#ipre banter + magnus and lucretia feelings

[journalofimprobablethings]

“Well, Lucretia told us he was evil!” Merle says. 

“To be fair, Barry didn’t do a lot to dispel that notion,” Magnus says. “The first time we met him he did possess a guy and force him to drink poison.”

“He was trying to poison you!” Barry protests.

“Yes,” Taako says, pointing at Barry with his glass, “He was. But do you remember the first thing you said to us?”

“After rising spectrally from the dead body of Captain Captain Bain,” Magnus puts in helpfully.

Barry blushes.

The former crew of the Starblaster are sitting around the dining table at Taako’s house, the remains of a fabulous dinner in front of them. It’s been months since they were all together, all seven of them, but when Lup got her body back she insisted on inviting everyone over for dinner, because, she said, she hadn’t hugged her family for over ten years and that was not a record she was going to let stand.

They are still learning what it means, to be a family again after everything that’s happened. But century-long habits have carried them through dinner, and the conversation has turned to stories of their adventures in their time apart—and if they are careful to stick to the funny stories, the light-hearted ones, no one mentions it.

“Lup, has Barry ever told you about this?” Taako asks, leaning across the table to refill his drink.

Lup grins and leans on Barry’s shoulder. “No, he hasn’t.” Barry rolls his eyes and puts his face in his hands.

“He said—”

“Wait, wait, do the voice,” Merle says. “You have to make sure to do the voice.”

“You and character voices,” Taako mutters. But he does his best to imitate the echoing whisper of Barry’s lich voice. “He said, ‘are you afraid?’”

“Well, yeah,” Magnus says, in character as his past self. “Isn’t everyone afraid sometimes?”

Taako waggles his fingers at Magnus. “You don’t know how to be afraid.”

Lup laughs, her forehead against Barry’s shoulder. “Barold, you didn’t!”

“He did!” Merle says. “And then he told us all about the hunger that was the true nature of man.”

“Subtle.”

“And then—“ Taako takes a breath to hold back his own laughter. “And then he said, 'This is your first lesson.'”

“And disappeared in a burst of flame!” Magnus finishes, throwing his arms in the air.

The table erupts in laughter – Davenport with his eyes squeezed shut over his glass, Lup leaning into Barry, wiping away tears of mirth—even Lucretia, seated at one end of the table, has a hand over her mouth to hide a smile. Barry’s whole face is red, but he’s smiling too.

“I knew you had a flair for the dramatic, babe,” Lup says, kissing him on the cheek.

“Well, I did live with you and Taako for a hundred years,” Barry replies. “Some of it had to rub off.”

“I resent that,” Taako says. Then he grins and throws a bread roll at Barry, but misses and hits Lup instead, and she instantly levitates a pitcher of lager to empty itself over Taako’s head. Across the table, through the growing food fight, Magnus sees Lucretia watching the familiar chaos, laughing. And then her smile fades, and Magnus watches her get up, quietly, and go into the kitchen.

Davenport sees it, too, from his seat at the other end of the table. He starts to get up—and then he hesitates. Magnus can see his instinct as captain warring with the lingering distance that has hovered between him and Lucretia since their memories returned.

Magnus stands. “Coffee, Captain?”

Davenport meets Magnus’s eyes, and Magnus can’t believe he ever forgot what it was like to know these people so well, to be able to communicate so much with just a look.

“Thanks, Magnus,” Davenport says. “Black?”

“You got it.”

The others are too engaged in the food fight—Taako and Lup in lobbing food at each other, and Barry and Merle in ducking out of the way—to notice Magnus slip into the kitchen after Lucretia.

She’s standing at the sink, scrubbing dishes over the filled basin. But she scrubs the same plate over and over, long after it’s clean, and then as Magnus watches, she stops scrubbing, her hands remaining suspended over the soapy water. The bunch of her shoulders, her stillness—every sign of her distress is so clear to him.

“Luce?” 

She starts, and almost drops the plate. But she catches it in time, rinses it off and puts it in the rack. She doesn’t grab another dish, just stands, twisting the washcloth in her hands. She doesn’t look at Magnus, even when he comes to stand next to her at the sink.

“Hey,” he says. “Are you okay?”

