#it’s just that mooky and other friends are reading the series now too

[curly-cottage-girl]

okay I think I’ll have a cupcake and calm down now

[comradelup]

fuck it. balance youtuber au because i’ve been thinking about it

(modern au with no magic but still elves/dwarves/etc)

the twins have a joint channel but they post things together as often as they make videos on their own. they do vlogs, story times, and challenge videos both together and not, but do stuff with fashion/makeup together. taako does cooking on his own and lup does chemistry experiments that involve fire more often than not. if someone says they like the twins’ videos it’s a wild card as to what they watch them for, but everyone ends up liking all of their content because who can hate the twins? they have a lot of “annoying influencer” energy but are actually really nice to fans/people in general and donate a lot of their Youtube Money to charities and stuff (all of the ipre does this too because fuck rich people except for them)

magnus’ channel is mostly woodworking/construction projects. he does occasional story times and in every one he’s carving and/or painting a wooden duck. he does vlogs too and half of them are him buying more woodworking stuff (idk shit about it so idk what he’d get lol) and the other half have a part where he sees someone walking a dog and him going to meet them. almost every video includes/mentions julia and people make “magnus talking about julia” compilations bc he loves his wife and talks about her all the time. he’s very positive in general and everyone loves how he’s a human golden retriever

merle’s channel is 99% gardening, 1% collating with the others. he made one joke along the lines of plant fucking and it was not serious at all but his subscribers/followers made into such a big joke that he makes at least one joke per video except for when his kids are in the video, which is when he makes it suuuper educational and fun and wholesome. mookie tries to eat the plants and play with the soil and mavis tells her dad about what she’s learned about biology in school. also he puts “(emotional)” and “(not clickbait)” at the end of video titles randomly despite knowing what they mean

barry’s channel is science-centric (yes he collabs with lup frequently) but about more feilds of science. sometimes he goes on rants about theoretical physics like a madman a la bdg’s unraveled series and sometimes he makes videos titled “making the volcano kitchen experiment but the size of a kiddie pool (emotional).” he also has a series about paranormal activity/cryptids, stuff like “why ghosts should be and are real” and “my top five favorite pieces of bigfoot evidence” and like i said this is a no magic au but he once was asked in a q&a about what he’d do if he was a lich and gave a surprisingly detailed response? people were really confused but intrigued?? did barry invent magic???

lucretia 100% has an art channel, but she also writes prose and poetry in her free time and sometimes reads them for videos. she posts speedpaints of her work (digital and traditional) with her telling her process/inspiration or doing story times as the background audio. she had a period of time where she started writing a whole novel in her spare time (basically the balance story but different characters) and all her videos were her making concept art. her fans loved it and boosted it to the point where it actually got published, so now she’s a best selling author with a seven book series. now she keeps making videos of her concept art for other book ideas (the other arcs) with her infodumping about the characters/plot/etc

davenport doesn’t actually have a channel, but has been in the background of all the others’ videos to the point where he’s treated like a cryptid and has a small fanbase of his own. he’s mostly in merle’s videos (because they’re dating) and magnus’ vlogs (because magnus Loves His Friends) but he’s been in at least a handful of everyone’s videos. he makes a twitter and instantly gets thousands of followers. he tweets the most random shit at the most random times and half of them become memes. people find out he’s a professor at the college the rest of them met at and everyone looses it

kravitz is in a similar position as davenport, but he was convinced to start a channel. he mostly does stuff involving antiques because he collects them, so he does haul videos of what he bought or thrifted and videos of him restoring them as he looks up how old they were and what random shit they were used for and stuff. people make compilations of him getting off topic and going on a tangent about taako then realizing he just rambled for ten minutes and getting flustered. he also plays a handful of classical instruments and makes occasional collabs with lup + barry

despite having completely different channels they’re all friends??? people didn’t know at first but they found out through davenport and kravitz “this one guy who i think is dating taako but i’m not sure and idk his name” showing up in everyone’s videos. from then on they started collabing more often and it’s really fun to see them outside of their element. lup once almost burnt down magnus’ workshop while making a chemistry video with him. taako tried to teach kravitz how to make macaroons (keyword: tried) and kravitz talked about this new antique shop he found the whole time. barry went on and on and on about biology while gardening with merle, who tried to follow along but failed and ended up making fun of all the scientific names for plants

they call themselves the red robes after the main characters in lucretia’s novel (they’re not similar to the characters but there’s seven of them and six youtubers + one davenport)

they once did a big group collab where the twins dressed everyone up in high fashion outfits and lucretia painted a big portrait of all of them. it was very wholesome but also had a lot of lup and taako arguing over what accessory fits who and “no this person should do their hair like this!” and at one point magnus and kravitz just dipped to go play cards and talk about dogs

speaking of wholesome angus has a channel of his own which is mostly booktube with him getting halfway through a mystery novel, predicting the ending, and being 100% correct. he’s done videos with the others and is kinda associated with them but not totally, and is often lovingly referred to as the nephew to the rest of them

killian and carey don’t have a channel but are in the bg of magnus’ videos often. they were referred to as “magnus’ lesbian friends” until they got popular on instagram and became an internet power couple. johann has a small channel and a soundcloud he plays violin on and did one (1) collab with lup and it made him blow up overnight. avi has a semi-popular twitter and is mostly known as johann’s bf. sloane and hurley have a channel about drag racing/cars in general and don’t show their faces and go by the raven and ram

i was trying to think of who’d have a gaming channel and it’s 100% graham, who casually mentions that he’s friends with Pro Wrestler Jess The Beheader

