#lup loop

[jocasta-nightstrider]

Um. Them <3

[lucabyte]

my favourite big-hatted not-men with giant holes in their brains where their memories should be (and their kinda-dead doubles called loop/lup)

+bonus doodles because thinking about the taz balance cast for 0.2 seconds reminded me how much i like themmmm

[stars-n-kites]

i honestly think griffin was so funny for introducing the roles of the seven birds (the twins, the lover, the protector, the lonely journalkeeper, the peacemaker, and the wordless one) and then making the next two arcs be about a mysterious loner whose journal they have to track down and just straight up another pair of twins

[openphrase123]

giving myself a little sickness treat by writing some sections of something outside of my two longfics. loop in this fic starts going by "lu" for a reason i don't want to explain in this post but i keep accidentally writing "lup" i'm never escaping my past

[chipper-smol]

... Siffrin would really hate the voidfish from The Adventure Zone

[jerreeeeeee]

Balance fic recs

some of my favorite balance fics. various ages, popularities, and lengths. i’ve been wanting to do a rec list for a while!

caramel by nevereverever

The first time Taako is left alone, it isn't pretty. But their lives are stuck in a loop and people come back and die again and again and he wonders if there will ever be a time when he doesn't have to fear being left alone.

2.7k, Taako & Lup Lup dies one cycle and then, years later, she dies again. But she always comes back. Hurt/comfort of the best kind.

Warmth by noxic

"It was a well-known fact among the residents of the Starblaster that Lup, Barry, and Taako slept in the same bed more often than not. It was one of those things that they just did without really talking about it."

2.1k, Barry & Lup & Taako The BLT fic of all time. Quality platonic adult sleepovers.

Taako the Matchmaker by @fantasysamsclub

In which Taako tries to set up his sister. Events take place during Stolen Century.

11.1k, Blupjeans & Taako Taako tries to set up blupjeans. Miscommunication ensues. Very sweet and funny.

red fishing line by @anistarrose

A routine performance of Sizzle it Up goes nightmarishly wrong, and at Lup’s bedside, Taako feels helpless. And when a red-robed guest appears before him, Taako doesn’t know how or what to feel at all.

3k, Barry & Lup & Taako Also the BLT fic of all time. Excellent subtle Taako characterization, and my favorite depiction of the familiarity-but-not of being voidfished. Warning for major character death.

Sunny-Side Up by @barry-j-blupjeans

And the world? The world loved Taako. For once in his gods-damned life, people loved him. They didn’t care about all the flaws, they didn’t care where he came from or who he was before. They loved his food and they loved him. No one would ever quite be at Taako’s level and that was something he thrived on. There would never be anyone who could measure up. Taako deserved this happiness. He worked for it. He wasted his fucking life away for it.

5.7k, Taako A wonderful character study, revolving around the role food plays in Taako's life. Fairly minor but impactful characters like Sazed and Taako's aunt are utilized in a very meaningful way. So well-written and warm. Warning for brief suicidal ideation.

On the Deck of the Starblaster by @papergardener

“What the… what are you all doing? We have work to do!” It’s a justified reaction, Lucretia thinks, to finding your entire crew literally lazing about on deck not an hour into this new cycle. “This one's on me,” Taako says. “It’s a new trend I like to call: taking a fucking break.” Cycle Nintey-Five. Everyone’s maybe not doing so good and could use a little warmth.

6.5k, Lucretia & Taako Near the end of the century, Lucretia is feeling rough. Taako pulls her out of her funk and initiates a much needed rest. Fantastic characterization, of Lucretia as a whole, and the loyal, warm side of Taako. Warning for mentions of a suicide attempt and suicidal ideation.

leaving, as an injustice by @anistarrose

When Mavis is eight, she starts finding her Dad asleep on the couch in the morning. Sometimes, he’s even all the way out on their tiny patio, with his head slumped onto a pillow atop the chess table, and bags beneath his eyes. In one of their following games, he tells her about tactical retreats.

4.7k, Mavis & Merle A study of Mavis and her relationship to Merle. Incredibly insightful into criminally underrated characters. Excellent Merle characterization.

Permission by vaguenotion

She’d been doing this on and off for the last hour, as if daring the men to catch up to them. Daring them to fight her. Every time seemed like a final stand. Here is where I will meet them, her shoulders said, hiked up around her ears. Here is where I’ll make them pay for what they’ve done. But then Taako would grab her hand, and she would turn and see the bruising on his throat, the blood drying on his brow, the tear in his shirt. And she would grip his hand in hers and together they would keep running.

