library now. Angus can't stop talking about the latest book that he wants to read. He looks around as he gestures wildly. And while Taako can only follow along so far, he’d have to read one of these books to really get what this kid was saying, it's still pretty adorable to see how excited it makes him

After a while, Angus turns to Taako, smile wide. "I have to show you a book, sir!"

Taako tries to tell him that he can drop the sir shtick, but Angus is suddenly pulling him towards the back of the library with more force than he’d expected from such a small child. He can't help but notice that, while the kid is still talking excitedly about this book, his posture is stiff and there’s an urgency in his steps that wasn’t there before. It's quite suspicious.

Once they're in a secluded part of the library, Angus picks up a book at random. Then, under his breath, he says:

"Someone is following you, sir."

Taako goes to check for himself, but Angus shoves the book into his hands and mimics pointing something out on the page. Taako look down at pictures of plants, unfocused on the page.

"Don't be so obvious," the boy chastises. As if he's done this before. Which, he probably has, from what Kravitz has said about his sleuthing escapades.  

"Who is it?" Taako asks. He pretends to be interested in what's on the page. Something about poisonous plants, he half notices a picture of bella donna in the corner.

"I've never seen her before. But, she's been following us at least from the cafe.

Which had been two hours ago, half of which they’d spent riding a bus from the other side of town.

Taako turns to Angus, was this kid nuts?

"Why didn't you say something earlier?!"

Angus shushes him and mimes pointing to another picture, bell flower.

"I wasn't sure if it was a coincidence or not until she followed us into the library." Angus looks up and nods. "You can look now, sir."

Taako follows Angus' gaze and find a woman pretending to be overly interested in a book. There's a shock of white hair on her head (he'd kill for a dye job that good) and her clothes are conservative in a way Taako could never wear, but this woman pulls off really well. Maybe a business professional?

"Sir."

Taako turns. "Yeah, Ango?"

"I think I can cause a distraction if you want to make a break for it."

Taako's blood runs cold.

Was this kid suggesting that he just leave him here?!

Ok, he's definitely going to have a discussion with Kravitz about allowing Angus to read any more detective books. Didn't matter that the kid wasn't technically his, he really didn't like that his first response to a would-be stalker was to run interference for him, the adult, leaving him, the child , vulnerable to bring abducted.

"We're not chancing a kidnapping today, kid."

"I can take care of myself! Besides, she's not paying any attention to me. She's only been watching you the whole time, sir"

Taako frowns. If that's the case...

The likelihood that she's a part of that weird-ass group of people that he keeps running into seems pretty likely the longer he thinks about it.

Well, if she wasn't going to seek him out, then it's on him, he supposes.

Better to get it out of the way so that he and Angus can get back to hanging out.

"Yeah, well Taako can take care of himself, too."

He doesn't give Angus any warning before he walks over to the odd woman.

"Can I help you?" He asks once he's nearby.

This straightforwardness throws her for a loop. She looks to be the type to not be easily flustered. But she's obviously never met Taako before so...

She clears her throat and composes herself in record time.

He'd have been impressed if she hadn't been stalking him all day.

"I'm not sure we should really do this now," she says, looking at Angus, pointedly.

"Pretty sure the kid can handle hearing about whatever beef you have with me. Right?"

Angus nods.

The woman sighs. "Alright. I wanted to handle this with delicacy, but if you insist..."

Taako raises an eyebrow, inviting her to continue.

This ought to be good.

Giving up all pretense of pretending, she shuts the book in her hand and places it carefully back on the bookshelf. She takes a deep breath and turns to Taako anger burning coolly in her eyes.

"I have to admit. I thought better of you. Did you know that Barry's actually been planning to propose to you? Do you even care about his feelings, Lup?"

Hachi Machi.

It takes everything in Taako not to laugh in this lady's face. He can feel a stitch in his side form from the effort, but valiantly keeps his composure. Mostly.

"And all of your friends!" She continues. " Did you even stop to think about how your... your adultery would look to them? No one is going to side with you on this!"

She takes a deep breath and collects herself. She hadn't yelled, but her composure had broken.

"Did you... Did you even think of how I would feel?" Her voice breaks on that last one.

He really should stop her before she goes much further. He can't fully empathize with what she's going through, but he does feel some semblance of pity. Also it’d probably be a dick move to ruin this Lup girl’s life without reason.

And he doesn't need boy-wonder here getting any wrong ideas.

"I think you've got the wrong tall, blonde, good-looking person here, lady," he says, not unkindly.

Her brown eyes narrow, but he cuts her off before she can ingest any more of her foot via her open mouth.

"When was the last time you talked to... what'd you say his name was? Barry?"

"Last week."

"He ever mention meeting a Lup-look-a-like named, Taako a couple months back?"

Her face scrunches up. "No... Lup. I really don't think—"

"Give him a call."

"Lup. If you just promise to break things off with that man and promise not to meet up with him again, then I won't—"

"Call him."

The woman sighs. She pulls out her phone and presumably makes a call.

"It's your funeral, Lup."

"Pretty sure you're the one that's going to be embarrassed to death here, but go off I guess."

Taako looks over to Angus. He's furiously taking down notes. Great. He really hopes the kid is objective with his note-taking.

"Yes. Hello, Barry?" She starts. "Yes, I'm okay. I was just calling to see if you couldn't help me debunk something. See, I have Lup here, pretending—"

The woman's eyebrows knit together.

"What do you—" She turns to Taako. She looks him up and down.Trying to make sense of him and whatever Barry must be telling her.

Then, mortification settles on her face.

Bingo.

"Oh. I see."

Taako can't help but burst out laughing. He laughs so hard that his sides start hurting again and everyone stares at them.

"Well, tha—" He can see the embarrassment morph into annoyance. "Yeah. Yeah he is."

She rolls her eyes as she extends her phone to him. "Here."

"What?" He asks, staring at the proffered phone.

"Just take it," she says.

He does.

Then, a voice that sounds familiar, but not too familiar speaks.

"Hey, we've really gotta work on this whole phone number thing.

#Taako Taaco #angus mcdonald #taz lucretia #sgsfanfiction #taz fanfic #taz balance #the adventure zone balance #sorry this took a while! #hope you guys like it!

[cinnamonbirdanon]

OK but this was supposed to be not as dark but shit, why can’t I write like this on my computer? 😪

Anyways, Taako almost gets turned into a rug by some poachers. Fair warning.

Taako and Lup spent most of their childhood running. Running from hunters, running from other werewolves, running from Vampires, running from everything. But they always had each other. They got hurt, they got beaten up in fights constantly. They hid mostly in towns near forests that they could escape to.

They knew how their parents died. They all had been out hunting and poachers killed their parents as the twins hid in a tree. The poachers had seen them, but they hadn’t seen where they hid. The twins didn’t move long into the night.

The twins were currently 15 in appearance, and they were out hunting as they did every night. Taako was in his wolf form, carrying Lup on his back. This way, if they ran into poachers, they could claim they were just an elf and her pet werewolf.

When they spotted a deer, Lup got off Taako’s back and ducked down with him. “ You wanna get it or should I?” She whispered. Taako lowered a bit to the ground “ I’m already in this form, You keep in your human form and you can spot me if there’s any poachers around.” Lup nodded and watched as her brother snuck up on the deer and pounced.

After they made camp for the night and ate the deer, of course after cooking it, Lup got up and rubbed her eyes “ Imma go take a bath in the river before bed. Promise you won’t wonder off?” she asked, half joking. “ Where would I go, Lu? Taako’s good right here.” Taako said and slumped down in the sleeping bag he was half wearing. “ Alright, gimme 20 minutes.” she said and headed off after grabbing what she would need.

The fire started to go out since Lup wasn’t fuelling it with her magic, and Taako got up to grab kindling. That’s when the whispered started. “ She isn’t coming back.” it started “ Why would she?” Taako froze up a bit before deciding to try to ignore it. “ She didn’t go in the direction of the river.” No, no that was a lie. Right?

“ Ok, whoever you are cut that shit out.” Taako growled, looking around. “ She headed back to town. She’s going to tell about the werewolf in the woods. She’d seen it, it killed a deer. Whoever could be next if it’s willing to kill such a peaceful creature?” Taako only growled louder, voice now surrounding him. “ She wouldn’t, she’s my twin.” he reasoned “ Oh, the twin who got you all caught while you were hunting. You yelped, remember? She and you were play fighting. You yelped. You let them know where you were.”

Taako’s hair stood on end “ Fucking stop! You DONT know what happened that night! How did you know in the first place?” Taako was now panicked as he looked around.

“ You caught your first actual achievement animal that night- a mongoose. You and Lup each caught one. Your parents were so proud. Oh if they only knew. They’d hate you both. You’re ending their bloodline after all.”

Taako ran. He ran as fast as he could, shifting as he did. The voice just kept up with all it’s vial and hateful understanding. It was like it had read into his fears. Trying to escape it, he ran. He was a fast wolf, but bear traps stop that easily.

There he cried, both his back legs stuck in the bear trap. It cut deep, snapping his left leg. His face was coated in mud from him skidding, he couldn’t even looked to see what was around him.

“ Ha! I told you the trap would work!” a voice chimed as Taako heard them get close “ Oh, oh he’s cool lookin actually. Haven’t seen a werewolf with this wolf type.” he felt the trap get lifted a bit and he snapped at the hand out of pain with a shakey “ LEAVE ME ALONE!” His teeth bit into the poacher’s hand and he was punched and slapped until he had to let go because he couldn’t take it anymore. “ Fuckin werewolves, gonna have to put silver chains on this one’s fuckin mouth.”

There was rustling from a bush, and a voice broke through. The voice had a sort of accent, a curious one for this area. “ What the bloody fuck?” said the person who just came into the clearing. The person sounded concerned, and Taako took the chance. “ Help!” He cried “ Help, they’re going to kill me!”

“ Shut the fuck up, you dumb ass wolf. And you, blood sucker, Fuck off! We caught him fair!” The poacher growled, pausing after that. Lycanthropy took quick, after all. “ You fucking piece of trash, you infected me!” The poacher growled, kicking Taako hard enough that he moved a bit. That kick made a sickening crack come from somewhere in his chest.

