#lup writes

[lupine-trees]

learn me, love me, let me know

[something, something, learning as a love language. dedicated to the mundane bits of falling. a drabble in three parts.]

word count: ~1,550, rating: t

I.

The routine dictates: Thursdays are for new recipes and bad movies.

Draco stood at the stove, hovering over a saucepan. I want to try to make something for the gnocchi, he’d said, like an absolute fool.

He’d gone rogue, recipe-less, and this was what he got for it.

“Something’s not right,” he called to Harry, who was poking at a puzzle spread across the living room coffee table. “Here,” he said, scooping up a spoonful and carrying it over, a careful hand cupped underneath. He lifted the spoon to Harry’s lips.

Harry tasted, nodded, thoughtful, knees tucked under him on the rug. “Salt.”

Draco huffed. “I added salt.”

Harry grinned up at him. “More salt.”

Draco went back to the kitchen, and Harry, with sudden realization, rose and followed behind him.

“Wait— here,” he called, reaching up to the potted plant on the windowsill and plucking a few sprigs of chive, pulling a pinch of parsley. He made quick work of them on the cutting board while Draco stirred at the sauce, sprinkled in more salt.

“Alright.” Harry passed the board to Draco, who slid the herbs into the pan.

“It’s still—”

Harry reached over him to one of the myriad jars on the shelf, poured just a bit of the powder over the mixture.

“Cornstarch,” he said, a smile easy on his lips. “It’ll thicken. Give it a minute.”

And sure enough.

Draco took a spoonful, warm and fragrant, tasted it, and nearly moaned. Cleared his throat.

“So?” Harry said, leaned back against the countertop.

“Delicious, of course. You’re unbelievable.” The annoyance was put-upon, a convenient cover for an inconvenient truth.

“I think you mean, ‘Thanks, Harry, I don’t know what I’d do without you.’”

“I assure you, I do not,” he murmured, small grin sharp, crowding into Harry’s space, pressing him back against the counter, one hand splayed over his hip.

“Go on, try it,” he said, placing the spoon again at Harry’s lips.

Harry did, and he had no such qualms about moaning.

II.

This part was definitely not routine.

Draco’s flat— once Harry was finally permitted to visit— was, somehow, smaller even than Harry’s own, and more bafflingly, he had crammed a piano into it anyway.

“Are you even allowed to have this here? Surely it’s too heavy. There’s gotta be, I dunno, building codes or something.”

Draco gave him a belabored glance. “That’s what magic is for, Potter.” He gave the piano a gentle shove, and it slid. “Featherweight charm.”

“Oh,” Harry answered, carefully pulling the piano back into its place. “Y’know, I always wanted to learn to play one of these.” He plunked a finger down on a key, trailed a few notes.

“Did you?”

“Mhm. They have one at the Burrow, an old upright heirloom. I could play Jingle Bells, but, well. Doesn’t really count, does it?”

“Don’t be ridiculous. Here.” Draco lifted the bench seat, pulling out sheets of music, settling them on the stand. “Sit, sit.”

Harry sat. Draco slid in beside him. “Put your fingers here,” he said, placing him at rest on the keys.

So, it went like this: The afternoon was long, bleeding into evening, the music clunky. Harry definitely played Jingle Bells upward of twenty times. Draco might’ve taken the opportunity to lean cozily on his shoulder, to place his hands atop Harry’s for teaching purposes.

“Your neighbors are going to hate you,” Harry murmured, softened by the bottle of wine they’d kipped into about an hour in.

Draco laughed. “You’re unbelievable.” He gave a tug at his magic, and the walls lit up with the delicate web of it. “Silencing charms. Wizards. Magic school. Ringing any bells?”

“Oh,” Harry breathed, eyes trailing the soft golds, the cool blues of the trace magic patterned over the wallpaper.

“Play again,” Draco said, bustling him, their shoulders flush.

Harry let out a sound of protest, his cheeks a pleasant, dusky pink. “I can’t. You play.”

“Alright. You pitiful thing.”

And he did, play, and it was lovely.

But anyway, it wasn’t about the music, really, was it?

III.

The routine didn’t really have a say in the weather, but if it did, it would typically be indifferent to rain.

Unfortunately, the tire had gone out on the Corolla, which meant they were left like so: stranded road-side, with the jack and the spare, but a bit tragically, with none of the requisite experience or education necessary to make use of them.