Lucretia doesn't answer right away. She closes her eyes at the question, and a tremor runs through her. Her lips twitch up in something that might be a sad smile, but Magnus can't tell whether she's trying to hold back laughter or tears.

“You know—that was the first thing you said to me, that day. After—after Fisher," she says. Her fingers are clutched so tight around the washcloth that her knuckles are white. “It hurt, but I was so glad that, with everything, you were still you.”

She is smiling now, but there is a sadness in it that tugs at something deep in Magnus's chest. 

He’s thought about it many times, since they got their memories back. What that day must have been like. He’s tried to reach back to that moment, waking up in a familiar place made strange, but it’s all a blur. He doesn’t remember that first conversation with Lucretia.

Funny, how even with all their voided memories returned, some things are still lost.

“You don’t have to talk about it, you know," he says softly. "If you don’t want to.”

Lucretia just shakes her head. He can see her consciously dropping her shoulders, pulling herself back together. She doesn't quite make it to Madame Director, but her voice is steadier when she speaks again.

"I'm fine, really," she says. "I just…"

She scrubs at her eyes with the heel of her hand and gives a small choked laugh.

“It's ridiculous. I’m so happy, Magnus. I’m so happy that you’re all here again, that we’re all here, together. But I can’t help thinking that I don’t deserve it. I don’t deserve to be this happy, after everything I’ve done.”

Something inside Magnus shatters a little, to hear her say it.

He reaches out and puts a hand gently over Lucretia's. She starts a little, and looks down at his hand like she's not quite sure what it's doing there. But she doesn't pull away.

“You made mistakes. We all make them.” He sighs. “Look, I’m not—I’m not going to pretend you weren’t wrong, taking what you took from us.”

She starts to turn away at that, but he puts his hand on her arm, gently, to stop her. She keeps her head bent, though, and still won't look at him. He wishes she would look at him.

“But Lucretia, listen. Maybe you were wrong about the barrier, and the redaction, but you were right about the Relics. We never should have made them. And you got them back, Luce. You saved this world from them, when none of us had the will to find a way to fix what we did. And then, when it mattered most, you listened. And you cast the spell that stopped the Hunger. You earned this ending as much as any of us."

At that, Lucretia finally, finally looks up at him. Her eyes are shining with unshed tears, but behind that he can see glimmers of the woman he once knew: that earnestness, that undercurrent of hope that must have seen her through so much of the last decade.

Even though he knows that he couldn't remember her for most of the time they've been apart, all he can think right now is how much he's missed her.

"You deserve to be happy," he says, and reaches forward to gather Lucretia into a hug. He tries to move slowly, ready to let go if Lucretia pulls away. At first she only stiffens, as still as stone in his arms–and then, after a moment's hesitation, she hugs him back.

“I love you, Magnus," she says.

I love you, Magnus, I love all of you, I’m sorry, it’ll be over soon—

The echo of her words as Fisher consumed their memories is so loud in his head, and his breath catches. 

They all lost so much that day. 

Not all of it has come back. Some of it might never return.

But if Magnus has learned one thing from their journey, from this world—from Julia—it’s that there are things in life worth holding onto, things worth savoring. That love, when you find it, is something you grab onto and hold with both hands. That it is always better to hold it close than to push it away. 

Magnus closes his eyes, and holds Lucretia tight.

“Love you too, Luce.”

#taz balance #taz lucretia #magnus burnsides #taz #taz fanfic #ipre #starblaster #post-canon #taz balance spoilers #i'm not really sure what this is #ipre banter + magnus and lucretia feelings #i wrote this like a year ago but i kind of like it so i cleaned it up #scribblings

[glow-worm]

The Dog Days Are Over

Welcome to Puppy Town! (Read on AO3 as well!)

--

The crew disembarked from the Starblaster, wary. The last two cycles had been extremely difficult.

It seemed like a normal planet—forests and mountains, lakes and little towns they could see from the ship.

They walked for a few miles to the nearest settlement, hoping the folks who lived there would be amicable.

In the distance, they could hear something that sounded like dogs barking.

Magnus crossed his fingers to wish very hard.