lucas has a science focused channel similar to barry’s where he tries to be educational and ends up being annoying/kind of wrong about it. barry has a mini series called “lucas miller is a bitch here’s why” and it’s him disproving lucas’ theories with a deadpan expression and generally being better at science than him

remember when i said taako and lup have influencer energy despite being nice? yeah, lydia and edward are like that but they’re actually annoying. they have a popular makeup/fashion channel and lup and taako have gotten into slight drama with them over how the wonderland twins have been rude to them and the how the red robe twins are “jealous.” the internet is divided over who likes which pair of twins better

lup learns that greg fucking grimauldis (who the twins knew in high school) has a popular twitter/insta platform and tweets the “i am to collect” speech out of nowhere from everyone’s pov. taako tweets the video he took of him telling her and her immediately going “no fucking way that ASSHOLE is getting away with what he did to me” and opening twitter. it becomes a meme and he pays her back and changes his social media handles to “gregfuckinggrimauldis”

i can’t think of anything else because i don’t know enough about youtube but yeah.

[thewidowstanton]

The Widow’s best of 2020

Well… during a year when we haven’t been able to see many live shows we’ve still managed to find lots of things we loved. Here are some of them; live shows are indicated, otherwise we watched them online – our grateful thanks go to all the companies that streamed their productions for free – listened to them or read them. You’ll notice that our list includes lots of women and the occasional man.

But before that we start with a new category…

PERSON OF THE YEAR: Circus director Carol Gandey (pictured) of Gandeys Circus. If UK touring circus – an artform championed by The Widow’s Liz Arratoon for more than 25 years – is to survive Covid-19, it will be in large part to her. Gandeys had produced three shows before the UK’s March lockdown, two of which never had a chance to open, incurring hundreds of thousands of pounds in costs. It then provided accommodation and living expenses for 33 stranded artists, and meanwhile developed an air-flow working model for circus – trialling an opening at Butlins – which gave the government enough confidence to allow circuses to reopen with reduced seating capacities.  

Carol constantly lobbied the government and the Arts Council for aid – as did other industry figures – and her application to the Arts Council Recovery Fund, which was said to be exceptional, resulted in a £1.1 million grant; the largest amount awarded to any UK circus company. Gandeys used some of the money to cover the losses due to the lockdown, and to fund a survival package that included some reduced-capacity performances this autumn, as well as funding the production costs for reopening in 2021.

From one strong and inspirational woman to another…

BEST EXTRAVAGANZA: Rhianna’s Savage X Fenty Volume 2 TV special for her lingerie range. Wow! What a mix! This was an explosion of creativity; part fashion show, part dance show, part gig, part circus, part ad, and included a simply stunning floral set. Add a cast of big names, a wonderfully diverse choice of dancers and models, no expense had been spared. Exciting, fresh and really impressive.

BEST LIVE SHOW: Zebra, a solo show by juggling genius Wes Peden, which was part of the London International Mime Festival at the Southbank Centre’s Purcell Room.

BEST CIRCUS SHOW: The really inventive CAPAS by Circo Eia (pictured) – so great to see so many new ideas, and here’s our chat with cast member Francesca Lissia. Plus the intricate and dazzling Twenty Twenty by Gandini Juggling. 

BEST DANCE SHOW: Faust by the Ballets de Monte-Carlo, featuring the spectral Bernice Coppieters (pictured) as Death; and Cia de Dança Deborah Colker’s super-stylish Belle, inspired by the novel Belle de Jour.

BEST KIDS’ SHOW: Little Angel Theatre’s hat trilogy, presented by puppeteer Ian Nicholson; an adaptation of the picture books by Jon Klassen: I Want My Hat Back, This Is Not My Hat and We Found a Hat.

BEST COSTUME: The Widow has always considered costumes to be extremely important. As Federico Fellini said: “Don’t forget that costumes, like dreams, are symbolic communication,” and frankly we wish more artists would make the sort of effort Dua Lipa made on Saturday Night Live!

Staying with costumes… slightly less glamorous, but an effort was made by Hot Mess in party-sketch work-in-progress Dirty Stop Outs.

MOST EXCITING: Meeting Marina Abramović in the foyer at London’s Barbican before the Efterklang gig.

BEST SHOWGIRLS: Seen in the 1972 film Un Flic; costumes by Colette Baudot. Also featured is a stunning black dress, worn by Catherine Deneuve, designed by Yves Saint Laurent.

BEST BURLESQUE: Lady of Burlesque, starring Barbara Stanwyck, who wears costumes by the great Edith Head.

BEST FILM CREDITS: Sudden Fear, starring Joan Crawford as a scorned – but impeccably dressed – woman on the verge of a nervous breakdown! 

BEST CASTAWAY: Hard to choose between Rupert Everett, Ian Wright or Daniel Radcliffe, who all washed up on BBC Radio 4′s Desert Island Discs.

BEST SHOWBIZ STORY: Catherine Russell – on Outlook, BBC Radio 4 – who has played the same role for 32 years and said the same lines more than 13,000 times. She holds the world record for the most theatre performances in the same role; Margaret Thorne Brent – a psychiatrist who might also be a cold-blooded killer – in the off-Broadway play Perfect Crime.

BEST TV SERIES: It was a close call with The Queen’s Gambit, but our choice is the utterly brilliant My Brilliant Friend; the adaptation of Elena Ferrante’s series of Neapolitan novels. 

BEST DOCUMENTARY: The Bee Gees – How Can You Mend a Broken Heart.

BEST CABARET PIC: The ever-lovely Eve Ferret at the Crazy Coqs in London. Picture: @marc_t_albert 

BEST SHOWBIZ MEMOIR: John Cooper Clarke’s I Wanna Be Yours.