“ That’s enough.” The man said, starting to approach. The poachers tried to run, but the screams told Taako they didn’t get far. Taako laid there shivering, terrified. He had no clue what the vampire would do, especially since his blood was everywhere at this point.

The crunching of the leaves and twigs approached him again, making him shake more. “ We have to get you some help, come on.” It was the vampire, but he no longer had his accent. Weird. The bear trap was taken off his legs, and the vampire picked him up. “ Any ideas? I don’t really know any healers near by.”

“ The temple of Pan. I- I have a friend there.” Taako stuttered, too in pain to think anything. “ Alright, let’s go. Geez, they messed you up bad... I’m going to touch your face and wipe off the mud, ok?” Taako nodded, and let the vampire take the mud off his face.

The vampire wasn’t like he expected. He wasn’t a creepy creature of the night or b a creepy old man. He was the opposite. “ Shit, I thought you were going to be all gross like they always depict you guys.” Taako joked, wincing as he tried to laugh.

“ Well, are all werewolves just grey wolves?” the vampire didn’t look down at him so Taako didn’t see his actual face, but he was a young man with black hair- and obviously far from ugly. “ Yeah, guess you got me there.” another yelp as he chuckled “ Fuck this hurts... They used mind games to get me running.” he explained and the vampire shook his head “ Well, no need to worry about those poachers doing it to anyone else now. I took care of them.” the vampire assured him.

The temple of pan was surrounded by the werewolf inhabitants. Upon smelling blood, they all went out to see what was going on. “ Taako!” Merle ran out to him “ Shit, what happened?” he took Taako from the vampire, rushing him into the temple. “ Poachers playing mind games... god it was fucked, Merle.” Taako started to cry as his mind went through what the voices had said. Just thinking back on it.

“ Lup went to take a bath in the river and I had to get kindling for the fire. They got me running and when I was trapped they hit me and shit. That vampire saved my life...” Taako explained, feeling Merle starting to heal him the best he could as he also waited for an actual doctor. He had broken bones after all.

It was an excruciatingly painful hour before Lup got there, crying and hugging Taako. After Taako explained what happen, minus the part of them saying their parents would hate them, Lup was just wrecked. “ Why didn’t you come get me?!” she sobbed into her brother’s fur, hugging him tight.

Months of bed rest came and passed, but Taako was left with a limp either way. He and Lup were in the forest again, in the same camp spot. It was a dumb decision as the moment Lup got up, Taako began panicking and leapt on her, hugging her tight. “ How about this time we both go down for a bath?” Lup compromised. “ Yeah... chaboy likes that idea. I also might have to talk to you ‘bout something, uh, not really important after.” Taako said as they got together stuff for their bath.

The entire time, Taako worried about what they were about to talk about. Lup was within eyesight, they weren’t really bathing together since it was nice spending time apart. After Taako decided his bath was done, he got dressed and headed back to camp. He sat by the fire as he brushed his hair, and Lup sat next to him not long after. “ So, what’d you wanna talk about?”

“ Well, uh, I think chaboy’s uh.” Taako got a little panicked, emotions never being his strong point “ Bi? Gay? Something like that...” Lup paused, smiling and hugging her brother “ Well, that’s great! I’m glad you came out to me. What brought this up?”

“ I’ve been thinking, bout our parents and that night. The voices the poachers used said they would hate us because we could ‘continue the bloodline’.” He snorted “ Like, the fuck is that even supposed to mean?”

Lup hummed quietly “ Well, I think ma and pop would be proud of us. We’ve made it this long with you being accident prone.” Taako punched her shoulder, only making Lup let out a snort of a laugh.

“ Oh, ya know what. I never thanked the vampire!” Taako remembered, now thinking back on it. “ Shit, you’re an ungrateful brat, Koko. What the fuck?” Lup teased, getting leapt on as the two began play fighting in their wolf forms.

#cba's werewolf au #cinnamonbirdanon #cinnamonbirdanon writes #It's pretty dark lol

[aro-laurance-zvahl]

Moonlighting Chapter One Live Reaction

SO lets get this party started. Block the tag TAZ Live to not see this

I've been without them for over 24 hours I have missed my boys

The buckingham palace Griffin. Buckingham Palace.

But the guard has brandy so like I guess that is more tv like

Taako chose key lime gogurt for his entire life???? Maybe it'll give him the idea for margaritas

I want magnus' in depth serious backstory

PARTY POINTS ARE IN PLAY GET DRUNK MERLE.

Being drunk makes you more like taako hah that's funny

Ovi from Brandy Buck. Interesting name.

TAAKO STOP MENTIONING PHANDALIN

Make friends guys don't take time for processing action before thinking Magnus

Moon Balls

wait no FAKE MOON BALLS

Glass, Grass, and Ass

Ok I think we're getting serious

no killian come with us i won't feel safe

NEW CHARACTER

With cool clothes

Oh a bard

He's so sad

EVEN HIS LAUGH IS SAD

"Yeah, good one. Assholes."

Merle is such a dad

PLAY FOR US

P L A Y

yes good he is talented

GO YOHAN

Yes wail magnus

Wail

Oh my god elevator music

in thIS ECONOMY

Goodbye Yohan

oh taako

I wonder if this company thing will end up being corrupted

Angular B and angular backwards B together

Oh no

Initiation battle?

Was that a pencil sharpener in the background

Oh hey Yohan

Go Magnus bottoms up

OH MAN INFORMATION DUMP

YEAH

Phoenix fire gauntlet Fun name

What in the world is this place covering up????

Oooooo jellyfish

I need to know if magnus is crying

Please tell me

SHHHQSHSHSHSSQSHSHH

Oh commercial break

Over half way through the episode!

Don't apologize for exposition I love it

although it is time to hit skip 15 seconds a few times I already know about crunchyrole and this episode is over 4 years old

OH MY GOD FANTASY COSTCO SOUNDS AMAZING

oh my god that was a great joke go dad (Clint?)

oh my god Taako

SOUR CREAM!!!!!

Uncle John's ELVEN bathroom reader/spell book

"You heard when I said 21, right?"

Beura of Balance

Oh Magnus I love you

"You don't know shit Yohan" "I mean you're not 100 percent wrong"

No initiation battle though

I wanna

Fight

The

Voidfish!!!!

So like if it dies everyone remembers that's fun

Lets kill it!!!!!!

Killian is director please

Please

Magnus Bucks

Yes

I'll take 79

Great meeting you too Yohan

Oh Merle

"Roll to see if Yohan finds that funny." "But it wasn't a good joke-" "I SAID ROLL"

I want to go on the Magnus experience

I think Magnus is becoming my favorite

Oops

I think everything is your least a favorite part, Yohan

Oh god Magic Brian

"We believe in vaccinations"

And we leave off on the best thing ever

"I think it's a RELEVATOR"

#TAZ Live #the adventure zone #taz #taz moonlighting

[queertazsecretsanta]

A gift for @motherfuckingmagicbrian, created by @one-true-houselight!

Title: Craft Night

Summary: It’s the last Queer Meetup on the moon before Candlenights, and the group is making ornaments! A healthy dose of happy queer people, a good splash of gentle ribbing, and a smattering of angst. Enjoy, and Happy Candlenights!

Magnus put a pile of meatballs on his plate before going to sit down across from Taako. Taako looked at the plate and snorted. “Think you have enough meatballs, Magnus?”

“Well, I was planning on sharing-” Before Magnus could finish, both Carey and Killian cheered and reached over and grabbed meatballs off his plate.

“Hey, throw me one,” Avi called from next to Taako. Carey grabbed another meatball and tossed it to him.

Taako huffed before saying, “Hey y’all, could we make a concerted effort to not throw saucy projectiles while we’re working on art?” He grabbed a napkin from the pile on the table and made a tent for his ornament with exaggerated annoyance.

Johann walked over from the food table and leaned over Taako’s shoulder. “Taako, you’re a wizard.”

“And?”

“You could clean it with magic.”

“Spell slots, my good man-”

“Isn’t the cleaning one a cantrip?” Taako glared as Avi tried (and failed) to look innocent. While maintaining eye contact, the wizard reached across the table, grabbed a meatball, and threw it at Avi, who caught it with ease and ate it while laughing. The others, including Taako, joined in. As they quieted down, Johann sat next to Avi and grabbed a paper plate.

The six friends sat in the middle of a long table with crafting supplies that were once neatly laid out down its entirety. The other members of the Bureau of Balance’s Queer Meetup sat on both sides of the group, laughing and working with the paint, markers, and other tools. The activity of the night was making ornaments for the fast-approaching Candlenights.

While everyone else started shaping their paper plates, Magnus reached into his pocket and grabbed a piece of wood that had clearly been made to be the base of his ornament. Carey looked over as Magnus reached for paint. “Man, that looks awesome! I wish I could work with wood like that.”

Magnus smiled as he mixed some paint on a piece of paper. “Thanks! It’s a labor of love.” He carefully took a thin brush and started to outline a bear’s head on the wood in purple.

“When did you get started with carpentry, Magnus?” Avi asked asked as he traced a cannon onto his plate.

“Well, I worked with a carpenter back in Raven’s Roost…” Magnus’ voice trailed off.

Avi’s eyes widened at Magnus’ hesitance, saying, “Oh shit man, I didn’t mean to bring that up-”

Magnus cut him off. “No, no, it’s fine. It’s not that, it’s… that’s the last time I really remembered learning carpentry, but I went into that job with base knowledge.” He shrugged. “I guess I just picked it up as I grew up.”

Everyone went back to work on their ornaments in silence for a few moments, letting the tension ease out of the space. Killian finished cutting out a heart, then handed it to Carey to cut in half to create their bases. Taako looked over at Magnus’ ornament. “Oh my god, you’re doing a bear. How did I forget to do our race animals?” He looked down at his ornament, a swirly rainbow pattern he had enchanted to sparkle. “How can I add in the noble mongoose?” The others chuckled as he grabbed a piece of paper and tried to draw the animal on it.

One of the guards further down the table perked up at the mention of the race. “I don’t think I’ve seen you guys since the race! That was so cool!” Magnus turned excitedly to them and started chatting about the race as he filled in detail on the bear.