12.6k, Taako & Lup My favorite depiction of the twins as children, both in character and realistic. Beautifully atmospheric, with so many small details that make the setting feel so real. Warning for assault and harm to children.

Come Hell or High Water by @nillial

“Taako,” Hurley asks, “where’s your magic umbrella?” Taako looks behind him. He had tossed the Umbrastaff in the path of a neighboring vehicle, which was beginning to catch up to them. He sees them now, far in the distance, and he sees his Umbrastaff, too, lying dangerously close to its wheels. As if on cue, he watches the tires crush it to pieces. “Whoops,” he says. - Lup is trapped. And then she isn’t. --- In which Taako breaks his umbrella during the Petals to the Metal race, unknowingly freeing Lup, who is almost immediately captured by Kravitz. After becoming a member of the Raven Queen's retinue with Kravitz as her trainer, she has two missions: 1) find her family, and 2) ruin Kravitz's afterlife. A story about enemies becoming friends and lost families finding their way back to one another.

197k (currently), Lup & Kravitz Incredible characterization. I love the way Lup is written. Hilarious shenanigans, sweet friendship-building, and terribly sad sometimes, because it dives deep into the reality of Lup existing in a world that's forgotten her.

Very cold water on a very hot day by @keplercryptids

Sometimes a family is a nerd who can't swim and the crunchy-haired watersport inventor who teaches him how. Surfer lingo required.

3.1k, Barry & Taako Deep dive into the beach year. Excellently in character, well-written dialogue, and a beautiful depiction of their growing friendship.

Children of Atlas by @papergardener

They’ve survived the apocalypse and now as far as they know, they’re the only ones left. Perhaps it was inevitable that they’d consider… repopulation. Lucretia writes up a weekly schedule to try and address that. Absolutely no one is happy with this.

76k (currently), IPRE crew The premise for this one is incredibly offputting, but I'm so glad I gave it a chance. The characterization and quality of writing is absolutely wonderful. I also love the attention to detail of the realistic difficulty of just surviving. Fantastically atmospheric, this fic dives deep into the uncertainty and fear of the first cycle, when the crew are all strangers, and the love that turns them into a family. Warning for extensive discussion of sexual assault.

Emissary Davenport by DragonWrites

A series of stories where Captain Davenport is secretly an emissary of Garl Glittergold, Gnomish god of pranks. And when you're a serious-minded captain on a mission to save all of reality, having a cheerful trickster god as your unexpected patron can get a little strange...

300k, Davenport A series of four works set in an AU where Davenport is an emissary to the leader of the gnomish pantheon. My absolute favorite depiction of Davenport, ever. The first three works are explorations of Davenport as a character and the relationships between people and gods in a DnD world. The last, Lost Gods, is the best fanfiction I've ever read. I can't express how good it is. The attention to detail among myriad plot threads, the building of themes, the characterization across just about every single character in Balance, all come together to create 223k words of a genuine masterpiece.

[haunted-pool-noodle]

wrote a taz oneshot! more of a cooldown between other stuff i was writing, so apologies if its a tad ooc! mainly i just wanted to have some merle and lup bonding, feel like i never see much of that :)

Summary:

Heartbreaking: Local elf gets a haircut right before being trapped in a year-long time loop, is now forced to choose between slowly growing it out over and over again or putting up with her sensory issues.

Thankfully, local cleric Merle Highchurch has found a third option.

[whennibflies]

Taako TAZ 🤝 Siffrin ISAT

Having an identical(kinda) counterpart named Loop/Lup

[weezardthewizard]

Lup is actually a childhood nickname. They came in a set: Fruit (taako) and Loop (deadname)

A fateful Fantasy Starbucks barista fucked up the spelling once and it was too funny not to keep

[dogs2shouldvote]

in contrast with my last post, in my latest relisten of taz balance i also recorded a bunch of quotes that felt like a punch to the gut (with zero context mostly). here’s some that made me a) cry or b) freak out because foreshadowing

MAJOR taz balance spoilers ahead; if you haven’t already listened to this amazing show, you should!

- “you can’t kill robbie, i have some big franchise plans for robbie”

- “you found her?“

- “one of you isn’t a lich, are you?”