BEST SHOWBIZ BIOGRAPHY: Jon Gresham: The Life and Adventures of a Sideshow Showman, Fire-Eater and Magician by Edwin A Dawes, Pat Gresham and Jon Marshall. This is a painstakingly detailed and enthralling account of Gresham’s life, lovingly compiled by his widow and friends from material written by Gresham himself. Want one? Details below.

BEST SHOWBIZ AUTOBIOGRAPHY: The heartbreaking Everything and Nothing: The Dorothy Dandridge Tragedy by Dorothy Dandridge and Earl Conrad. The revealing autobiography of Hollywood’s first African-American sex symbol and screen legend.

BEST GIG: Sevdaliza’s only show this year, streamed live from The Hague's Koninklijke Schouwburg (Royal Theatre) to a global audience.

BEST SONG: Désormais by Charles Aznavour, which was used as the title track for the film Chambre 212 or On a Magical Night.

BEST ALBUM COVER: Charles Aznavour’s Désormais. That hat!

MOST CHARMING: The sheep invasion during Isabella Rossellini’s show Sex and Consequences, which was streamed live from her farm in Bellport, Long Island, USA. Yes, her live sheep! 

BEST TWITTER CIRCUS PIC: The stunning Crystal Pyramids by Severus posted by @PablosCircus.

BEST LIVE COMEDY: Myra Dubois – star of Britain’s Got Talent – at The Poodle Club in Sydenham. Some of us recognised the greatness of Rotherham’s finest before she was famous!

GONE TOO SOON: Actor Chadwick Boseman (pictured) at just 43, funnymen Eddie Large, Tim Brooke Taylor and Bobby Ball, and dancer, choreographer and actor Ann Reinking.

MOST MISSED: Davenports magic shop that closed at the end of January – but you luckily can still order from it online – and a more recent casualty, after 96 years, London’s beautiful Café de Paris.

MOST DISAPPOINTING: Madonna’s Madame X show at the London Palladium. Goodness, this was shoddy! She was so incapacitated that she simply marked all the dance moves and had to be helped around the set, and up and down the stairs. The tickets were exorbitantly expensive and no one paid to see someone hobbling about onstage. We paid to see Madonna!

But let’s not end on a sour note…

BEST SHOWBIZ MASK: Shirley Bassey’s fabulous sequinned number!

REASONS TO BE CHEERFUL: Some things we’re looking forward to include:  The 45th London International Mime Festival, which will be screening free-to-view videos of shows from past LIMF editions, running an extended workshop series with live and online classes, and hosting a series of talks.

We’re also awaiting the new series of Call My Agent, which starts on Netflix on 21 January 2021.

And, last but by no mean least, one of the world’s truly funny clowns, Gloria – also known as Mooky Cornish – has been busy training her chickens – Kukuruzza (pictured top), who has been taking piano lessons, and the athletic Galina – and will be touring the Canadian prairies with them next summer. Now that’s something we’d love to see! Picture: Nichole Huck

Better days ahead!

*Jon Gresham book is available via PayPal from jon@magiccarpettheatre.com: P&P incl, UK – £25, EU – £30, USA tracked – $52

[castcharmperson]

how does the convo with dav and taako go,, are lup and barry there?

Well it’s only been forever, but I finally wrote an update. To anyone still reading this series, thank you all for your kindness and your patience. To answer your question, anon, few words are exchanged. Lup and Barry are “helpful”

Mornings were the only time this house was quiet. The Starblaster had been quiet usually just after lunch, mornings busy with preparation for whatever the day held. But here, in the house his crew had made for themselves, even the lazy time after lunch was filled with noise. Spells or shouting, occasionally the bark of dogs, there was always someone coming or going or something to do.

But mornings, well, his crew deserved to sleep in after all they’d done. Davenport couldn’t, even in what was supposed to be his retirement. His body was still too regimented. Not that he minded; the quiet was nice while it lasted.

So when a flyer was slapped in front of his coffee mug, Davenport wasn’t surprised. But he was retired and, regimented or not, he wasn’t looking at anything until he finished his drink. He refused to care which twin was demanding his attention, as they kept pushing the paper under his nose.

“Come on, Cap’n, it’s a big week! Memorize that schedule!” Ah, so it was Taako then. The forced cheer in his voice was something to look into, but not now. Davenport wasn’t awake enough for that yet, and despite ignoring the flyer, he already knew they had a big Candlenights’ week ahead of them. There was a formal gala in Neverwinter tonight, the speech for which Davenport wrote before he even docked his boat, and another event in Goldcliff tomorrow. Parties from Merle’s bar to Raven’s Roost littered the rest of the week, ending with one final massive celebration here.

They were saving gifts for the eighth day, so Davenport figured he could stay that long. Maybe he’d stay until Angus went back to school. How their crew adopted a child, he would never understand. Half of them were still children themselves, Magnus and Lucre–

He tried not to crack the empty mug when he put it in the sink a little harder than he should have. Might as well get this over with.

“I’d say that was a successful Candlenights,” Taako mumbled, a week later. He was curled around the literal Grim Reaper, something Davenport didn’t have the brain power to continue to be baffled by, since he felt as hungover as Taako sounded.

“It ain’t over yet!” Lup cheered and the remaining mortals of the crew groaned at the noise. She was unfazed, plucking out packages from under the dimly glowing Candlenights bush and tossing them towards whatever name was scrawled across their tags. It wasn’t long until the living room transformed into a sea of crumpled wrapping paper and emptied boxes.