“Planet of dogs, planet of dogs, planet of dogs,” Magnus chanted quietly.

“Never stop dreaming,” Taako quipped.

Magnus always wished for a planet of dogs. It never seemed to happen, but the crew encouraged him—after all, it wasn’t statistically impossible.

Lucretia stopped in her tracks and drew her wand.

“Something’s coming,” she warned.

Magnus wrapped his hand around the handle of his axe.

A rustling came from nearby bushes, along with a mysterious whimpering and panting which grew louder and louder.

The team tensed, their weapons readied.

Three puppies tumbled out of the bush, playfully nipping at each other.

Magnus let go of his axe.

“Yes,” he whispered.

The puppies—which ran on four legs but wore clothes, two in overalls and one in a dress—saw the crew and charged forward, barking.

“Yes!” Magnus exclaimed.

The dogs leapt up, and Magnus allowed them to knock him over.

“YES!” Magnus yelled as puppies licked his face and trampled him.

“Well, shit,” Taako said, lowering his wand.

“Need help, buddy?” Barry asked.

“If this is how I go,” Magnus began with tears in his eyes. “This is how I go.”

One of the overall-clad puppies sat on Magnus’s chest wagging its tail happily until it did something no one expected.

It opened its mouth and spoke.

“Hewwo!” The puppy howled.

Taako raised his wand again, gritting his teeth.

“Absolutely not,” he said with derision.

Lup put her hand on her brother’s wand and lowered it down.

“Holy shit, they can talk!” Davenport said.

The dress-wearing dog yapped and sprinted over to the captain, jumping up at him until he conceded to pick it up so it could lick his face.

The third dog ran around in circles, jumping up and smelling each of the IPRE crew while shooting off questions.

“What are you! Where did you come from! You smell weird! Where are your tails! Why is your fur only on the top of your head!”

“Uh—” Barry began as the dog began to bite and tug at the cuffs of his jeans. "You’ve never seen anything that looks like us before, huh?”

“Noooooo!” The little dog howled. “But we’ve never left Puppy Town before...maybe Mom and Dad have?”

Lucretia couldn’t help but smile, scratching underneath the chin of the rambunctious pup.

“Did you say Puppy Town?” Magnus squealed.

“That’s our village!” The puppy on his chest answered happily. “Are you new to town?”

“If they’re not from Puppy Town they must be from Rover Ridge!” One exclaimed.

“No, no, I bet they’re from Barkborough!”

“I can’t,” Taako breathed.

“Barkborough?!” A puppy exclaimed. “What’s it like in the big city? What brings you to Puppytown?”

“Uh—” The captain began, but he was cut off by a deep howl sounding off in the distance.

“Dad’s calling us,” said the dog on Magnus’s chest before leaping off of him. “Let’s go.”

“I dunno,” the dress-wearing dog started. “Maybe we should have him come here instead. So he can smell these guys.”

“Good idea, Bits,” an overall-clad dog answered. It then sat back and threw its head into the sky with a squeaky “Awooooo!”

The two other puppies joined in the howling.

Magnus sat back up, grinning from ear to ear.

“Wipe that smile off your face,” Taako said. “They’re calling for backup.”

“They’re dogs,” Magnus asserted with exasperation.

“That’s exactly what they want you to think,” he retorted.

Magnus gently pulled up the floppy ears of the puppy closest to him and looked up at Taako expectantly.

“What else would you call this?!” he asked.

“A trap,” Taako said.

“An adorable trap,” Lup added with a shrug.

The deep howl grew closer and closer as the crew bantered. Davenport subtly raised his wand towards the sound, just to be safe.

The puppies ceased their call, then all three began to bound towards a large oak tree.

From behind the tree stepped a full-grown adult dog, walking on two legs and wearing a tweed suit and cap. He was a tricolor hound, and as he appeared he stopped howling. The puppies jumped up at him, sniffing and licking him. He gave each one a good sniff before suddenly locking directly on to the crew. He pointed at them, and stared without blinking.

“Dad!” A puppy exclaimed. “Meet our new friends!”

“Friends?” Dad dog repeated, still staring the crew down.

“Yes, we sniffed them and they gave us scratches and rubs,” Another puppy said. “And now we’re best friends.”