“Well, of course we all know the most important player in that race.” Taako paused for dramatic effect. “Garyl.”

Avi and Johann, who had been thoroughly filled in on the race when the three reclaimers had returned, turned to have their own conversation as battlewagon talk swept over the whole table.

“Are you really making a cannon ornament, Avi?”

“Well, yeah! I putting it on the cannon, after all.”

Johann laughed. “Not on your, you know, Candlenights bush?”

“Nah, I want to spruce up the ol’ pea shooter,” Avi said with a smile. Johann watched as he seemed to trace something being shot from the cannon.

“That doesn’t look like a transport ball.”

“That’s because it’s not.” When Avi didn’t elaborate, Johann raised an eyebrow, much to Avi’s delight. “You’ll see when it’s done.”

Johann couldn’t help but laugh; Avi was a delightful person, and Johann was glad to be his friend, and to get to laugh at his jokes, and to talk to him about music, and…

“What are you doing? That’s a lot of black and grey, buddy.” Avi’s question snapped Johann out of his thoughts. Thoughts he should really dissect, but not tonight.

“I’m just doing the more neutral colors first, then adding the colors later. See, this is gonna be the ace and aro flags fading into a music staff, and I’m trying to draw a violin over here.” Johann pointed out the elements on his half painted ornament as Avi nodded. 

“Music staff’s what the notes go on, right?” Johann had been teaching Avi a little more about music; Avi not only wanted to be a little more musically inclined, but it meant he got to see the bard more often. Johann tended to be on the more subdued side, but when he talked about music, his eyes lit up. Avi loved it when that happened.

Avi’s thoughts drifted as Johann nodded happily, but they were brought to a halt as he looked at where Johann had indicated the ace flag was going. “Hey, uh, Johann?”

“Yeah?”

“I think you did the ace flag backwards,” Avi said while pointing at the ornament.

Johann’s eyes widened. “You’re kidding. I thought the black was on the bottom.” Avi shook his head. “Well, fuck.” He started laughing, and Avi joined in.

“I mean, you can just say it’s an artistic interpretation,” Avi joked through giggling.

“The most important rule of any artist!” Johann said with a smile, “Everything was intentional, even mistakes!” They both cracked up and continued decorating their ornaments.

“How’s your mongoose coming, Taako?” Race talk had died down significantly and everyone had gone back to quietly talking and decorating.

“Fantastically, my good man.” Taako held up the mongoose, which he was just cutting out. “It looks like it could come alive in my hands.”

“If that came alive in your hand, I’d run away screaming,” said Killian, who looked over from where she was drawing something colorful onto her half of the heart.

“Well of course you would, mongeese are formidable creatures!” Taako jokingly made the paper animal walk up to Killian and growl.

“Is it mongeese?” Carey asked with a frown.

“It sounds better than mongooses,” reasoned Magnus.

“But maybe it’s like moose, where it’s both singular and plural?”

“Carey, my dear,” Taako said, “I see your point, but how could you try to deprive the world of the joy that comes from the word mongeese?”

Carey cackled. “Fair enough, my dude.”

Taako grabbed the glue and looked over at Magnus, who had finished his bear and was adding in the colors of the trans and bi flags. For some reason as he looked at the former, he felt a tug at the back of his mind. Magnus looked up to see Taako staring at his ornament with an inscrutable look.

“You ok, Taako?” Taako seemed to shake himself back to reality.

“Yeah, yeah. It’s…nothing. Just my brain being weird.”

“Alright.” Magnus smiled. “Hey, our new digs have room for more decorations. Think Garfield sells pride flags?” Taako grinned.

“I bet he does! Or maybe he could order some.” Taako turned to Carey and Killian. “Hey, does Fantasy Costco sell pride stuff?”

“FANTASY COSTCO, WHERE ALL YOUR DREAMS COME TRUE!” Magnus suddenly yelled, making Taako wince. Carey, Killian, and some people from other parts of the table joined in for “GOT A DEAL FOR YOOOOOOU!” as Taako put his head in his hands.

“That jingle will kill me. I will die.”

Killian laughed, saying, “To actually answer your question, Taako, Fantas-”

“Don’t say it, he’ll sing again.”

“Ok, Garfield’s store does has some general stuff, and he’s said in the past he’d order things for people if they wanted something specific.”

“Yeah,” Johann piped up, “he’s ordering me some ace stuff. I’m getting socks!”

“Fantastic,” Taako said with a grin. “Our apartment will be popping.” He finished glueing his mongoose to his ornament, then held it up to show it off. The original sparkly rainbows worked surprisingly well as a background for the furry addition. He grinned at the chorus of oohs. “Thank you, thank you. Now, I would of course be willing to provide my expert advice to you all if you so desire.”

Johann and Avi had been chatting about Bureau business as they decorated, but a natural silence had fallen for the past couple of minutes. Avi looked over at Johann, who seemed to be staring into space. “Your ornament looks good, Johann.” Johann looked over at Avi and smiled before looking at his ornament. The flags and music staffs were finished, and he was almost done with the detailing on the violin.

“Thanks. I still can’t believe I got the flag wrong,” Johann said with a chuckle. “I guess I only found it recently, so it makes sense I would mess up.”

“Yeah,” Avi said, “yours isn’t like mine, where we get taught the order in school. ROY G BV!” Johann laughed and continued painting. He felt calm, but more of a happy calm than normal. Not that he was normally sad, but normally he was more…neutral, he supposed. His job sometimes got a little mundane when he wasn’t having to make the world forget him…he shook himself out of that. Dwelling on that fact wasn’t healthy.

“I’m glad you did find it though.” Avi’s suddenly serious tone brought Johann back.

“Found what?”

“Your flags. Everyone should get to be themselves, and get to celebrate it.” Johann smiled. While being asexual or aromantic wasn’t looked down upon or anything, it was still not as well known as other identities. Hell, he hadn’t heard of it until a few months ago, when he was hanging out with Avi.

Avi and Johann were laying on the quad, giggling and passing a flask between them. It was a late evening in spring, the slight chill in the air warded off by the flask’s contents.

“Hey Johann,” Avi whispered, “you ever have a girl? Or a guy? Or someone else?”

“Not really.” Johann spoke in what he clearly thought was also a whisper, saying, “I never really clicked with anyone, I guess.”

“Really? Man, whoever you like is really missing out.” Avi immediately blushed, but Johann didn’t seem to react to the comment, instead getting lost in thought.

“Whoever I like. Right. Here’s the thing…” Avi pushed himself into a sitting position to look at Johann. The bard had never mentioned his sexuality in the past, but had laughed at Avi’s near-constant gay jokes (mostly variations on “I can shoot this cannon straight, but that’s the only straight thing I can do!”), so Avi had always assumed he was queer in some way, but…

“I don’t know, man. I…when I think about relationships, I can see myself with anyone…kind of? But it’s not like I see someone and go ‘yeah, I want to do things with you!’, it’s more, like, I want to hang with people and talk but…I don’t know, I’m not making sense.” Johann finally looked up at Avi. Avi was surprised to see fear in his eyes.

“Hey, no, it’s fine. What you’re describing, I have friends like that.”

Johann’s eyes widened, and voice lost all pretense of whispering. “Wait, really?”

“Yeah, it sounds like you’re ace. Maybe aro too.” Johann sat up and listened intently as Avi explained that yeah, some people don’t experience attraction, and he felt like a weight was lifting off his shoulders he never knew was there. As Avi finished, Johann felt like pieces were falling into place around him, and it was wonderful, but it was also so much-

“Hey, you ok?” Johann shrugged? “Want a hug?” The bard nodded. “Bring it in, my guy.” And the two sat next to each other, embracing, as Johann processed that there were words for him, that he wasn’t just off, wasn’t just missing something. It was a while before Avi spoke again.

“If you want, we could call some of my friends and you could talk to them too.”

“That would be great,” Johann said into Avi’s shoulder. He laughed. “But maybe not now. It’s like…” He tried to check his watch, but found it wasn’t on his wrist. “Shit, it’s, um,” he floundered before staring intently at the sky.

“Shit, dude, can you tell the time by the stars?”

After a long pause, Johann responded. “No.” Avi started laughing. “But I thought I’d try, I guess? Fuck. Well, it’s late, and I’m drunk and having life changing revelations. We can call them tomorrow. Tomorrow?”

“We should be able to do that.”

“Thank you, Avi.” Avi squeezed his shoulder, not trusting himself to speak as tears streamed down his face.

Magnus smiled as he carefully finished writing ‘Happy Candlenights!’ on a light grey ribbon. He checked his ornament’s paint to find it was still tacky, so he set the ribbon down and started to look at the other’s creations. Carey was detailing a line of rainbow daggers through the center of her half-heart, separating the words ‘Happy’ and ‘Candlenights’ written in a swirly hand. Killian was drawing simple ducks along the border of her ornament. She seemed to be letting a rainbow lollipop dry in the center.

From his angle, Magnus couldn’t quite see Avi’s or Johann’s, but figured they would show them off eventually. He sat back and gave a contented sigh. Taako looked up. “Everything ok, big guy?”

“Oh yeah,” Magnus assured, “I’m just happy. I haven’t been in one place long enough to be part of a Queer group in a while, and I’m just glad to be here with all of you.” He smiled at everyone as he continued, “I don’t know if I realized how much I missed having something like this. It’s…” He paused, trying to find the words. Finally, he simply said, “It’s hard to describe. Sorry for being sappy.”

“Nah, don’t apologize Magnus. This is a really positive space, and I’m glad you’re feeling it,” Killian said with a smile. She reached over and grabbed Magnus’ shoulder reassuringly. Across the table, Taako tried to wipe his eyes without people noticing. It didn’t work, and Carey passed him a clean napkin.

“I’m fine, really,” he said as he wiped his eyes again and Carey held his free hand, “Magnus just had to go and be emotional.” Everyone chuckled before Taako continued, “But, yeah. I, uh…didn’t exactly cultivate companionship as well as one might hope, before this. And it’s nice. It’s like it fills a hole I didn’t even know was there.” And Taako felt that peculiar sadness he sometimes got, but he also felt a peace, looking at the faces around him. “And as much as I love all my friends I have, there’s something about hanging out with people like me, at least every so often, that’s important.”