“I thought we fuckin’ talked about this!” Merle laughed, gesturing to Angus, who was surrounded with five copies of the latest Caleb Cleveland novel. The boy didn’t seem to mind, chattering with Mavis about having copies to lend to his friends. Lup had already put on the “Liches Get Kisses” shirt Davenport had gotten her, trying to convince Barry to stop cleaning up and wear his matching shirt with her. Mookie jumped into whatever attempt at cleaning had been started, as though it were a pile of leaves in autumn.

It felt right, seeing his family enjoying themselves like this. Strange, but right, like the universe had been shifted just a degree to the left this whole time and had finally clicked into place. Davenport wondered if he could stay here forever, laughing with them.

“Thank you,” Lucretia whispered, sitting in an armchair to his left, and Davenport was suddenly reminded that he definitely needed more coffee. That he definitely wasn’t going to stay on shore forever. She was clutching the ship in a bottle he’d given her like it was more precious than any of her journals, but Davenport didn’t respond. He kept his eyes forward, hopped off the couch, and walked right past her. She didn’t follow.

“I just don’t get it. Lup was really insistent about it.” Magnus and Taako were sitting together, voices low. Or at least, low for Magnus. He was gathering a collection of wrapping paper into a trash bag, and Taako seemed to be ‘supervising’. The hand carved umbrella was sitting in his lap, the odd gift from Lup and Magnus. “I thought the two of you would never look at another umbrella again.”

“It was probably a joke. Lup’s weird like that.”

“She asked for the sturdiest oak I had. We had to make an extra trip to Raven’s Roost for it. Not that I mind but it seemed pretty elaborate for a joke.”

“What do you want me to say, Mags?” Taako’s voice was strained, the same nervousness Davenport heard a week before. “It’s a great gift, I like it. Would you stop bugging me about it?”

The couch shifted and Taako was standing, walking past Davenport without seeming to notice him as he went upstairs. Magnus didn’t follow, neither did Davenport, though both of them wanted to.

Being retired had several drawbacks, Davenport was realizing. He definitely couldn’t leave until he figured out what was going on– not just with Taako, but both twins and Barry seemed more squirrelly than usual. When they were on the Starblaster, he was fine with waiting. Secrets were hard to keep for very long when they all lived so close. Now though, he might be halfway around the world by the time someone felt comfortable enough to talk. If he has to wait around long enough for this crew to have an emotionally vulnerable conversation, he might as well burn his boat.

So in the quiet of the next morning, he was in no rush as he prepared his coffee. It wasn’t long before whispering started, just outside the kitchen, and Davenport grinned into his mug. If those three were at least talking to each other, it was a push in the right direction.

Literally, in this case, as Taako nearly fell into the kitchen. The strange gift caught him, his knuckles turning white as they gripped the wooden handle and the tip of the umbrella scrapped against the tile floor. “Yeah! Great idea! Fucking push me, after we just–” Taako stopped shouting with a wince, turning to look at who they pushed him into before glaring back at the door to the kitchen. Davenport tilted his head just enough to see Lup and Barry give Taako a thumbs up before darting away.

Taako turned back to Davenport, squinting at him with the kind of focus he gave to any particularly challenging transmutation requests. Curious, calculating, with a glimmer of determination. All that melted away and Taako sighed, collapsing bonelessly into the chair across from Davenport.

For a while, he just kept his eyes closed. Davenport watched, between sips of his coffee, as Taako intentionally slowed down his breathing until he opened his eyes to meet Davenport’s gaze. He didn’t mean to turn it into a staring contest, but Taako sat forward, staring more intently now, biting back to the edge of a grin. He blinked first though, everyone in the crew always did, immediately huffing out a laugh at himself and leaning back in the chair. Less boneless from exhaustion now, more boneless in the way the twins seemed able to turn themselves from solid to liquid at will.

Just to really rub it in, Davenport continued to stare at him, unblinking, for another thirty seconds. That sent Taako into a fit of giggles and only then did Davenport blink, letting a soft smile smooth across his previously blank expression. Taako quieted down, but kept smiling. Not the performer’s grin Davenport had seen all week, but the smile he gave when Lucretia used to bring them cucumber sandwiches after they all spent too long in the labs. Davenport was pretty sure that it was a smile Taako expected no one to have seen.

The joyful look faded away, whatever Taako had been sent in here to discuss coming back to the forefront of his mind. He broke eye contact, glancing down at the new umbrastaff he was still clutching. There was the sharp smell of magic, just for a second, before it drifted away like mist, then Taako was looking at him again.

Davenport had more than a lifetime to memorize his crew, but even that didn’t spare him from the power of the Voidfish. When Taako, Merle, and Magnus walked into the Bureau of Balance, Davenport couldn’t recognize them. He couldn’t express it at the time, and he maybe still couldn’t really find the words to explain it now, but the arcane energy around them was familiar, even if their faces were just static.

So when Taako came back from their final mission, when the Hunger became a story to tell around campfires, Davenport could sense the energy lingering on his crew. It was stronger now. Their connections to each other had once powered the bond engine, and now the bond engine had returned that gift. The seven of them, and all those that they’d brought into their strange little family, were vibrant with that arcana, especially to Davenport, who’d dedicated his life to the study of that magic.

Illusion magic had been a hobby before the Starblaster. With a century of time on his hands, and the rest of the wizards in his crew already having claim to the other schools of magic, Davenport could sense the shifts in that arcana too, even if he couldn’t see them.