Dad dog relaxed. “Oh,” he said. “I see. Hello!”

Davenport lowered his wand somewhat awkwardly. “Uh, hi,” he said. The dog, on his hind legs, was a solid foot taller than the gnomish captain.

Magnus jumped back up to his feet and exclaimed, “Hail and well met, Dad Dog!”

“Oh, please,” he replied. “Dad Dog was my father. My name is Barkley.”

“We’re gonna die,” Taako whispered. His sister shushed him.

Barkley approached Magnus, his tail wagging behind him. “And these are my pups: Peanutbutter, Kibbles, and Bits.”

The kids yapped happily before continuing to romp and play with each other.

Barkley sniffed around Magnus, who knelt down so Barkley could get a solid lick across his face.

Magnus began to ugly cry.

“Hey Mags, want me to kill you so you can die happy?” Taako offered. “I’ll do it.”

“I don’t know what you folks are,” Barkley said thoughtfully. “But I think I love you already? Come on back to the village, you must be hungry. Come on. Come on!”

Barkley beckoned as he began walking, two of his pups playfully following behind him. Peanutbutter tugged at the cuffs of Magnus’s pants, so Magnus followed too.

The rest of the crew hung back, exchanging wary glances.

“Fifty GP says this is a trap,” Lup said. “Like, for real.”

“A talking dog named his kids Kibbles and Bits?” Taako mused. “Yeah, this is absolutely a trap.”

“...I do like dogs,” Barry noted.

“Natch, everyone loves dogs, dogs are great,” Lup said. “But what are the odds?”

“We’ve seen plenty of impossible things before,” Davenport pointed out.

Merle was already going after Magnus. “Y’all are a bunch of ninnies,” he remarked. “The IPRE will face off against an all-consuming living Hunger but not investigate some fantasy-Beatrix-Potter-ass dogs?”

“I didn’t say we shouldn’t investigate,” Lup clarified, following suit. “I mean worst case scenario, Barry and I lich it up. I’m just saying it's suspicious.”

Lucretia sighed and followed Magnus and Merle without further comment. Barry and Lup trailed along.

Taako lingered back before rolling his eyes. “I am not spending this cycle baking dog treats,” he said. “I want it on the record now.”

--------------

They approached the village and saw a large wooden sign, decorated with colorful paw prints that read:

“Welcome to Puppy Town!”

“We’re here!” Barkley announced. “Feel free to have a good sniff around. Our cottage is that one with the chimney smoking over there,” he pointed to a quaint house. “You’re more than welcome to come to dinner later, but if you’re hungry now the Barkery is right down the street.”

“The Barkery,” Taako repeated, monotone.

“Yes!” Barkley said. “You know, where you get treats and kibble and bread?”

“If I die here,” Magnus cried. “Just let it happen.”

The town was peaceful, and the crew was investigated by just about every dog they passed. There were many questions, and even more sniffing and petting.

Over the next few months, they learned a lot about the dogfolk. They had magic and classes. Instead of races, they had “breeds” and certain breeds had certain traits. There were beagle wizards, shiba barbarians, pit bull clerics. It fascinated the crew. It was a very research-heavy cycle.

Young puppies walked on all fours, and began to transition to being bipedal in their teenaged years. Adult dogs mostly walked on their hind legs, but would run with all four if the need arose.

There were no gerblins or imps here, but there were pesky squirrels. Barkley was absolutely vexed by these pestersome creatures, but to the crew…they were just literal squirrels that stole the occasional cherry pie from a windowsill.

Lup and Taako were disappointed to learn that there wasn’t too much to say in the way of cooking and baking here. Luckily the food wasn’t gross or too weird, but there were no new recipes to be learned. The dogfolk’s diets were fairly similar to humans, save for the biscuits, mostly eating bread and meat and fruit—though they were very adamant that no grapes were allowed in Puppy Town.

It was mostly a relaxing cycle, a welcomed reprieve after multiple trying years. They went on walks, studied a few cantrips that were unique to this world, gave belly rubs, and played.

Fisher stayed inside of the Starblaster, however, as Lucretia was worried the dogs would try to eat him.