By this point, Avi and Johann had looked up and were nodding at what Taako had said. The six reached out and held the others-hands, shoulders, whatever they could reach-and smiled at each other, not really doing much about the tears running down their faces. After a bit, they mostly untangled themselves, and Avi spoke up.

“Hey, I need people who will appreciate my gay jokes!” As everyone laughed, he held up his ornament, which depicted the cannon. But instead of shooting out a transport ball, it was shooting out a rainbow flag. “See, it can’t even shoot straight!”

The whole table laughed harder. Everyone started showing off their completed ornaments as Magnus carefully glued his ‘Happy Candlenights’ ribbon above the bear on his own. Once they had all sufficiently appreciated their friends’ art, they all started helping clean up the table, stacking unused supplies to be put away, throwing away dirty paper, and washing paint brushes. Soon, the room was clear and people started plating leftovers to take home. The six friends waved goodbye and wandered back to their beds, ready to sleep. Their ornaments hung on their bushes (besides Avi’s, which hung off the main cannon), a testament to who they were and who they loved.

#motherfuckingmagicbrian #one-true-houselight #queercandlenights #taz #the adventure zone #taako #magnus #carey #killian #avi #johann #fic #submission

[internationalhouseofblupjeans]

An Eighth Bird, Born Out of the Storm - Chapter 22

Based loosely on the Luume'irma headcanon from @interstellarvagabond

Eighth Bird AU.

We're all caught up now.

Angus reconnects. Lup gets her body back. Taako has two hands.

They all live happily every after.

Thank you to Calcu from the writer’s chat for Beta'ing!!

Also on AO3 (link in the source)

Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4 Chapter 5 Chapter 6Chapter 7 Chapter 8 Chapter 9  Chapter 10 Chapter 11 Chapter 12Chapter 13 Chapter 14 Chapter 15 Chapter 16 Chapter 17 Chapter 18 Chapter 19 Chapter 20 Chapter 21 Chapter 22 below

Dearest Angus Bluejeans-Mcdonald,

Thank you for your wonderful letter, however I must return the admiration as I have become quite the fan of you and your family! Your work as a detective is, of course, admirable and would make Caleb Cleveland very proud. The story of your family and how they fought for a century is amazing, of course, but your story is brilliant as well.

Would you mind if I adapted some of the stories of your cases into the next few Caleb Cleveland novels? We can work out the details later, perhaps over tea with you and your family?

Sincerely, D. M. Gryphon

The first weeks were a whirlwind for Angus.

Rebuilding had to be done on all of Faerun, but people had put aside their differences to work together. Angus had seen elves, orcs, humans … all of them working together. It was as if the principles of the Bureau of Balance (now the Bureau of Benevolence) had infected the world, at least for a little bit.

His family, his giant, extended family, was helping. Was making sure that the world they had saved stayed that way.

And they were also starting to split apart.

Not in a negative way. Not really. It was just odd for Angus to see Merle suddenly deciding to live on the beach or Magnus returning to Raven’s Roost.

Lucretia stayed on the moon and Davenport … well, he couldn’t stay put. Not anymore.

Angus was relieved when Lup and Barry insisted that Taako live with them. It was at least a little bit of normalcy for the boy. Their home in Neverwinter was still being completed so they stayed in housing that Artemis Sterling had set aside for them. It was nice, even if it was temporary.

He didn’t know what he would have done if Taako had turned them down (though, having only truly known his mother for a little while, Angus was pretty sure that that would have been impossible). He was happy though. He still had some semblance of family. Something that was stable.

Most mornings, he was awakened by his mother’s spectral form hovering nearby, the lich smiling (he thought) as she greeted him and told him that breakfast was ready. Some mornings, he would find himself sitting between Barry and Taako, Taako discussing his plans for a proper school while Barry simply hummed into his coffee. Sometimes, Taako and Lup would squabble over something mundane, the argument being more entertaining than anything else.

And some days, Angus would follow his mom to the basement of their temporary home as she hovered in front of the glowing green tank that was growing her new body. She would sometimes notice him and try to ruffle his hair in a comforting way.

Angus was excited and nervous.

~

Lup missed sleep.

She hovered near Barry, watching as he slept, and sighed. She wasn’t sure how many more months it would be but she was getting antsy.

Back when she had known that they would just reset in a year, she could easily pass the time as Barry slept if she was a lich for a cycle while Barry was still corporeal.

But now, knowing that this was it, it made the months tick by horribly slowly.

She had missed sleeping in Barry’s arms, had missed eating, had missed so much.

And in realizing what she missed about being alive, she realized just how much she had actually missed.

She’d missed Taako, missed being there for him when he had been wandering Faerun alone. Had missed getting her revenge on Sazed (prison was too good for him). She had missed helping Magnus, meeting his wife (though now with her new job, she probably could). She had missed Barry and felt absolutely gutted that she couldn’t have been alongside him during that decade alone.

She missed so many firsts with her son.

First words, first steps … First case.

She regretted it but at the same time, this was so much better. It would not have been fair to Angus to have him have to go through everything again. To have to wait to be born. To have to wait to exist.

She left her and Barry’s room and hovered down the hallway. She drifted into Taako’s room where he was sound asleep, plans and blueprints underneath him. She wished she could tuck him in. He would be sore in the morning from the position he was sleeping in.

Kravitz needed to move in. As uncomfortable as living with a reaper while she was a lich was, he was good for Taako. He’d been such a positive influence on him. He’d brought him almost back to being the Taako that Lup remembered.

She smiled and drifted out, making her way to Angus’ room.

She paused at the doorway, looking at the boy as he gripped his sheets tightly, his eyes screwed shut and his ears pressed flat against his head.

A nightmare. He was having a nightmare.

She settled down next to him and gently stroked his hair, as much as she could, and sang to him, hoping to calm him down. She watched his breathing slow and his eyes relax and smiled.

She was about to leave when she heard his tiny voice.

“Mom?” he asked.

She drifted over to him.

“Hey Ango … Are you alright? You were having a nightmare …”

“Yeah … I … I had them a lot,” he started. “They were mostly abstract which … I guess makes sense because of that century but …”

He sniffled and looked up at her.

“You were gone,” he started. “Taako broke the Umbra Staff and nothing came out and then the Hunger took him and took Barry and the Davenport left and … And you were gone …”

Lup instinctively wrapped herself around him, channeling as much energy as she could just so she could hold her son as he cried. It broke her heart to be unable to do more for him.

“Th-thanks mom,” he started. “I … I’m glad that you’re here … even if it took so long …”

Lup smiled and kissed his forehead.

“I’m glad too, Ango … We … we waited so long and you are everything we ever wanted.”

They sat there together until the sun rose, Angus calming down enough that he could start to doze.

~

Merle and Magnus had both come to visit, Magnus offering to help build the Taako-Lup-Bluejeans house (and really, they didn’t trust anyone else to do it after the last foreman quit). Merle sat, watching Magnus work, when he heard a quiet voice behind him.

“Erm … hello sir … Uncle? I guess?”

Merle paled.

He had been dreading this moment for weeks now. The moment he had realized who Angus was, he had decided that maybe he should try to avoid being around the twins. He knew that Lup had seen how he had treated her child and had realized that there was probably some resentment there. He’d felt so much regret because he had once been so excited and now …

“Oh, uh … Hey, Angus …” He started. “Sorry about all .. all of that. I kinda wasn’t myself,” he chuckled, nervously.

“Oh, it’s ok, sir,” Angus started. “I mean, I don’t know why you were like that but I just sort of figured … You know … Here comes this kid and everyone’s going to pay attention to that kid and …”

“God, you’re perceptive,” Merle laughed. “You must get that from your dad.”

Angus laughed nervously.

“I’m just … God, please don’t tell your mom that I threatened to kill you,” he started. “‘Cause you saw what she did to the Hunger. I don’t get to reset this time if she blasts me.”

“Oh, I’m sure she understands,” Angus laughed. “In fact … I kind of wanted to talk to you about that …”

Merle sighed and sat up a little straighter.

“Kid … I’m really sorry-”

“Like I said, it’s ok. I understand. In fact … I kind of … I don’t want things to really change,” Angus started. “Like, there was a whole dynamic and honestly, I got used to it? Like … I knew you didn’t hate me and … I guess I thought it was just done out of love?”

Merle chuckled.

“Well, at the time, I was threatened,” Merle laughed. “You know, threatened by a ten year old because you are actually competent and I … Well, for ten years I was a pretty shitty cleric and here comes this half elf kid who’s good at everything he does and well … I guess I was a bit of an ass.”

“Yeah,” Angus started. “But it’s ok. And if you did suddenly start acting like you cared about me, then everyone would think my mom did threaten you,” he laughed. “So … I guess it can be our secret that you actually care?”

Merle laughed.

“Sure kiddo.”

~

Magnus watched Taako and Kravitz and tried to not let the jealousy sting him.

He’d had Julia. He’d had someone who he loved so deeply but there was still that tug in his heart when he saw Taako smile. Saw him holding Kravitz’ hand.

Saw them kiss.

He knew, of course, that their relationship on the Starblaster had never actually been defined. Had never been anything permanent.

But he could wish.

He was about to leave for the evening when Kravitz approached him. Magnus tensed up, knowing that Kravtiz knew. He knew everything that had happened, knew of Taako’s relationship with him …

And he was the fucking Grim Reaper.

“Hey, uh … So, I wanted to talk with you,” Kravitz started. “I … God, I know that you and Taako had a history and … I don’t want to come between it,” he continued. “I know that Taako has been nervous too and … I’m sorry. If you two decide that you want to start over, it’s alright. I won’t be hurt.”

Magnus froze. He hadn’t expected this at all.

“Kravitz … it’s alright. You and Taako, you have a history now too and if Taako’s happy, then I’m happy. I got my chance at love on this world and it would be selfish of me to-”

The wrapping of a hand around his waist and the sudden intrusion of the elf in question interrupted the pair.

“My ears were burning,” Taako grinned, his arms wrapped around both men’s waists. “Were you two discussing me?”

“Erm …” Kravitz started, nervously.