When Taako came back from their last mission, it wasn’t just bond energy on him. The dropping of this altered Disguise Self spell wasn’t really shocking to Davenport. The results weren’t either– this face was more familiar than the static had been. He could see why Taako was upset though, could see that Taako had been upset, rather recently if the smudged mascara and deep bags under his eyes were anything to go by.

At the end of it all, though, the face was the same. Tired, curious, determined. Davenport held his gaze, and nodded. Taako laughed, softly, like that was funny in a way he hadn’t expected and couldn’t explain. He stood up, rather suddenly, but Davenport wasn’t confused for long. He let out a low whistle, didn’t need to roll a high arcana check to know scarring like that was the least pleasant kind of dark magic. Taako rolled his eyes, leaning on the umbrastaff, trying for casual and missing it by just a few inches.

Davenport was up now too, moving around Taako before he really realized what he was doing. Taako rolled his eyes again, whole body moving with him, but he didn’t walk away. Just let Davenport check him over, like this was just another mission as they sped through the stars. It didn’t matter that they’d stopped running, Davenport was still his Captain.

“So I’m pretty sure it’s scurvy,” Taako broke the silence and Davenport, satisfied that Taako wasn’t about to immediately keel over, burst out with a deep laugh that nearly knocked him off his own feet. He sat back down and Taako joined him, twisting his wrist to transmute his shorts back to long, soft flannel.

“But…” he started again, trailing off. Davenport watched a few different emotions play across this almost familiar face, each half-formed before flowing into the next. Nervousness of a few different kinds, for probably a few hundred reasons, finally settled into a sheepish play at determination. New face or not, the twins were still exactly the same. “I think I’d like for Merle to look at it?”

Davenport nodded, reaching for his coffee before realizing the mug was empty. When he looked back at Taako, his expression had twisted back up with a fake smile and too wide eyes.

“How is Merle doing?” He asked, laughing to try and elevate the weight of the words. Davenport leveled Taako with another unblinking expression, not as neutral as before, brow arching when Taako still didn’t cave. It took longer than Davenport would have liked, but Taako eventually slouched over.

“He doesn’t know. I haven’t told him.” There was a sharp scraping sound that made them both jump, before Taako lifted the wooden umbrastaff and placed it carefully on the table. He glanced down, but Davenport was sure whatever scuff he’d made against the tile would come off with half a cantrip.

When Taako looked back at him, still rattled from the noise or the confession, Davenport sighed. “We’re family, Taako. Ten years doesn’t change that. We always know, even if we don’t know exactly what it is or how we know it.”

Taako looked away, fingers twitching along the handle of his spell focus. “It was that obvious, huh?”

“No, your magic is good. You learned from the best after all.” Davenport grinned and Taako managed to do so as well. He let the moment linger before he got up to refill his coffee mug. “If you want to know how Merle’s doing,” he said, not looking back. He already knew how Taako would respond to this. “Why don’t you ask him yourself?”

Taako groaned, loud and over dramatic and predictable. When Davenport turned around, the elf’s face was pressed against the table.

“Am I wrong?”

“No,” Taako whined.

Silence spread over the kitchen again. It had been comfortable before, and it still was now, but it felt lighter. After some time, Davenport wasn’t really sure how long, Taako peeled himself off the table and prepared what smelled like oolong. Davenport raised an eyebrow and Taako just flapped a hand at him. A story for another time.

The silence was punctured by Taako slurping at the last dregs of his tea. Davenport realized his own coffee had gone cold. He wasn’t surprised he’d lost track of time, another side effect of the last decade, but he was trying not to let it bother him as much.

“Lup wants you to talk to Cresha.”

Davenport wasn’t exactly sure what face he pulled, but Taako huffed a laugh at it. So much for not letting it bother him. “Look, Cap, I agree. I’m just saying.”

“And why isn’t Lup telling me this herself?”

Taako opened his mouth but seemed to realize he didn’t have an answer. He ticked through the same emotions he came in here with. Curiosity, frustration, grim determination. Davenport didn’t need him to say whatever answer he’d come to.

“I’ll see what I can do,” he offered and Taako nodded.

It seemed like he had something more to say, but he didn’t open his mouth again. Instead, he stretched out his legs and took the umbrastaff off the table. It’s point clicked a single, clear note against the floor as he stood. He didn’t immediately leave. Davenport realized, dully, that he wasn’t going to be able to leave either. The itch to explore was deep in his bones, back with a vengeance after so many years dormant, but the world would still be waiting for him in a few more days. Weeks, maybe. The least Davenport could do was take his own advice.

He reached a hand out, gripping Taako’s wrist. There was only a moment of confusion on his expression before Taako placed his own hand on Davenport’s outstretched arm. He seemed sturdy, comfortable in this kitchen he and Lup had crafted together. With only the faintest squeeze around his wrist, Davenport loosened his grip and Taako did the same.

More sharp, focused clicks from the umbrastaff against the tile and Taako was gone. It was nearly noon though, so the lingering silence was short lived.

“So how’d it go?” Lup’s voice rang through the house.

“For fate’s sake, I’m surprised you didn’t listen to the whole damn thing!” Taako shouted back. There was more yelling, the clatter of things falling, spells being cast. A chaotic, unquiet home was exactly what Davenport had forgotten he loved.

[lillianvalnala]

TAZ Finale stuff

all of my thoughts from throughout the episode are gonna be here so HEAVY SPOILERS! also its super fucking long cuz this episode was amazing

-because thats the sex number!