- “tell julia i said i love her”

- “your staff, you lost control of it, and you blasted the letters L U P into the wall”

- “you look familiar too. have we met?” (this one i did put context for, it’s ren speaking to magnus in the eleventh hour during one of the early loops)

- “is there anything else you can edit in our past?” (this one also had context, magnus to istus i believe)

- “you’re going to be amazing”

- “there’s a long span of time that’s just not there” … “while you’re looking through these memories… there is something about the memory is a little bit off. there’s parts of it that are a little bit staticky.”

- “i named my fish after him”

- “he didn’t want to be a hero. it wasn’t his desire.”

- “Do you remember the last thing you said?”

“I said ‘I love you, Jules.’”

- “lup. they don’t trust me. i cant do it anymore, lup. i’m sorry”

- “the hunger is almost here. and when it arrives, the world will be lost.”

- “and it’s an incredibly familiar face, because it’s your face, magnus. this figure in the red robe is you.”

- “why are you doing this, taako?”

“because i’m worried no one else will have me”

- “you see this red robe put a single skeletal finger to its nonexistent lips”

- ”i’ll be having my body back you undead fuck”

- “trust barry. love barry. taako… it’s me… it’s *static*”

- “when there was trouble, you took the big hit. didn’t you, bud?”

- “and taako you remember lup now. how could you forget lup?”

- “are we just gonna burn every world that we can’t save just to keep the hunger from getting its hands on them? how does that make us any better than them?”

- “this is where we get to decide who we are”

- “show them the duck. it’s a good duck. i think they’ll like it!”

- “your journey could have ended anywhere… but it ended here. and you’re so grateful for that.”

- “sometimes there aren’t right decisions. sometimes there’s just decisions.”

- “back soon”

- “as his body falls further and further down, you realize you don’t know who that is.”

- “magnus. i’m going to find a place for you to be happy. it’ll just be for a little bit. i can do this. i love you magnus. i love all of you *fading into static*”

- “you *fucking took everything. from me*.”

- “i needed to say goodbye to someone

- “i don’t expect you all to forgive me…”

“i run over and hug her”

- “there’s magic in a bards song. they call it is inspiration and it tells the listener what they need to hear when they need to hear it… and you hear johann’s voice and it says: ‘you’re gonna have to fight… and *you’re gonna win!*’”

- “how does magnus die?”

- “and thus ends adventure zone balance. the story of four idiots who played dnd so hard they made themselves cry.”

[sonicthehedgehoglover2]

I decided to collect all the information that we managed to create on this wonderful Player AU. So, let's start in order.

In this development of events, we know that the phenomenon of players was at least known (It is quite possible that the main records of this were recorded on the Forgotten Island, and were slightly related to their religion, as guides or something like that, but the details were lost, like a bunch of other things)

Therefore, in the ordinary world, either there is a whole franchise dedicated to this universe, or some kind of interworld crap. Perhaps Wishcraft is somehow mixed with this. Loop can be aware of the player's presence, communicate with us directly, thus creating an unforgettable experience, and giving both Siffrins a person on whom they can safely dump their anger (since for him, the player only appeared in order to achieve his goal of killing the King, and that's all… And basically their entire backstory)

Therefore, Mirabelle does NOT have such a guide, which confirms the fact how hopeless this entire quest was initially… And makes Siffrin admire her even more, because she managed to get to SUCH a result on her own! (Possibly increased self-flagellation of the mz for the fact that you screwed up so much that because of your mistakes you and your team needed a parasite (Guide) from the universe because you yourself clearly can't cope. After learning about Wishcraft, it becomes more or less clear that the presence of the guide also happened as a consequence of the distorted power of Vogard's desires. (And Loop's desire. I just can't imagine their mental state when they realize that even with such a huge support and with all their sacrifices it was almost not enough. They both almost lost … And all because of this stupid DESIRE (if I could I would highlight this word in red, but alas). They were literally CHANGED, Stardust literally got a BLINDING CONDUCTOR, and Loop himself as support … And still. And still … they almost repeated Loop's mistake. (And in those variations of events where the Player is more cruel to Siffrin, I can't help but imagine that Loop himself feels that this everything is deserved… If only it could be delivered to the address (Lup himself) and not Stardust. After all, the universe knows better.)