“Well, I’ve been thinking about it and there’s honestly more than enough Taako to go around,” he purred “And you two are literally the only people I would even be ok being this close to so I bet we could make this work,” he grinned between the two.

Magnus looked at Kravitz for any sort of protestations. To be honest, this had been the best option but …

“Come on, you two,” Taako grinned, taking them both by the hand and into their temporary home. “Taako’s got two hands.”

~

Lup had hovered over Taako as he traced the last few runes. She had tried to tell him it was alright, that she could wait for him to do the transmutation needed to make her comfortable in her own skin again after she came out, but Taako insisted.

“Only the best for my sister.”

She smiled, watching him cast the spell as her body changed. She would be able to be corporeal again soon. Able to touch and hold people again.

The excitement was nearly electrifying. She knew, of course, that as soon as she had her body, she would need to get ready to start work for the Raven Queen, but she didn’t care. She couldn’t wait any longer.

It was only a few days later, everyone gathered around to greet her, and Lup was nearly crackling with excitement.

“Now, be careful that you don’t trip,” Barry chuckled. “And I have a robe ready for you when you come out.”

“Thanks, Bare-bear,” she smiled, pressing her spectral form to him one more time before hovering into the tank.

Her family watched, holding a collective breath, as she disappeared into her body. The tank split open and Lup staggered out, the brackish liquid spilling out around her, pressing her long, brown hair to her face. Barry quickly brought the Robe to her and helped her drape it around herself. She looked up at Barry and smiled.

“I forgot how good I look,” she smiled.

Barry chuckled.

“I’m about to smooch your fucking face, babe,” she grinned, pulling him in for a kiss.

When she pulled away, she looked over at the crew, her family, and looked for Angus. The little boy was staring at her, mouth agape. Barry helped Lup over to him and she stooped down to her knees and pulled Angus in close.

“I’ve wanted to do this for over ten years,” she whispered.

“Me too,” Angus replied, his voice cracking.

The rest of the day, Lup was near her boyfriend and her son as much as possible, enjoying actually being able to hold them, to actually be able to comfort Angus when he needed reassurance. It was everything she had wanted for ten years.

She and Barry retired early that night, needing to catch up on ten years and six months of waiting. It was slow and clumsy at points, but they didn’t care. They finally had this closeness, this intimacy once again. As they fell asleep later in the night, Barry held onto Lup as if she would disappear if he looked away, kissing the top of her head and the tips of her ears as she purred into his chest, pressing herself as close to him as possible.

~

It had been a year since the day of Story and Song. A year since everyone remembered.

Angus had been at school (Lucas’ school, much to Taako’s chagrin), but he still sent letters. And Lup had been able to visit and be the proud, protective mother she had wanted to be (Lucas couldn’t keep her away and often would find her in his office, scythe in hand).

And now, the crew of the IPRE and the members of the Bureau of Benevolence were watching as Carey and Killian exchanged their vows.

Lup looked over to see Taako in between Kravitz and Magnus, his hands holding both of theirs. Having Taako going on a vacation into the astral plane would be … odd, but at least she knew he would be back.

She looked back at Barry who was grinning from ear to ear. She gently set her head on his shoulder and sighed happily.

The reception was exciting, with dancing and drinks and good food. Mavis had pulled Angus on the dance floor, much to his protestations. Lup chuckled, watching him. He would have to learn how to dance, eventually.

Then the bouquets were tossed, Lup being dragged onto the dance floor by Taako who had a mischievous glint in his eyes.

She totally noticed when one of the bouquets just gently floated into her hands. She shot daggers at Taako before looking at Barry who was about to die of nervousness. She flicked her ears a little, a soft smile spreading across her face as she hoped he got the message.

He didn’t need to do this now. He didn’t even need to do it tonight.

She had waited for sixty-four years. She could wait until he was ready.

The reception continued well into the night, long after Carey and Killian had left for their honeymoon, and Barry pulled Lup aside to dance in a more secluded area. She rested her head on his shoulder as they bobbed back and forth to the music. Barry finally pulled away and smiled at her, cupping her face in his hand.

“Lup … I … It’s been so long and I know that we’re, you know, a thing. But … I still want to make this official … And … Taako wanted me to do this earlier but I was so nervous and I didn’t want to steal anyone’s moment and …”

Lup cupped Barry’s face in her own hand and smiled.

“Barry, it’s ok. I’m not quite the attention seeker that Taako is and honestly, I like it better this way,” she smiled.

Barry breathed a sigh of relief and dug in his pocket before kneeling.

“Magnus carved it. And I’m sure they want to see but … Yeah, they’re probably all drunk off their asses anyway,” he laughed, nervously. “But, Lup … I want to spend eternity with you. And I mean, I know that we will spend eternity together but I want everyone to know that I love you and that I’m yours for as long as you’ll have me … Will … Will you marry me?”

Lup beamed at him, her grin burning brighter than the sun as she threw her arms around him, kissing him and whispering “Yes” over and over in his ear.

If they had been watched, no one had said anything. They had this private moment that they could savor.

They had an eternity together and it was time to begin.

~

Lup stood outside the doorway to Angus’ room. She bit her lip, looking down at the doorknob before knocking quietly.

Convincing Kravitz has been the easy part. That was the thing about the twins. It was already impossible to say no to either of them and after saving reality, the Raven Queen owned some favors.

But she needed Angus’ input too.

And she needed to know.

“Hey sweetie. Can I come in?” she asked.

“Sure mom!” Angus chirped on the other side of the door.

Lup smiled and opened the door, seeing Angus sitting on his bed, books and scrolls laid out on front of him.

“Uncle Taako gave me a pretty good offer, but I'm seeing if I can maybe learn and get a little bit more out of him,” Angus grinned mischievously, looking at his mother. His ears twitched when he saw the nervous look on her face. “Is … Is everything ok, mom?”

“Uh … yeah, kiddo,” Lup started. “I just … I wanted to talk to you about something. To ask you if … If it would be alright or even a good idea if I -” She pinched the bridge of her nose. “I just … I wish I had been around and I still feel bad about it, sweetie. And … I was wondering if you would be alright if I went and thanked … Grandpa?”

Angus’ ears twitched again.

“Why wouldn’t it be alright?” Angus asked.

“Because … Because I was gone. I wasn’t in your life and who knows how he thought of the mother of the child who he took care of and … God, what if he hates me?”

Angus crawled off of the bed and ran to Lup, wrapping his arms around her waist.

“Mom, he would never hate you. And even without the story and the song, he still talked about your … well your case. He talked about how brave my mother must have been, protecting her son with the last of her strength. He never said anything bad, I promise. And if he did now then … well, I know that you love me and that you always have.”

Lup hugged Angus close.

“Thanks sweetie,” she whispered. “Do you want to -”

“Wouldn’t Uncle Kravitz say it was against the rules?” Angus asked.

“He took Taako over for a weekend. I’m sure a quick visit to your Grandpa won’t be an issue,” Lup laughed, ruffling Angus’ hair.

It was decided then, and on the weekend before Candlenights, Lup, Barry, and Angus went through the portal to the Astral Plane. Angus had bundled up, knowing that the air would be chillier, even in the Astral Plane, and he tried not to show how nervous he was. He hadn’t seen his grandpa in over two years now.

They walked over to an island, set up with a small cottage - a far cry from the mansion that Angus remembered growing up in. They walked to the door, Barry knocking on it sheepishly.

The door opened and Angus grinned.

There was his grandpa.

Just as he had always wanted to remember him.

He still had the kind smile that Angus remembered, but he was younger. He was as he had been in Angus’ earliest memories.

“Wow, you’ve sure grown a lot, Angus,” Grandpa McDonald smiled.

“Thank you, Grandpa!” Angus beamed.

Grandpa McDonald’s eyes met with Lup and Barry’s. Lup smiled, weakly, her heart hammering in her chest.

She had been preparing herself for this day, but even now, even with the encouragement from Barry and Angus, she worried. She worried that he resented her. She worried that, even though he was being polite, he still thought poorly of her.

It was why she nearly jumped out of her skin when she felt two strong arms wrap around her as Grandpa McDonald pulled her in for a tight hug.

“Your son brightened my life so much,” he whispered. “Thank you for making sure I got to meet him.”

Lup felt tears pricking her eyes as the embrace ended. Then Grandpa McDonald turned to Barry.

“So, you’re the BB that was giving him the birthday presents each year?” he smiled.

“Heh, yeah,” Barry started. “When I was in my body it was like I had holes in my brain, but after I ran into Angus one day and well … remembered after dying yet again, I made sure I could at least give him something every year. Even if I wasn’t sure he was my son at the time.”

Grandpa McDonald smiled and beckoned them into the cottage.

“Come on in! I am sure that you want to hear stories about him and maybe see some of the portraits? Sure you can’t take everything with you, but Kravitz and I go back a ways, so he allowed this for now. Now let me tell you about Angus’ first words …”

We pan out as they walk into the cottage on the island that rises out of the glittering sea of souls,  Barry placing a hand on Lup’s back while Lup pulls a slightly embarrassed Angus in close. We fade out as they step over the threshold as a family.

#blupjeans #barry bluejeans #lup #angus bluejeans #angus mcdonald #taako #magnus #taagnitz #merle highchurch #Lucretia #davenport

[flamingsemi]

Adventure Zone: Balance Gems  Pt. 2

"What's in the box?" "Er, stuff. Go fucking kill Klarrrrg."

“Listen to Rosa Crunch over here, he’s not going to the back of this snack bus”

“Can’t guild with anything else.” “Watch me!”

“The only good thing about him knowing you’re lying is you don’t have to do the voice in front of Angus.”

“Yeah, nothing weird about 3 grown men accompanying Angus to his sleeper car. LET'S GO!”

“Listen guys, we just blasted a giant crab. I think were past the point of fake names.”

“Here’s a zone of truth: you’re DEAD”

“So you can fucking night crawl now?!” “yeah, I can BAMF.”

“Jerre? with an e on the end?” “6”

“I hope you’re not allergic to pickles Because our heroes are in one”

“I forget that sometimes you guys hang out with my characters without me”

“I meant that non-leathaly” “you said cleft in twain, sir!”

“yeah, we’ll need the heal slots, we won’t need a corpse.”