-im listening to the ad reads and stuff thats usually in the middle since its at the beginnings just bc im nervous and its gonna make me cry cuz i just. love griffin 

-AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA OKAY HERE WE GO ITS STARTING AND IM STRESS

-hunger is a lorge boi

-”alright buddy, dance for me” I LOVE DAVENPORT

-is it john

-ITS JOHN

-OH NO JOHN I ACTUALLY FEEL BAD FOR HIM

-really taako 

-i fucking love these dorks so much

-YOUR FINAL BATTLE FUCK

-L E T S   R O L L   I N I T A T I V E

-beautiful owl song

-Mathias is Hedwig 

-beautiful bean damage

-cut things very good 

-this fucking badass sword i love it

-MAGNUS WANTS TO BE WITH HIS BOYS

-hachi machi thats a lot of damage 

-i wonder how many times they’ve said boy in this entire series 

-merle like. put razor blades in candy and gave it to john

-magnus is cool and im in love with him

-SIX ATTACKS IN ONE ROUND I LOVE FIGHTERS MAGNUS IS AWESOME AS HELL

-my current mood is griffin’s “fuck off” when travis says 92

-bye john

-wait what ok maybe not bye john

-whAT th e fck is happening griffin 

-GRIFFIN THE SWORD WHAT ARE YOU DOING G R I F F I N

-WHAT THE FUCK IS HAPPENING AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

-THIS MUSIC IS AMAZING I LOVE IT

-orbs orbs orbs orbs

-OH MY G O D WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON

-the final john, john the destroyer of worlds

-OKAY THAT WAS SCARY HES NOT DEAD 

-travis calling them his boys makes me happy

-god someone’s gonna die this episode but HEY it won’t matter because theyre on the ship and thats how the ship works

-taako is scared aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa

-ABRACA-FUCK YOU AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA I JUST GOT REALLY FUCKING EXCITED OH MY G O D 

-take that orbs

-hit that blue boy magnus

-take that blue orb

-taako not you too god damn it 

-god damn bosses and their bullshit im so scared

-naptime!

-oh no mom 

-what is happening what 

-pan!!! my boy!!!!!

-THANKS PAN YOU AMAZING GOD BOY

-oh s h i t 

-bringing in a character from another series jesus christ

-LIGHT HIM THE FUCK UP JOAQUIN 

-HELL YEAH I LOVE JOAQUIN

-I LOVE THIS 

-clint are you serious right now god damn it

-GARFIELD WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

-call griffin in do it you cowards

-garfield doesnt look like anything they just cant tell 

-garfield pulls out a gun

-oh not a gun a fucking grenade 

-R O S W E L L IM SO HAPPY MY FAVORITE !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! THEYRE HERE IM GONNA CRY

-i fucking love roswell i still love them im absolutely in love

-oh my GOD taako i love him hes amazing

-a time paradox get fucked

-i love these goobers

-SUMMON VOIDFISH!!!!!!!!!!!1 YES!!!! F I SH E R S 

-travis got so happy!!! oh my gosh!!! he was so concerned about them last episode and now he knows they’re safe and aaaaaaaa!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

-i love the voidfishes they are amazing 

-im so proud of these space jellies

-take that orbs

-honestly this music is beautiful i love it

-o h  n o the engine 

-o h n o the engine

-john goes AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

-”im not goin fuckin anywhere” I LOVE THIS

-holy shit griffin

-jesus christ dont make me feel bad for john this is gonna make me cry its so peaceful and nice like merle is the only friend john had and he wanted to spend his last moments with his only friend

-haha it looks lit 

-my mom i love her

-oh my god are you serious griffin fucking mcelroy 

-im half way through and ive cried once so i think we’re doing good

-istus!!!! oh my god!!!!!!! thank you goddess mom!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

-he wants to help lup!!!!! he cares about his sister so much!!!!!! goals!!!!!!!!

-ANGO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1 YOU GO KIDDO I LOVE YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

-HURLEY AND SALONE AND KLARG AND OH MY GO D YES FUCK IT UP GUYS!!!

-YOU’RE GOING TO BE AMAZING 

-AAAAAAAAAAAAA IM SO HAPPY G E R Y L 

-I LOVE THIS SO MUCH 

-IM IN LOVE WITH THIS EPISODE 

-scuttle buddy :D

-train train train train train 

-o shit the planes

-its griffin, himself, as a character

-oH MY GOD I WAS RIGHT I WAS JUST JOKING ARE YOU KIDDING ME

-its spirited away, like the movie 

-jeffandrew... jeffandrew...

-blupjeans hell yeah

-Im so proud of these kids

-ANGO MY SWEET BABY SON JUST HIS EXISTENCE MAKES ME TEAR UP I LOVE HIM SO MUCH

-this is sweet i love this 

-MAYOR CASSIDY AWWWWWW

-this is really beautiful i love it 

-awww ango is the top student im so proud of my son i love him

-davenport!!! my other dad!!! im proud of him too and im so happy for him!!!!!!

-Joyfully yous, Davenport

-lup and barry are working with taako’s bf and i love it thanks raven mom

-BACK SOON OH MY GOD STOP

-AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA LUP HAS A BODY AGAIN 

-“im about to smooch your fucking brains out, babe”

-good luck getting the fuckin bracers off 

-pringles!!!!!!! i love him what a good boy

-i love my actual mom Lucretia 

-the day of story and song

-twins cooking together my #aesthetic lup is roasting taako over his cooking

-these two are goals and i love them i love elf twins so much

-”what part of that sounds like i was joking”

-i love justin and taako so much they’re my faves

-taako is the best boy

-everyone is in house taako and wears taako t-shirts 

-ren my daughter im proud of her

-”i should mention my boyfriend is death...”