After the entity was noticed (or in other words, the 4th wall was broken) The person under their control can feel some influence, and possibly conduct some semblance of communication (I'm not entirely sure, but communication will be damn difficult) Basically, there is a nudge towards some thought or action. (The fact that Siffrin himself was constantly running even before the player's arrival is conveniently forgotten by all parties involved, allowing Sif to have another reason to behave antagonistically towards the Player (And from our player's side, somewhere from the third Act - a nudge towards the least destructive idea that Siffrin came up with this time. As you can understand, they do not have as much choice as it may seem from the outside). )

God of Change knows. I doubt details are needed at this point

Whatever the outcome of Siffrin's relationship with the Player, he will miss them (But whether it's a longing for kindness, or a longing for the feeling that whatever happened was not your responsibility, or that any damage was deserved… That will be determined by history (because even the worst things in our lives can be missed))

… I just can't help myself from giggling, because I really like this imaginary dynamic between our wild Player, who is just a stupid someone (I wonder if Siffrin's mind will label them as Audience, Prompters, or something else) and who just wants to enjoy this game and is trying to be decent to those whose lives he is playing with… And who for some stupid reason they like. Lupa, who is very bitter towards Stardust and has a grudge against the player, who abandoned them when they defeated the king and woke up in a clearing, and yet who has never been truly cruel to Siffrin. And Siffrin, who is simply having the worst time of his life.

And now I'm not sure if I want to make it so that the whole 4th wall breaking thing is unique, or that it's a common knowledge about this particular game… (And I imagine both of those facts would be funny (And just imagine if the whole fandom just kept this little secret extra so that new players could enjoy the feeling of exclusivity, only to have their dreams crushed. It would be funny and cruel, right? (Even thinking about it makes me a little sick… So I guess it's a good idea. But too cruel. But that's up to you, AU creator~) Because if it's a common knowledge… How many horrible AUs could they create :) Tee hee~ (And at least the fandom aspect is possible… I think it would be cooler if there was just a limited number of copies with such a small addition as the 4th wall, and the rest enjoyed the regular version, without any additional moral obligations)

But then again, I got a little carried away) I just love that we we create and i hope to see more of thee soon. it just so intresting! ... and i really need to do something about my giant text. i cant tell my ideas in less words sadly.

Thank you for organizing everything.

I very much want this all to be the Canon idea for theis AU thus far.

The people of the Forgotten Island were aware of the Universe and Players. Players were seen as some sort of guide for those deemed worthy - or something. (Siffrin finds a book about this in the library in the House. He can only read it after getting the Memory that allows him to read his own language).

Siffrin and Loop definitely blame the Player for their problems.

I love the idea of Siffrin thinking of the Player as a parasite. Especially if it developed over time. (Siffrin thinks of the Player as some kind of gift, but - depending on the actions of the Player - they soon see them as some kind of curse or parasite).

Loop has some kind of magical ability to interact with the Player, but there's not much they can do to stop the Player. (Not now, at least~)

The 4th wall breaking thing is definitely going to be a unique thing.

[absolutelynothingdragonrelated]

I was dared to post this.

Warnings for um- yeah. Warnings.

Loop was sitting under ther tre when pas out and every go dark

They woked up and is awade but oh no is cutting borad they be sat up

Oj noews they be cutted into piece- aa

They peic get pot and wawater

wartr get cook

looup get cook?

lup get cook.

u nu souodsp

:( 

(help me-)

[thatgirlonstage]

man the way Magnus entrusted his relic to Jack and June because they were good people with rustic hospitality and it turned an entire town into a place of betrayal and coups and distrust and finally an inescapably looping nightmare for years where death was perpetually an hour away and the way that the town was ultimately saved with kindness to animals through reuniting the purple worm with her children and the self-sacrifice of the town's self-appointed protector

and the way Merle's relic took love that had bloomed from rivalry and twisted it into a desperate need to prove oneself capable and better, to become unto a god, the way it drove Sloane to run away from everyone she cared about rather than reach out to them for help, and the way it was only stopped with peacemaking, with reaching back for her still when all hope seemed lost, with Hurley leaping headfirst into silverpoint knowing full well she would be killed but doing it because she cared about the person inside even at her worst, even when she was irredeemable, even when no one else would think to find anything human left in there at all