“let’s wait and see how it ends, because Lost was pretty good too…”

"Usually a much better equipped woman has to come in and save us"

"Now they are eggs, and it takes fourteen days for the eggs to hatch" *Griffin loses it* “fuck” "do your FUCKING RESEARCH"

"I said I'd smell you later" "Consider yourself smelt!”

“You’ve based your theology on a beard?”

"No, I ate the receipt"

"Taako went on a date with Death. and that sounds so cool now that I've said it out loud, idk if he could resist!"

“I’d like to say goodbye to my Pringles, please.”

“I wasn’t expecting Pringle play!”

“Now you just have Pokemon’d these two boys” “I don’t want you to have an infinite bag of boys”

“ELVISH IS NOT DORKY, DAD!!!”

“STEVEN’S NOT A WEAPON! HE IS AN AGENT OF LOVE!”

“Yeah with a charisma check of CATWALK-BOY!”

"I need a voice for the boy"

“Taako’s rushing in.” “WHAT? Ok, Magnus follows him.” “Merle’s good out here” "WHAT is HAPPENING?"

“Welcome… to The Monster Factory!”

#the adventure zone #taz #taz balance #mcelroy brothers #justin mcelroy #griffin mcelroy #clint mcelroy #travis mcelroy #quotes #dnd 5e #taako #magnus burnsides #merle

[hahanoiwont]

ok im gonna be Predictable but after all the talks we had about dav, what about 47 with davenchurch? or if thats not your style, then just more generally, something between merle and davenport (romantic or not, idc) in Don't Stop Me could be really cool?

“nalright im gonna Do My Best

this is set in Stop Me If You’ve Heard This Before for context, during cycle 98. You don’t need to have read it to understand, though.

“Merle,” Davenport says, not turning around. “Is it urgent? I’m–”

Merle, in complete disregard to his closed-off body language, his dismissive tone, or basic politeness, collapses on the oversized beds.

The IPRE had only had sizes available for the larger races. It just hadn’t been practical to commission two smaller beds when Gnomes, Halflings and Dwarves made up suck a small percentage of the Institute.

Well, now they make up two sevenths of the whole organization. More, sometimes.

More, right now.

Two fifths.

It’s not even a hostile plane.

Davenport shakes his head.

“Not right now, Merle,” he says.

His bed creaks.

“I know you’re scared,” says Merle.

Davenport stops.

“I’m not scared. That’s ridiculous. There’s nothing threatening on this entire plane.”

Merle waits for a moment and he can feel his old friend’s eyebrows raise.

He holds out for a moment more before he can’t stand it. He turns around.

“Look, two of us are dead. We’re getting closer and closer to getting caught every year. I’m allowed to feel, to feel a little defensive, okay? I’m not scared,” he insists, but Merle looks right through him. Damn him.

“We’ll make it,” is all he says. Davenport shakes his head.

“Will we, though? When we start killing ourselves, will we? What hope is there when we’ve given up on ourselves?” Even as he speaks, he feels the frustration grow and he begins to pace. “It just doesn’t make any damn sense, Merle, I can’t–I can’t even keep us going if the crew doesn’t go with.”

It’s every captain’s worst fear, the crew refusing to follow. What good is he if he can’t lead these people to safety? If he can’t even get them to survive day to day? If they don’t trust him to keep them safe? What is he without this mission?

A hand is on his shoulder, halting him.

“But you’re not scared,” Merle says wryly, and he glares. His old friend sobers quickly. “I know. We’ll have a hell of a talk with him when he gets back, and Lup is already sorry. But this wasn’t your fault.”

He shrugs Merle’s hand off to resume pacing, but Merle is standing directly in his way.

“Move,” he says. Merle looks around and shrugs.

“I’m good here.”

Davenport lets out a huff of frustration and walks around him. Now he has to pace awkwardly in a semicircle around the immovable oak that is Merle Hitower Highchurch.

“It’s not like being ‘scared’ would do any good anyway,” he snaps, air-quoting viciously. “What the fuck is the use? It doesn’t make me smarter, it doesn’t make me better, it doesn’t tell me what to do–what the fuck is the point of being scared?”

Merle shakes his head. “I know you’re smarter than that.”

Davenport sits on the bed.

“It doesn’t help,” he says. “It just gets in the way of what I need to do.”

“Feelings tend to do that,” Merle agrees, because he’s kind of a dick sometimes.

Davenport slumps. He should have known better than to argue with Merle in the first place. “How are you holding up?”

Merle shrugs.

“I’m scared, too,” he says, quietly, like he wouldn’t in front of anyone else. “Pissed. At myself for not seeing it, at Taako for doing it. That I couldn’t save either of them. But they’re coming back, and it’s not too late to fix this.”

He joins Davenport on the bed. Just sitting side by side, looking at the room. There are maps everywhere. Davenport had always wanted to be an adventurer. Maybe some day, if they survive this.

Merle, his port in a storm, sits next to him in silence for a little while. They each think through what they need to. Deep thoughts, troubling thoughts.

And then, when he feels ready, Davenport hops up.

“Bridge?” he asks, already getting the cards. Merle cracks his shoulders.

“Thought you’d never ask.”

#davenport #merle #taz #taz balance #writing tag #was that characterization even close who knows #not me #my merle is v different alone with dav from how he is with others? #idk man #they're either in love or qp or something #i hope you liked it! #transdavenport

[limpblotter]

Bed sheets & Bluejeans

a/n: because taz has taken over my life, and I clearly hate happiness summary: Barry hangs on to his fondest memory of Lup warning: spoilers, sadness, implied death(s) w/c:~1.6k

“Mm…” The sun was hitting the back of Barry’s head so nicely it was warming him up from the scalp down to his toes. He soaked up the late morning rays, his body aching from a night of…exciting rumps of delight. His legs tried to untangle themselves from the bedsheets. They were probably the second softest thing Barry has ever felt.

First was Lup’s hair. Her hair was silky, short blonde hair, a beautiful undercut that exposed a tiny written tattoo in Elvish she shared with her brother. Or maybe her eyes, they were soft not to touch but they were…soft. She had a sharp tongue, that was naturally inherited but she had a way of looking at Barry. A way of looking at people with both a steely certainty about life but tenderness that eased. She was both fiery and determined but the fire was only hot enough to warm a cheek than scorch a hand.

Barry’s hand instinctively started reaching for his bedmate. His hand skimmed along the pillow a few times, then started to dig into the sheets looking for something, anything. He brought his hand up and patted the empty space and his eyes yanked open like rolling blinds. Without his glasses his vision was so poor but through the blurred lens his eyes were naturally built on he made out a figure floating several inches off the bed. “Lup?” He narrowed his eyes a bit.

“NoooOoo I am a ghooooost of your former lovers” Lup giggled forging a terrible “ghostly” accent.

Barry arched one eyebrow and sighed, “Very funny Lup, I don’t have former lovers unless you’re the ghost of Lup, then that makes you Lup.”

“Pshaw, Barry Bluejeans I know you were a ladies man before I got Elven deep into your heart.” She teased, with a flick of her wrist she gently handed him his glasses saving him from his natural state of morning blindness. “Morning, sleepyhead.”

Once his vision was regained Barry sighed in relief getting an eyeful of what was probably the best view in all of the planes of existence. Lup floated with a leathery brown book open and pencil in hand, she wore one of Barry’s oversized jeans as pants and what looked like to be his white shirt, tied at the front right under her chest so it looked baggy yet cropped. She was…the most beautiful woman Barry had ever seen. “Morning…”he smiled softly, noticing she was very intently writing something down. “how did you sleep?”

“I don’t”

“Right I meant how did you tra—“

“And even if I did, I would have to say poorly, you snore…like a lot.” Lup smirked a bit, Barry’s face turning bright red from her small tease. He turned his face to hide his embarrassment from the woman he had been falling for long before…this happened.

“Look I have bad sinuses…” Barry turned his head back to defend himself in front of her. What if snoring was the real deal breaker?

Lup’s eyes narrowed a bit, “don’t move!” She hissed, “go back to turning your head, it was perfect.” She wiggled her pencil at him.

“Wait, what? You want me to turn around why—“

“Barry I swear to GOD if you don’t do as I say I’m going to tell Taako you sleep whistle too and you sound like a dang train.”

With that Bluejeans kept his head turned to his profile for some time. He sat in utter silence, well aware that his beloved as up to something and Lup wasn’t the type to share her plans until she was finished. Of course, it was one of many reasons why Lup was so loveable to Barry. She was an unreadable mystery; she was strong and needed no one to see her thoughts. It made Barry jealous that Taako knew her so well. It almost seemed liked Taako was all she needed to confide in…something that made Barry feel down for a long time.

That was until she let him in. Somehow, some reason…this wonderful, beautiful, strong woman let someone like Barry Bluejeans into her thoughts. Into her heart…and into her bed “Finished!” She proclaimed with glee. She laid back in midair admiring her own handiwork.

“Well?” Barry turned his head, feeling the tension that was building in his stiff neck ease a bit. “…can I see?”

“Hmm nah.”

“But you just said you were finished.” Barry pouted, watching the devious glint coat Lup’s smile.

“And what of it~”

“Let me see!”

“MAKE ME, COWARD.” Lup teased him, thankfully for Barry her teasing did help. Lup pushed Barry outside of her small comfort zone and now there was no turning back. She changed him, for all the better. Barry got to his knees and lunged at her, wrapping a thick, manly arm around her frame and pulled her out of her leviative state. “BARRY!”

“Yes?~” He smirked having Lup pinned to the bed by his muscular arm. “Do you have something to show me?”

“Yes, it seems I’ve found your balls.” She sneered a bit, she clutched the book tighter to her chest, sticking out a small tongue at him defiantly.

Barry nodded a bit looking defeated, “cool, cool” he took off his glasses with his free hand and set them safely aside. In one swoop he dipped down and started blowing raspberry kisses all along Lup’s shoulders and neck.

The room erupted in laughter, mainly Lup’s loud, gleeful giggles and the fart sounds coming out of Barry’s mouth. She kicked her legs against the bed and giggled until her ribs felt like they were going to cave in on her lungs. “Ok! Haha!! Okokokok! Here, take it!” She shoved the book to Barry giving her a chance to both breath and wipe her giggly tears from her eyes.