The IPRE were hailed as heroes after they managed to teach a few of the more competent wizard dogs the Silence spell—something that was previously undiscovered on this plane. It proved very useful during a thunderstorm a few months in.

About halfway through the year, while on a brief break from searching for the Light, it was brought straight to them.

Magnus was in the town square, whittling away at a stick while a few younger dogs watched with watery mouths.

An adult dog charged forward on all fours, his clothes dirty and slightly tattered. In his mouth he carried a familiar glow.

He brought it forward to Magnus, tail wagging furiously.

Magnus reached out and the dog placed the Light of Creation in his hand. It was covered in slobber.

“Holy shit, you found the Light!” Magnus exclaimed.

The dog looked up at him expectantly, sitting back on his hind legs.

“Thank you so much,” Magnus said. “Uh...who’s a good boy?”

His tail thumped hard against the ground.

“I am!” The dog said. He paused thoughtfully and his tail slowly stopped wagging. “Please throw?”

“I’m dead,” Taako said. He began walking back to the ship.

“Oh!” Magnus smiled awkwardly. “Well, we...we kinda need this one, buddy, but—here—”

Magnus picked up a stick.

The dog jumped up, ready to run.

With a hearty throw Magnus yelled, “Go fetch!”

----------------------------

After they’d secured the Light, Barry and Lup had a few new lab partners.

A yellow lab, a brown lab, and a black lab.

It was only fair to let the dogfolk study the Light too. After all, they would survive the Hunger. Perhaps with the Light they could make their own scientific advances, and learn and grow as a species.

The crew did explain the Hunger/Light/IPRE situation to the dogfolk in hopes of making things easier on them, but only the smartest among them really understood. Still, Magnus gave some combat training to as many dogs as he could, aiming to protect them. The plan was to get out as soon as the Hunger showed up, hoping that the Hunger would do minimal damage before following them away from the plane. But just in case any of the dogfolk needed to defend themselves, Magnus helped them build their strength. One particularly feisty Pomeranian barbarian attended every session.

-------------------------

One night late in the cycle, Lucretia was interviewing an elderly Irish Wolfhound. It was dark out, but he wanted to go for a walk. They strolled by the lake and Lucretia asked various history questions, wanting a firsthand account, when suddenly he stopped. The reflection of something on the lake had caught his eye. He followed the reflection and looked up into the sky, at the full moon.

He began to howl.

Lucretia smiled and documented the incident with amusement before she started to hear howling call from all over the village, from dogs small and large.

“Why do you howl at the moon?” She asked sweetly once the old dog had ceased.

He suddenly looked very serious.

“We dogfolk are of the sun,” he said. “The catfolk are of the moon. Now—most folks say there’s no such thing as cats. And maybe not, here. But you said yourself: there were dogs back on your home planet. So who’s to say there aren’t cats?”

Lucretia held back the urge to inform him.

“Cats may lay in the sun. And dogs may howl at the moon. We may dream of and admire the moon, but we may never touch it. We howl to remind ourselves of this. Every full moon, we sing its praises. But we can never, never touch the moon.”

“…But your scientists are studying space travel. Laika just got her dogtorate in astrophysics, she wants to be a cosmonaut. What would happen if they explored the moon?” Lucretia questioned.

“The apocalypse.”

“Huh?” she blinked.

The wolfhound nodded, sorrowful.

“Lucretia,” he addressed. “You are an inter-planar traveler. But this is a universal constant. No matter how much we howl, no matter how far into space we go. Whatever you do, wherever you go: dogs must never touch the moon. Promise me you’ll do your part to uphold this.”

“Right,” she promised, grim. “No dogs on the moon.”

-----------------------

The end of the cycle approached, and the IPRE was greeted with a sea of puppy-dog eyes as they boarded the Starblaster for the last time. The crew had explained what was going to happen multiple times—there was nothing more they could say.

Magnus had wanted to stay back and help the dogs fight, but both the rest of the crew and some of the leaders of the dogfolk said it would be harder for the dogs to understand what was going on if Magnus stayed behind and then suddenly disappeared when the Light took him.

So when the grass turned the telltale shades of gray and the sky grew darker and darker, the crew said their goodbyes and prayed that Puppy Town would be spared.