and the way Taako's relic was put to the use of science and exploration and used, for a while, successfully, but with too much greed, with too much selfishness, with too much focus on Maureen and Lucas's goals and too little trust of other people's word on how dangerous these relics are, the way it ultimately became the tool of a creature trying to claw its way back to the life and loved ones it knew and had lost, a creature that had long since lost its sense of self, that had merged with others just to survive, and the way familial love was necessary to stop it, the way Lucas got to his worst out of love of his mother and the desperation to do anything to get her back, the way he got brought back to his senses by that same love and the realization of how badly he'd failed her, the way he was still an untrustworthy dick at the end but they let him go anyway and he came back when it mattered

the way Lup's relic was locked away for a decade and ultimately uncovered and reactivated by Gundran's desperate desire to reclaim what once belonged to his family, the way it was not stopped, the way the loss of Phandalin haunts the narrative, a reminder of failure and of people the boys couldn't save

the way Davenport's relic gets caught up in a game of smoke and mirrors while on the harsh time limit of the end of a journey, the way part of Jenkins' ploy is that he seems utterly unthreatening, the way Hudson's death and the loss of his head in particular is practically collateral damage, the way the train could not be saved but this time the people were

the way Barry's relic is in the hands of two liches who are very obvious and intentional foils to him and Lup, but even more than that, the way it's so buried in the suffering of losing everything that makes you yourself, over and over and over and over and over, the way Wonderland is designed to make you eventually dependent on this cycle of loss just to stay alive, the way it's only beaten by changing the rules of the game

and of course the way Lucretia's relic stays glued to her side, the emblem and reason for her loneliness, isolating her in a bubble of her own making, until, of course, she lets her family back in, and as raw and painful a reunion as it is, as it has to be, because you can't stay safe from your mistakes forever, the seven of them together find the solution she could not find alone

[terezis]

Rules: share the first lines of ten of your latest fanfics (or up to if you have less!) & tag 10 people.

thank you for the tag @a-big-apple <3! ok i'm going to cheat a little bit an include some unpublished stuff. this is fine

1. lay my heart down with the rest (tazb)

"You want the good news or the bad news, Cap?" Magnus asked.

2. throwing stones at a glass moon (bg3)

Astarion doesn't need to breathe, but his chest heaves as he storms out of the ritual chamber.

3. Untitled Ascended!Astarion AU (bg3)

The first time, he doesn't mean to get arrested.

4. Untitled "puts Astarion in a time loop" AU (bg3)

The sun has already set by the time they leave the palace, but Astarion hardly notices.

5. Untitled elementswap (have to stress. nothing changes but the elements. is an expansion of this post) AU (atla)

In the Southern tribes, where winter lasts half the year, the hearth is the center of the community and the home.

6. Untitled Azula gets adopted by Iroh fic (atla)

There are certain things Azula knows to be undeniably true.

7. Untitled John can see the body AU (tlt)

They kneel in front of a pew in a dimly lit chapel.

8. Thicker Than Water (tlt)

It was a fantasy Gideon often thought about.

9. without roof or door and wind for an eye (tlt)

“I know you won’t tell me, but I’d still like to know,” Nona said at dinnertime.

10. Untitled Keats au (tazb)

When Kravitz enters the office, Lup and Barry are already inside, very obviously playing footsie underneath their desks.

these sorts of one-sentence memes are hilarious and frustrating for me bc i always want to include the first full idea instead of the first sentence. i think a lot of these read like the set-up to a joke without the punchline. but i guess that's kind of interesting too LOL

anyways tagging @sgrumby @scissorlines @umbraastaff @barry-j-blupjeans @feyweird @mangomonk ok that's all xoxo bye

[cutepastelstarsalior]

AHHHHHHHHHHH ok ok ok so im listening to The Adventure Zone, Eleventh Hour and TIME LOOPS!!!!!!! MAYBE????

Like they died and meet the women in the white void. Maybe she’s LUP? Like I know LUP is (you know who) sister. And there something with the umbrella and skeleton? Maybe part of LUP soul like, got trap in the void while the other is the umbrella??? Or maybe the women is a relative to the director??? But ahhhhh them saying death feel familiar!!! Like the death reaper said they died multiple times!!!!! Ajdbsanjsnaka AHHHHHHHH how did they die????? Is it like one GIANT time loop? Or wait there probably like multiple dimensions since the crystal kingdom said something about that…

[barry-j-blupjeans]

TAZ NC Day 2: Fake Dating

@taznovembercelebration

"It's bad, Taako," Lup said as soon as the car door was shut. "It's real bad."