Barry proudly sat up against the bedframe. He slid on his glasses again and opened the journal to where Lup had stuck her pencil as a bookmark. When he did he was taken back, there was not a sketch but several of him. Perfectly sketched profiles of Barry, some were older. Some were of him drinking coffee or at the table, some were of him talking and completely unaware of Lup’s spying on him. Some were of him sleeping, face into the pillow with his mouth open and drool…

Then the one where he was looking away from here, chest exposed, covered in bedsheets, hair a mess… Barry always felt like the drab sorts even more so now that he had Lup who was anything but drab. However, there was something in the way she drew him, the way she captured him. This was Barry through Lup’s eyes. The coworker, the friend, the thankless navigator and hardworker, the sleepy lover…and for the first time in Barry’s life he felt his ego grow just enough to think…

The Barry that Lup was in love with…wasn’t half bad.

“You like it?” Lup rolled over and wedged herself under his arm between the journal and Barry.

“…you’re so talented, Lup.” He spoke with a soft wonderment.

“Nah, I just have a really good muse.” Barry looked down at Lup was she spoke, his eyes softened as he took in every feature. Her smile, her high cheekbones, the way her blond short hair fluffed up before she spent the few hours it took to magically straighten her locks so they were pin straight like a razor. He counted her white freckles against her warm olive tone skin like stars against the night sky. He got lost in her berry colored lips and bejeweled eyes and…

There was more to her…there had to be. Barry felt his memory fizzle, like someone had thrown steam into the room. A white haze, a fog started to build around Lup. Around the room, around everything. Suddenly everything but Barry was foggy, the space in the bed, the book in his hand.

“Barry?” Her voice sounded far and strain.

“Lup!?” Barry looked down feeling the fog move over her face, her eyes, her lips which were turned down into a terrified frown. When he tried to cup the face he was certain was just there his hand went right through the fog. As the white cloud was pushed aside he found he was laying in a bed, in an empty room with an empty sketchbook and pencil by his side. He turned to the space beside him and found his pair of jeans and shirt folded nicely, but wrinkled as if someone had just been in them. “Who…was here?” He muttered to himself. “Who…”

 “…who?” Taako blinked, as Barry tore his gaze from his memory, from the map. Barry made contact with Taako and he too, for a second, wondered who. He opened his mouth to ask the question back at the elf when a wind pushed Taako’s hair back over his shoulder. He lifted his arm to stop the gush from blowing the strands of blonde over his face when Barry caught a glimpse of the tattoo scrawled on Taako’s wrist.

Tattoo…

Blond hair…

Barry turned to the map and felt his gut sink into his spine. “Oh god…Taako, I—I can’t remember her face!” He reached into his robe and pulled out the small book, his back to Taako as he flipped through the pages. She was real, he knew she was real.

He paused at the sketches of Barry, the different faces and poses he was in naturally. His eyes lingered on these sketches, she made them. Lup…Lup…Lup…he fought against the fog that slowly consumed every trace of her from her smile, to her laugh, to the way she held his hand and never let go. Barry’s heart lurched, he couldn’t…he couldn’t live in a world where Lup simply didn’t exist, he refused it.

He would never. He wanted to remember her like this, remember the way she made him feel. He wanted to be the Barry in her sketches. 

Barry tucked the book back into his vest and turned to Taako, “Taako…kill me, please.”

He’d remember her, even if it was the last thing Barry would ever do.

#taz #the adventure zone #fanfiction #fanfic #taz fanfic #taz spoilers #barry bluejeans #lup taaco #lup #blupjeans #angst #death implied #spoilers #drabble #one shot #when I'm sick #I indulge in sadness

[iztarshi]

Murder on the Rockport Limited -- Episode 14

And we start with Taako NOT running towards the crab. It always makes me laugh when the group starts to decide what to do and Taako Won't.

All three of them simultaneously leaping through the door to a sleeping chamber might be a good dex save, but it's a pretty funny visual.

Magnus is Very Good at hitting things with chairs. Although I don't imagine carpentry comes into it so much.

So, Jess the Beheader can summon her axe, which would make her seem the likely murderer. Except she just attacked the crab, so I guess that's not hers?

Also, she's totally kill stealing.

"Griffin: I am just—I just want to say, when I was writing this- this mystery chapter, how certain I was that the three of you were not going to be capable of introducing yourselves to the characters I was creating. And you have fulfilled that prophecy, just with flying colors."

*snorrrrrrrrt* Yeah. They just. Did not care about anyone's backstories or, um, much of anything. They spent the whole thing acting like a bunch of selfish weirdos.

"and then Jenkins died, that was ok" Wow, Taako. Have a heart.

Sooo, Magnus is like "she's probably the murderer, let's let her go back to where the SMALL BOY and UNCONSCIOUS WIZARD are while we talk about that."

Taako, even if they don't know it wasn't you, YOU know it wasn't you, so why are you asking them?

Taako is really sick of these fake identities.

*laughing* Zooooone of Truth. I'm waiting to see if they've got the hang of them now, or whether this will cause Taako to confess to anything.

XDDD The smack percentages.

I've got to say, this is really cheering me up. Even if I'm disapproving of everyone this arc, I'm still laughing myself breathless.

"good cop, bad cop, mom cop" look, I think Merle may have just realised that if the poor guy ISN'T the villain -- which none of you really seem to suspect that much anyway -- then he's probably in shock.

Okay. Uh. Jess and Graham are each other's alibis. It maybe COULD have been… no, they'd been with Angus ever since they last saw Jenkins so they're his alibi. Even aside from the fact I obviously know it wasn't him.

The crab probably ate Jenkin's hands? But there's no way it could cleanly slice his head off.

Um. Theory. The crab was hiding on the drinks trolley.

This is a weak theory but it's all I've got.

It only just occurred to me to wonder how Angus got a crossbow past security.

Taako's Motto: Shouldn't Someone More Competent Be Doing This?

Awwww, scuttle buddy!

#TAZ #actual liveblogging

[gh0sthoodie]

where you are

TAZ, Gen, 1K, T for implied violence, Post-canon

Because, like, the thing about forgetting a century of your life and then suddenly remembering is that sometimes, later,  you forget that you remember. It takes some time to get back into the habit of thinking those thoughts. And Merle, he’s glad to remember, he really is, but there isn’t much missing from those days that he hasn’t gotten back.

Taako though. Well.

OR: The boys remember. Taako rushes in

Isn’t this supposed to be Magnus’ thing? is all Merle can think, hunkered down in the saddle of a very old, borrowed nag. She obviously does not appreciate his weight, or that of the little half-elf kid clinging to the back of his shirt. Magnus seems to think the same thing, if the tight, anxious line of his shoulders hunched over the other horse is anything to go by. Magnus plays the hero. Magnus rushes in. Taako…

It isn’t like Taako to run ahead like this, especially to rescue someone else’s kid. It really isn’t like him to burn a spell slot summoning Garyl so he can get to the danger even fucking faster. Neither Merle’s nag nor Magnus’s equally over-burdened old grey had any chance of keeping up with him, and Garyl’s bright streaming tail disappeared over a hill about ten minutes ago.

Still.

The kid behind him sniffles loud and buries his head into the back of Merle’s shoulder. Merle thinks he can feel him shaking, and Pan dammit he’s never been any good at this.

“Listen, kid,” he tries. The sniffling increases in pitch and breaks on a low, muffled sob. “Now, don’t cry, come on. I just got this jacket cleaned.” Another sob. “Ok you’re right. Not the point. Point is, it’s all gonna be fine. You’re sister’s gonna be fine. My buddy Taako’s gonna bring her back safe and sound.”

“You…y-you promise?”

“Come on kid, I’m a man o’ god. I wouldn’t lie to you,” says Merle, and up ahead Magnus’ shoulders twitch. In any other circumstance, he’d have laughed. Now though…well. It doesn’t have to be a lie, does it? From what the kid told them when they first found him, beaten, on the outskirts of Neverwinter, there were only four or five men in the gang that took his sister. What are the odds, really, that they’re high enough level to give Taako trouble?

Fuckin’ what indeed, Merle thinks, just as a massive fireball curls out over the top of the ridge ahead.

***

They find Taako in the middle of a smoking wreck, bleeding from a nasty gash over one eye. Whatever kind of cart the little gang was driving, it’s so much ash now, and the air is thick with the unmistakable scent of charred flesh. There are hoofbeats retreating off into the distance, and a nasty pile of something at Taako’s feet that Merle really doesn’t want to look too closely at.

Taako himself is completely still, and ain’t that fucking something? There’s a half-elf girl a few feet behind him, looking blessedly unharmed, and she cries out as they approach, but Taako doesn’t move.

Merle is preoccupied for a moment with trying to keep his co-rider from leaping off the back of the horse before she’s come to a full stop. Once his feet hit the ground, the boy goes flying forward, all skinny knees and stumbling, and throws himself into the girl’s arms. For a long moment their gleeful, tearful reunion is the only sound, and then Magnus clears his throat and-

“Dude. What the actual fuck?”

“Hmm?” Taako’s shoulder’s lift a little bit, then fall, and finally he turns around. He’s smiling, but his voice is distant. So are his eyes. “Hey there, bubbuleh, nice of you to finally join us.”

“What the hell was that, asshole? You split the party! That’s how you get yourself killed!”

Taako chuckles, and that, too, seems wrong. Like it’s coming from far away. Merle tries to meet his eyes but they’re focused on the handle of his Umbra staff as he twirls it idly over one wrist.

Magnus’ hands are clenching and unclenching in frustration, and any other time Merle might rib him for it, because frankly he’s being a hypocrite and it’s funny as all hell. Right now, though, he just wants to make sure Taako and the kid are okay and head back to Neverwinter for a fucking drink. He steps between Magnus and Taako, wooden arm outstretched.

Taako finally looks at him and smirks, and it’s a bit of a relief because that at least is a normal look for him. “Worried, old man?”

“Just fucking let me heal you so we can get out of here before I retch up my lunch. This smell is awful.”

“Eh?” Taako looks around, like he’s forgotten where he’s standing. Looks down. Laughs a little, bell-like, empty. “Jeez, we did a number on this guy.”