-barold 

-i want taako to cook for me

-awwwwwwwwwwwww krav and taako are so cute

-MY BOY! MY SON! THE LIGHT OF MY LIFE! HE’S TALLER NOW AND IM PROUD OF HIM!

-aww ango is so cute and i love him my sweet son he’s still the world’s greatest detective!

-TAAKO CALLED HIM LITTLE MAN THATS WHAT I CALL TUCKER THAT MAKES ME SO HAPPY 

-mavis and mookie!!! i love them kids!!!!!!!!! this is so cute!!!!

-merle taught kiddos and got closer to his kids that makes me so happy

-merle doesnt hear much from taako or magnus thats like, sad

-i love how many characters came back 

-governor merle highchurch

-he wants to be earl merle highchurch

-merlegartia ville

-i love mookie he’s so cute

-”you’re his hero you know” OKAY THANKS FOR RIPPING MY HEART OUT THAT WAS CUTE

-UNCLE TAAKO AND UNCLE MAGNUS AND AUNT LUP AND AUNT LUCRETIA AND UNCLE BARRY AND DAV

-pun’kin thats adorable

-AW THATS SO CUTE I LOVE THIS MERLE LOVES HIS KIDS SO MUCH

-wedding wedding wedDING WEDDING WEDDING WEDDING W E D D I N G  L E A S BI A N S

-this is so sweet im so happy i love this so much

-ango cries at weddings thats so sweet

-i love these characters!!! so much!!!

-subtle magnus. so very subtle 

-right hand man magnus is my favorite i love

-magnus has a school too and DOG TRAINER YAY 

-HE TRAINS SERVICE DOGS!! I LOVE 

-HE NAMED HIS DOG JOHANN IM CRYING IM ACTUALLY CRYING RIGHT NOW

-okay griffin how about go fuck yourself? 

-i love the few seconds of silence after griffin asks “how does magnus die”

-oh my lord im crying harder now this is such fucking bullshit what the hell guys

-god dont bring grown up angus into this shit what the fuck griffin 

-im actually sobbing over this oh my lord

-travis is clearly crying you can hear it in his voice

-OH NO DO NOT BRING JULIA INTO THIS

-BITCH DO N O T

-god i dont like hearing travis cry 

-im actually like sobbing over this 

-oh my god the music 

-oh my lor d st  o p it hurts its so cute i love magnus so much i love him and julia and the dogs and i love travis so sos os os os o much 

-THE MOST BEAUTIFUL ELF IM LIKE 100% NOT OKAY RIGHT NOW THIS HURTS SO BAD

-carey my sweet girl i love her

-”im gonna streak my fuckin eyeliner” “give me a hug lizard girl” “dont fuckin call me that. i’m a proud dragonborn” 

-i love the lesbians i love everyone in this god damn podcast

-fisher :D

-love them voidfish

-aw they all cried that warms my heart 

-honestly that was so beautiful??????

-travis hasnt urinated in three years confirmed 

-so thats it. thats the end. im glad it ended how it did, i really liked that. 

[junker-town]

When exactly did you become a fan of your college football team?

Here are a bunch of fun stories. Give us yours!

SB Nation has a cool series right now: each of our team sites discussing the origins of fandom. I wanted to share a few of the best from our college team blogs, though there are many other good ones. (To join in and enter a contest, find your school's blog.)

College fandom often goes deeper than the pro kind, whether due to regional history or alumni status or family ties, and a lot of these stories stand out as pretty unique.

Like becoming a Texas fan because your mom was into Russell Crowe's rock band:

Mom decided to visit Austin in 2001 to see TOFOG and re-connect with a friend from graduate school.

I was looking at at a handful of schools at that time — Montana, Montana State, CU-Boulder, a liberal arts college in Minneapolis, and Indiana as a back up. I wasn’t really sold on any of them and basically eliminated the school in Minnesota because I made the smart choice of visiting it in December.

Mom and her friend decided I should visit Austin, so I did in October of 2001.

Or finding UCLA by way of the New York Yankees:

In the late 70s, it was all about the Yanks, no matter how much you Dodger fans hated it. My guys on those Yankee teams were catcher Thurman Munson and first baseman Chris Chambliss, who kickstarted the Yankee dynasty of that era with a walk-off home run in the 1976 American League Championship Series to send the Yankees to the World Series.

It would be years later that I came to know that Chambliss had played his college baseball at UCLA.

My next step towards the Bruins probably didn’t come until the late '80s when Troy Aikman faced off against Rodney Peete.

Or finding Penn State because the Browns pulled a Browns:

On Nov. 9, 1993, the Browns made a shocking move by releasing Bernie Kosar, a hometown hero whom every kid (and many adults) in my region idolized. He was the ultimate underdog, a slow-footed quarterback with awkward mechanics. Kosar was able to use his understanding of the game to become one of the NFL’s top quarterbacks throughout the late ‘80s and into the ‘90s.

I was too heartbroken to cheer for the Browns for the remainder of the season. I followed Kosar to the Cowboys and cheered as he filled in to lead them to an NFC Championship victory by filling in for an injured Troy Aikman and took the field for the final play in Super Bowl XXVIII.

I was determined not to cheer for the Browns again until Art Modell had sold the team and Bill Belichick was long gone from Cleveland, and decided to pay more attention to college football and my adopted team of Penn State.

Well, let’s just say my timing couldn’t have been better. As you know, the Nittany Lions went undefeated behind one of the most electrifying offenses in the history of college football, led by the likes of Kerry Collins, Ki-Jana Carter, Kyle Brady and Bobby Engram.