As soon as the bond engine allowed, the Starblaster took off. And, as they’d hoped, the Hunger hadn’t even hit the ground yet—and they followed the ship without so much as touching Puppy Town.

For once, the crew was absolutely certain: they had saved an entire plane, and not even one creature in it was harmed.

#taz #the adventure zone #taz fic #humor #crackfic #it's just fucking......it's just puppy town #it's just puppy town folks! #silly #puppy town #no dogs were harmed in the making of this fic #i'm quarantined with a LOT of dogs guys #balance #taz balance

[sunshinycc]

Secret Santa for @that-cheer-up-anon! I hope you like some Lucretia + IPRE bonding time!

Lucretia was not a very extroverted woman. She was a writer, and she was only along on this crazy mission to document their travels. The others, however–

“MAGNUS!”

Taako shrieked and there was a thud from the small but cozy living area. Lucretia looked up from her journal as the sounds of incoherent yelling, flying cantrips, and running feet thundered down the hallway between their rooms. A door slammed and she heard Taako shouting outside it–Magnus must have escaped.

Back in the living area, Lup was cackling. Lucretia pictured her, her head thrown back, shrieking with glee as she watched her twin brother fruitlessly try to attack their friend and brother-figure. She scribbled this scene in her journal.

Barry’s voice soon joined the cacophony, shouting something about keeping it down, they were disturbing his very important work, do you want to know anything about the Hunger?

Lucretia smiled and wrote this down too.

Normally, about this time, the team would be out exploring the plane and gathering information. However, Cycle 20’s plane was a molten expanse of volcanoes and fire–white-hot and deadly to the touch. So the group was forced to stay indoors, confined to the metal walls of their silver ship, restless. Bored.

Taako’s screaming reached a crescendo. Lucretia picked out phrases, like, “Get out here right now Burnsides so I can kick it into a volcano” and “I’m gonna magic missile you so hard you enter a different plane”.

But then Magnus’s voice rang down the hall too, volume loud but his tone placating and soothing. “Taako, calm down, it was just a prank! I’ll do the dishes for the entire next cycle if you let me out.”

Taako stopped shouting.

Lucretia heard a door open, then shut, and then there was the sound of casual conversation as Magnus and Taako walked together through the hallway and back into the living area. Lup asked a question, and Taako answered, and Lucretia pictured Taako and Magnus joining Lup on the sofa, Taako leaning his back against Magnus’s soft, broad chest and stretching his legs across his sister’s lap. She sketched the scene in her mind out onto the journal page, paying careful attention to where the twins were identical and where they were different. Subtle differences like Taako’s expressions, Lup’s eyes, the placement of their freckles, their scars, their lines and their soft folds.

All was peaceful for a moment.

And Lucretia was sad.

Lucretia was an introvert, but–even introverts get lonely.

Did the group just forget she existed? They seemed like the kind of people who would get so caught up with their siblings and their friends and themselves that they’d forget about the lonely journalkeeper shut up in her room.

Lucretia sighed. Maybe it was better this way. Maybe it was better to just not get attached to anyone. That way, when any of them inevitably died, she would not be broken by grief like Taako was when Lup died that first time.

Her door opened. She startled so hard she dropped her pen and, looking around (and slightly down), she saw Merle Highchurch standing there. “Hey, uh, kid,” he said. “I brought you some tea. In case. You know. You wanted some.” He sighed. “Okay, Pan definitely told me you needed some company. What’s goin’ on?”

Lucretia was more than a little shocked as she accepted the mug he held. Of all the people to come and make conversation with her, Merle was probably the least likely candidate of all. She stared at him for a moment. Then, collecting herself, she said, “Nothing’s wrong, Merle. Thank you, though, for the tea.” She gave him a little smile. She hoped it was convincing.

“Listen, Lucretia,” Merle said, sitting down on the floor next to her chair, “if Pan tells me something’s wrong, then something is wrong.” He studied her. “Come on, you can tell ol’ Merle.”

She chuckled a little. “Thank you, Merle.” A pause, where she collected her thoughts. “I’m just–you know. I’m a little lonely.”

“Then come out of your room and talk to us!” He smiled. “We won’t bite.”