“We?” asks Merle, and Taako sort of…pulls the Umbra Staff close to his chest. It isn’t exactly a hug, but his grip on the handle tightens until his knuckles show white and he looks over Merle’s head at the half-elf siblings still embracing and oh. Oh.

Because, like, the thing about forgetting a century of your life and then suddenly remembering is that sometimes, later,  you forget that you remember. It takes some time to get back into the habit of thinking those thoughts. And Merle, he’s glad to remember, he really is, but there isn’t much missing from those days that he hasn’t gotten back.

Taako though. Well.

Maybe Magnus is thinking the same thing, because the tight line of his shoulders droops and his eyebrows draw up a little in the middle. He takes a step forward, brings one big hand up to hover awkwardly before resting it lightly on Taako’s shoulder.

Taako turns to him and he looks…confused. The empty look is gone but his eyes are big and a little scared and it isn’t Taako, not at all, except maybe in the way that he’s still trying to smirk around all of it. He laughs, and it’s broken, and he shakes his head. “Don’t look at me like that, Maggie, come on. Come on.” He swipes a bit of blood away from his eye. “Let’s go get that drink.”

“Yeah, buddy,” says Magnus, squeezing Taako’s shoulder once and then dropping his hand. He turns to go back to his horse, doesn’t notice the way that Taako sags a little bit. Merle sidles up.

“Not…not now, old man. I just toasted a dude’s ass and I’m not in the mood for anything but a heal and a beer.”

Merle snorts. “Wasn’t gonna say nothin’, kid. Just, y’know, that little boy was worried shitless. You did a good thing today.” He risks a glance at the charred pile at their feet. Nasty. But: “those assholes deserved what they got.”

“They took his sister,” says Taako, and he pulls the Umbra Staff in close again. Merle wonders if he realizes he’s doing it. “They fucking..they took his sister.”

They both turn to look at the kids. Magnus is trying to shepherd them onto two different horses, but they refuse to let go of each other’s hands.

“Yeah, Taako,” says Merle. “Yeah. And you got her back.”

#taz fic #taz spoilers #the adventure zone #taz #taako #magnus burnsides #merle highchurch #shit this is my first completed fic in like a decade #my writing

[sunsapphic-callout]

ok so here’s the stuff about lauren!

i orignally made a post like this on my vent / personal but im gonna clean it up and add screenshots to make it less vague (nobody who follows the blog that had the original post knows lauren so i didnt think it was necessary to be specific). i know this post is gonna make it real obvious who i am for people who were involved, and if lauren ever comes on this blog she’ll know exactly who i am, but i’m willing to take that risk and be as specific as i can be because uhhhh this shit is gross and i’m PISSED.

my boyfriend and i wanted to get involved in the the adventure zone kin community, and since we’re both 18, we wanted to make a chat specifically for adult taz fans who were also kin, because we knew kin communities have a lot of people trying to find their lovers and stuff and we didn’t wanna make it weird for minors and adults to mingle just in case. we didn’t really do much by way of getting it out there, just posted a simple link to it and tagged it, and lauren was one of the first people to join.

i didn’t know lauren personally at the time, but i was a fan of the content she posted on her taz-specific blog, listen/kitty/cat (i think it was a different URL at the time and she changed it, but i cant recall what it is for the life of me). me and my boyfriend were really excited because we recognized her, and we gushed that we were fans of her content.

important things to note before i continue: me and lauren are both kin with taako, tho i am a fictive in a system (it doesnt change anything, i just wanna be transparent). my boyfriend is kin with magnus. my boyfriend and i had been together for a little while before making this chat. in both mine and lauren’s “canon”, taako was romantically involved w/magnus.

my bf and i are very blatantly involved. we tried to keep PDA out of the chat in obtrusive ways or ways that would make people uncomfortable, but we didn’t try and hide that we were dating. hell, in our introductions in the discord chat, we talked about loving each other.

to put it plainly, lauren treated my boyfriend like he was hers, even from the beginning. it was like i wasn’t there, or like i didn’t exist to her. like lauren, i have BPD, and i know i can be possessive and jealous, but i remember i told my boyfriend like immediately that i was rubbed the wrong way a little by the way she was talking to him. he said he didn’t see anything wrong with it, so i chalked it up to my assumption and jealousy, and i did my best to ignore it.

eventually i leave the group chat because i just get too jealous about petty little things that i know weren’t her fault and were just affecting my mood. another system member who is taz kin joins the chat as a mod.

a lil bit passes and lauren invited a new magnus kin to the chat, who we will call X simply because i don’t want him to get involved directly. he’s a pretty famous taz artist, and he draws magnus/taako. i don’t know the full detail behind their relationship, or whether they were even in an official relationship, but i do know that it started with lauren saying he was ‘her magnus’ and ended with X leaving the group chat and lauren talking shit about him. i don’t know the full story and i thought it was justified but after finding this blog and learning her history about calling people abusive for leaving her for their health / because she’s being manipulative…. idk. not making any assumptions anymore.

skip ahead to a little bit longer. lauren is sad about not having 'her magnus’ when a new magnus kin joins the chat (we’ll use B), and lauren did the same thing she did with X. she got attached extremely quickly, talked about how she had found Her Magnus, and then when B doesn’t give her… something??… she moves on from him. starts getting upset again that she doesn’t have 'her magnus’.

i rejoin the chat at some point, separate from the one my other system member uses. it’s not a big deal, i just feel ready to come back and move on from the suspicion i have about lauren.

here’s the part that finally directly involves my boyfriend and i.

my boyfriend is, like, a well meaning guy. he likes helping people and he likes when people are happy. so he started compiling a list of all the magnuses around her age that had posted in the taz kin community tags. and he tells her something like “until you find who you’re looking for, i’ll keep your heart warm”, which he has acknowledged to both me & lauren could have been taken as romantic language, though he didnt intend it that way. so, lauren starts talking to him and at first it’s casual, but he says that a lot of the conversations took a turn towards the flirty. apparently one night while i was asleep the chat played truth or dare & fuck marry kill and my boyfriend was like “fuck taako” every time talking about me, and said something jokingly about giving good oral (it’s an 18+ chat, so it isn’t weird for us to joke about nsfw) and lauren made it weird and sexual about the two of them and not, like, me & my bf?

i didn’t know about any of this until he told me, but i wouldn’t ever police my boyfriend’s conversations so i wasn’t like asking about it or anything.

the climax of this encounter with my boyfriend goes like this: i’m asleep (i work 9 or 10 hour shifts late into the night and if i lay down right when i get home i pass out immediately, like this night), and lauren calls my boyfriend because she’s somewhere alone at night and she’s afraid. since her and my boyfriend are friends, he gladly does so.

he’s awake playing stardew valley anyway, and so they’re talking about it, and their conversation takes a turn towards romance (you can date & marry people in sdv) and then to sex (idk how this topic got brought up personally). and according to my bf, lauren is being flirty and the oral sex thing gets brought up again, and my bf is joking that he’s the king of oral.

(this conversation is paraphrased and according to my boyfriend it was a lot more uncomfortable than it seems written here)

lauren says “yeah, well, prove it”, and my bf is like “i can’t, haha” trying to play it off and diffuse the situation, and lauren is like “you were talking such a big game before and now you’re afraid to back it up!” and my bf is like “nah, i can’t, that’s literally impossible…” and lauren is like “yeah, you’re so far away….”

at this point my boyfriend is like “i dont want to continue this conversation because i don’t want to be the replacement X first of all, and second of all i’m like… in a committed relationship”. and lauren immediately hangs up the call, and gets really upset, and vague posts about my boyfriend on her vent and tells him she took a bunch of pills ? and she vagues about him all the next day too, knowing he can see it because he has the url, talking about how nobody ever sticks around and that she’s going to be alone forever or whatever even though they were literally never dating?

my bf and i have talked extensively about this, and i’ve explained how even though he didn’t intend for it to be a flirtatious friendship, it *was*, even if he didn’t realize it. i understand this, because he’s just the type of person who showers everyone he knows in compliments.

but lauren knew. how do i know? my boyfriend sends me a screenshot of a set of posts she’s made. she KNEW this kind of interaction was wrong and she has a thing for my boyfriend despite that…….

another few days pass and there’s a new magnus kin in the chat, and suddenly they’re head over heels in love with him and they’re feeling so many feelings in their chest or whatever and they feel like 'this is the one’ the FIRST night they interact…

my boyfriend messages lauren and apologizes for having interacted in a way that was flirtatious, even if he didnt intend for it to be. lauren snubs him by saying “because of you, i met someone who is writing a list of all the good things about me”, and so my bf doesn’t reply.

and then this magnus kin has to step away for their mental health… and lauren goes right back to talking about how she’s going to be alone forever and how nobody ever stays with her?

and right after this, she messages my boyfriend apologizing for snubbing his apology.

it seems awfully suspect that she’s hopping from magnus to magnus in a group chat imo, and basically what i’m thinking (and my boyfriend has told me he feels this way after personally interacting with her) is that lauren only cares about people who are magnus kin because of their ID, and not because they’re their own people? like, she’s using hers and their IDs to hop from person to person who will give her attention and then call the people who step away for mental health reasons or because they’re made uncomfortable the bad guys??? shes trying to make people into a one-dimensional character whose only dimension is 'being in love with taako’ (and by extension whose only dimension is being in love w/her)

i don’t understand why lauren tried to initiate phone sex with my boyfriend, knowing that i exist and having talked to me about X literally not even a week prior. i don’t understand why she hasn’t tried to talk to me despite “knowing it was wrong”. i don’t understand why lauren is clinging to people over and ID and discarding them like they never existed once they assert that they are also people with feelings…………………..

basically if u are kin w/magnus and u are 18+…………………….. be fucking wary. and if u are kin w/taako and you have a boyfriend who is kin w/magnus, keep him far away from lauren or else she might try to initiate phone sex with your boyfriend and get mad when he asserts that hes in a happy relationship and isnt interested……

note: im waiting on my bfs account of their interactions to be accurate but if you want to you can post this on its own!

#i didn't think she was still at it jesus #sunsapphic #listenkittycat #spacetaako #thekinzone #submission