Or becoming a Sooner immediately after immigrating from India:

When my family made the move from India decades ago, we first settled in the great town of Norman, Oklahoma, where my uncle’s family who’d sponsored ours for immigration had been living. My uncle, a professor and administrator at OU through the 1980s and ‘90s, gets most of the credit for teaching me about American sports, and my two older U.S.-born cousins get the rest. Truth be told, the first football game I remember was Notre Dame taking on West Virginia. My attention was fixated on the Irish’s helmets.

Forgive me, for I was only six and had never before seen the crazy game of football. (I will mention, however, I was a pretty damn good cricketer.)

My fickle infatuation didn’t last long, and the colors of the Crimson & Cream took over. I remember my cousin, Vijay, would fill me in on all things OU daily, and I’d eat up that knowledge. About a month into my indoctrination, I knew all about Coach Switzer, the wishbone, Mookie Blaylock and the Kansas Jayhawks, who had robbed the Sooners of the 1988 basketball crown and were the epitome of evil.

Or getting the full brunt of Oklahoma State pain right up front:

On October 30, 2004, I cried like the nine-year-old I was. Since the first home game I’d attended nearly a year before, I'd developed a passion for Oklahoma State. What happened on October 30, 2004?

Adrian Peterson happened.

It was another classic Bedlam. Back-and-forth, and neither team could stop the other. Peterson had 249 yards on 33 carries, and rattled off an 80-yard touchdown run that all of us remember.

A Vernand Morency touchdown with 11 minutes left cut the second-ranked OU lead to 38-35. The momentum swung toward OSU, and it felt like if the Cowboys could just score one more time, they’d steal a Bedlam win.

With ten seconds left, OSU set up Jason Ricks for a 49-yard field goal from the left hash.

Good snap. Good hold. Wide right.

From our seats, I thought it went in. I went ballistic. I then looked at my dad and saw the horror on his face.

Or becoming a Louisville fan at an even younger age:

I can't tell you when precisely when I "decided" to become a Louisville fan. All I know is there are tapes of me asking which team is "the good guys" very soon after the time I learned to talk. All I know is there are videos of me in a U of L basketball uniform performing mock starting lineups at an age where psychologists say I couldn't form conscious memories. All I know is that for as long as I can recall, Cardinal sports have been something that I've cared about far more than I care about most things.

Or being literally born into fandom:

Following a discharge as a Major, this family put in roots in South Jordan, Utah. Partially due to the chance to go to BYU sports.

Early in the 3rd quarter, Steve Young threw a dart to Mike Eddo for a 24-yard TD, and a Lee Johnson PAT put BYU up 42-7 against the Bowling Green Falcons.

It was around this moment when I pulled my best Lee Johnson imitation — in my mother’s uterus. That’s right. My mom not only went to a football game while she was 9 months pregnant, she also went into labor.

Or finding rivalry while in the middle of making your college decision:

In February of 2008, I visited the University of Oregon for the first time. By the time I completed the tour, I knew this place was special. I just felt like I was at home, especially because I am a runner, and how could I turn down a town with running at its core?

On the way back up to the airport, we stopped at Oregon State for a visit. As soon as I heard they didn't offer a journalism program, I popped the trunk and pulled out my Ducks sweatshirt I’d just acquired and tossed it on while still on campus.

I also visited Washington State and loved the campus. What crossed it off the list was when someone on the campus tour asked what people do for fun in Pullman. Well, they can't be honest and say drink heavily, so they pointed us to Moscow, Idaho, where I think there was a Walmart and maybe an IHOP.

(Our Washington State fans are over here.)

Or having one of those geographically disparate piles of fandoms that mark a person as being from a time, rather than a place:

I got into sports when I was five, and I was five in 1995, and the Gators were great at football then. I would be up early for school every morning, and started reading the sports pages of the Orlando Sentinel daily and watching SportsCenter almost as often, falling for the Gators and Atlanta Braves and Green Bay Packers and Orlando Magic because they were all prominent and potent.

I was a bandwagoner, but we who are fans all are bandwagoners at least once, whether we jump on the back of the wagon, or are placed on it by parents, or amble up onto it as children who would have no use for the word “bandwagon” in the first place.

Or the greatest fandom explanation of them all: picking a lifelong allegiance just to troll your friends:

I followed the best players and tuned into whatever the prime games on ESPN and ABC were. That is until I got sick of my friend and his borderline obsession with [Iowa State QB] Seneca Wallace. I’m not embellishing when I tell you that at the peak of this love affair, he owned three Seneca Wallace jerseys and had them in a rotation. To top that, when Wallace made it to the league, my friend would trade him to whichever team he used to play me in Madden.

So, I did what all of us would do to their friend… I started rooting for his favorite player’s rival, just to bust his huevos.

Now, I didn’t know anything about Iowa to start. I thought their jerseys were some of the cleanest in college football. But that was about it. As I started watching more intently, it didn’t take long for me to get hooked.

I was raised a fourth-generation Georgia Tech fan in Atlanta. My first sports memory is a Clemson fan roaring in my face when I was three. The first sports thing I cared about was the Yellow Jackets' 1990 national title season. I assumed things would stay good forever, so I became a Falcons and Hawks fan too. Things didn't stay good.

I went to Kennesaw State, a little north of Atlanta, but mostly rooted for Tech until KSU's 2010 announcement that we were starting an FCS team. I'd never identified with Tech's fans, because I'm not smart and because Jackets aren't used to embracing sidewalk alumni, so transferring all my emotions was easier than it sounds.

Otherwise, in my job covering college football full-time since that season, I think I just root for whatever would make the most people happy at the time. Clemson winning a good title game made people pretty happy.

Tip on over to your school’s blog to share your own story.