She gave him a look.

“Alright,” Merle amended. “Maybe Taako would bite you a little bit. But not hard!” He sighed. “My point is. We’re gonna be stuck on this crazy mission for Pan knows how long. We might as well all get to know each other. Come on out and talk to someone.”

Then he stood and patted her hand and left her room. Soon his voice joined the comfortable banter in the living area, and then she heard Barry’s door open and his voice joined, and then even Davenport came in from wherever he had been and he entered the conversation, too, and the tone sounded–expectant? Because there were six voices in the room and they needed a seventh, Lucretia thought.

Alright, then. She’d give them what they wanted.

She closed her journal with a decisive snap and stood, gripping her mug of tea with one hand. With the other she opened her door and, with only a split second’s hesitation, she stepped out into the hallway. Looking to her right, she saw directly into the living area. And everyone was looking back at her.

“Hey, Lu!” Magnus called. “You gonna join us in debating whether or not dogs should vote?”

She smiled. “Of course they should vote,” she said, stepping into the living area and taking a seat in a cozy armchair next to the sofa. She tucked her feet up under her and continued. “Dogs are very intelligent beings. They can stand up and shake hands and say ‘hello’ just like politicians, and if politicians can have power, than so can dogs.”

“See?” Magnus said, turning to Taako with a triumphant expression. “The smartest person on the ship agrees with me!”

“Hey!” Barry objected.

“It’s true,” Taako said. “She can write with both hands, at the same time. Can you do that, Barold? I didn’t think so. Don’t claim titles you haven’t earned.”

Lucretia grinned. “I didn’t know everyone thought I was the smartest.”

“Me, either,” Barry grumbled.

“It’s okay, Barold,” Lup said, reaching out to pat his shoulder (Lucretia watched him blush). “I still think you’re super smart.”

After the initial conversation, Lucretia expected to just sit and listen to the banter. However, she was dragged into more discussions and engaged in more banter, and soon she was laughing with the rest of them over some quip Taako made when he got up to make dinner.

She actually ate dinner with the team and they continued their lively conversations across the table from each other, Lucretia joining in on a debate on whether or not the viola was actually a real instrument, and the argument turning into a food fight between the twins and Magnus, and Lucretia and Davenport ducking under the table while Merle joined Magnus’s side and Barry tried desperately to get them to stop.

And it was a good time, Lucretia thought, when the burning sun ducked below the molten planet’s horizon and the ship grew dark. When the team headed off for bed, mumbling sleepy “Goodnight”s and closing their doors.

When the ship went quiet and everyone went to sleep.

When the nightmares started.

It was awful–in her mind’s eye she saw her parents, her family, screaming in terror as they were consumed by the Hunger. In her dream Lucretia watched as her family and friends died and she could do nothing to save them.

Lucretia woke up in a cold sweat to a pointy-eared face looking down at her. “Hey,” Lup said, “thought you’d want to join in the cuddle pile that’s currently going on in Magnus’s room.”

“No, thank you,” Lucretia said weakly, “I don’t want to impose–”

“Nah, nah, it’s no big deal,” the elf insisted, “come on!”

She grabbed Lucretia’s wrist and dragged her from her room, down the hall to Magnus’s room. “I brought Lu,” Lup said with a grin. She snuggled down beside her brother, head resting on Magnus’s broad chest.

Lucretia stood awkwardly, staring at the tangle of people piled on top of each other, until Taako (of all people!) said, “Are you gonna join us or not?”

“Well,” she started, then considered her options. She could stay here and feel safe and be surrounded by people who probably liked her, or she could go back to her room by herself.

She sighed. “Alright.” Taking a breath, she walked over to the bed and climbed onto the mattress, tucking herself into the pile of people. Instantly they molded around her, reshaping themselves into a new position so everyone fit together seamlessly. It was warm, she discovered, and soft, and safe. And before she quite knew what was happening, she was asleep again.

Her dreams were soft, hazy, warm–visions of old Candlenights celebrations and family reunions. And when she woke up again to hear the twins bickering in the kitchen and Merle whistling to his plants and Magnus singing in the shower, she thought maybe she had the beginnings of a new family.

And Lucretia smiled.

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