Taako had to be honest— he had no fuckin' clue what was happening anymore. He and Lup had never gone to different schools before and it was weird being out of her direct ring of things-that-are-happening. It was for the best, 'cus there was no way he could have survived trying to get a science degree. And he knew Lup loved cooking, but culinary arts was not for her. Ever. Keep her away from the building, thank you very much. Yeah, sure, she'd kill this degree, but it was the principle of the thing.

So he had only been getting outside reports of whatever was happening over at Neverwinter University. But apparently, it was a lot. While Taako was over here, blissed out on weed brownies, Lup was doin'… something. Again, he didn't really understand what was happening anymore. But Lup didn't even wait for an answer before continuing.

"I asked him on a date," Lup said, buckling herself in with more force than necessary. Taako took the car out of park (look at him! He could drive! Take that, driving instructor one through five.) and attempted to maneuver his way out of the parking lot.

"That sounds like a good thing?" Taako said.

"It's not," Lup said. "It's not a real date."

"A- and that means??"

"It's not a real date," Lup said again. "I fuckin— well, first off, Greg fucking Grimaldis—"

"Fuck him," Taako said.

"Yeah, fuck him— but he was very loudly promoting his fuckin'… casino or whatever that he's inheriting. And he so graciously invited us to an event that's being hosted there about— god, I'm too angry to remember what the stupid event is for. But he was like, oh, don't bother showing up without a date though, it's a couple's event, like I fuckin' know whatever that means—"

"It just sounds like bait," Taako said. How the hell did he leave this parking lot again? He felt like he had been turning left for like, three entire minutes.

"And then I was like, "of course, I have a date". And he was like, "oh yeah? Who?". And Barry was right there, so—"

Ah, Barry Bluejeans. Taako had heard way too fuckin' much about Barry Bluejeans. Lup kept trying to deny any romantic feelings she felt towards him, but Taako knew better. Or, well, Taako had eyes and ears and the way Lup spoke about Barry Bluejeans left nothing up to the imagination. Normally Taako would have liked to meet the man that his sister had fallen in love with but honestly, he's in a place in his life where he gets assignments about spaghetti so it's not like anything makes sense anymore.

"So it was less like you asked him and more like you are going to force him—"

"I asked!" Lup said, sitting up in her car seat. If she had noticed the several loops Taako had taken around the parking lot, she hadn't said. "After, I mean. I asked after. And y'know how Barry's like, he's gonna say yes to everything 'cus he feels bad about saying no. So I had to clarify that we weren't actually dating to, y'know, make it seem better— I don't wanna seem like I'm using him, Taako, I just— babe, if you had seen Grimaldis's face when I said that. And Barry fuckin' backed me up, too!"

Taako slammed on the brakes as someone tumbled into his car. And then onto the ground. Lup froze. Taako froze, too. And then started slowly backing up.

"Taako, we gotta— we gotta check—"

"Yeah, yeah," Taako said, pulling the car back a few inches. He shifted back into park and undid his seat belt. Lup was out of the car before him and when he opened the door, he caught the end of

"-arry!"

Aw, fuck.

"Oh, uh." Taako rounded the car, coming face to face with the new voice. It was a short man with concerningly thick glasses. He was wearing an honest-to-god sweater vest and bluejeans of all things. Lup was holding his hand, looking at the scruffed up flesh on his palm. He didn't look super injured or concussed. Taako had been going to stupid five miles and hour that this parking lot demanded of him. "It's— it's fine, Lup, really—"

"My guy, you just got hit with a car—"

"It was five miles an hour," Taako said, leaning against the driver's side door. "Nice to meet'cha, Barold."

"Uhm." Barry blinked a few times, looking between him and Lup.

"You're not concussed," Taako said. "We're twins."

"Uh," Barry said, eloquently. Man, this is the guy Lup was planning to fake-date? Good lord.

"You might be concussed, though," Lup said, turning Barry toward her. "Did you hit your head?"

"No, uh, no I'm good," Barry said. "Just, uhm— surprised! Haha."

This was awful. The worst part is that if Barry wasn't concussed, this was just his regular way of talking. Taako felt himself getting a headache. But Lup gave a smile that was all goopy and warm and, ugh. Taako kinda wished he had been going faster. He got back into the car, watching with a scrutinizing gaze as Barry and Lup talked.

And talked.

And talked.

Taako got out his phone, pulling up the group chat he shared with Magnus and Merle.

Gonna be late to game night, boys. I've got Lup and Barry Bluejeans existing in the same place.

Magnus sent back a saluting emoji.