All this and the rain, which had picked up from a steady patter and was dropping buckets rather insistently.

Harry was holding his best umbrella charm— best being the operative description. The raindrops were sneaking through in patches to where Draco’d laid out the spare blanket from the backseat. He was flat on his back, slid under the car, trying to position the jack, to make it lift, to do something.

The ground, though, was hard and cold and wet. The jack slipped again, dropping the car the few inches it had risen, and Draco shrank back, startled, and swore.

He clambered inelegantly from beneath the car, abandoning the rear passenger tire, the nail jammed into it, flat flat flat.

“Alright?” Harry called over the downpour, offering him a hand up.

Draco accepted, then dusted at his dampened trousers. “It’s no good. I’ve got no bloody clue. The cursed thing won’t stay put, and I—” He felt the frustration crawling up his neck, and left the sentence unfinished, tossing his hands in the air.

“We’ll figure it out,” Harry assured.

“Oh, we’ll figure it out. Brilliant. My favorite plan, the kind that doesn’t actually even exist.”

“We can apparate into town, then come back—”

“I’m not leaving the Corolla,” he said, stubbornly, knowing it was stubborn as he said it, unreasonable.

Harry’s voice was raised, shouting over the torrent of the rain, which his spellwork was doing little to deflect. “Draco, I get it, but the car will be fine. We need to—”

“I know the car will be fine,” Draco interrupted, a hiss, “because I’m not leaving it.” He stalked back to the driver’s side door, pulled it open, hard on the hinges. “And your umbrella charm’s shit,” he flung over his shoulder, before climbing inside and slamming the door shut.

The regret was almost immediate, mingling with anxious irritation and the rain drops sliding cold down his spine, plopping from his hair and onto his nose. The rain was louder, too, inside, pinging off the roof and the windshield. Draco fretted at Harry, standing out there still, nudging at the tire, undoubtedly soaked to the bone.

The minutes stretched, and the tension wilted. Draco folded into the steering wheel, knocking his forehead lightly against it. Just as he found the resolve to go back out, to make it right, to try again, the passenger door opened, and Harry dropped into his seat. His curls were plastered to his forehead, and his glasses fogged in the sudden heat of the car.

“Alright,” he said.

“I’m sorry,” Draco said. “It’s my fault. The car. This whole ridiculous idea.”

He reached for Harry’s glasses and wiped them clear as he could (rain-damp shirt given) before returning them to the bridge of his nose.

“And I’m sorry. For snapping. It’s not fair.”

Harry reached for his hand. “Thanks. But I like the car. And I like the idea. And I… like you. So.”

“I can’t imagine why.”

“Stop that, now. Try the car.”

“What?”

“Drive it. Just a few metres. To try something.”

“Alright.”

And the car moved, and nothing horrible happened, and really, you couldn’t even tell there was a flat. They stopped, hazard lights still blinking.

“You changed it?”

Harry laughed, low. “Not exactly. Fortunately, though, my levitation charms are less shit than my umbrella ones.”

“You’re… levitating the car?”

“Sure. I mean, we need to get to an auto shop, because I don’t know how long it’ll hold, but I think we’re only about 12 kilometres—”

Draco practically leapt across the console, the need to kiss Harry an absolute.

“Mmph!” Harry muffled against his lips, startled, but he had no further protests. The kiss was clinging, hands all wrapped in hair and around one another, damp and desperate and delighted. They pulled apart, breath heavy, and Draco laughed.

“You’re brilliant. You’re ridiculous. I can’t believe you. I love you. I— oh.” Draco stopped short, a blush creeping sudden up his neck.

“Oh,” Harry breathed, and smiled at him, and Draco wanted to sink into his seat.

“I didn’t mean to say that,” he murmured, slowly, careful.

“It’s alright,” Harry said. “I did.”

“What?”

“I meant it. Before. I love the car. And I love the idea.” He reached for Draco’s hands again, holding him steady, the way he did.

“And I love you.” He tilted his head, thoughtful. “Mostly that one,” he said, dimple flashing, devastating.

Draco’s heart pattered with the rain, and he leaned forward, the grin on his lips barely contained.

“You’re completely absurd,” he said, all fondness and irrepressible warmth.

“And you love me,” Harry whispered.

“A madman.”

“And you love me.”

“Absolutely shit at umbrella charms.”

“And?” Harry said, hopeful and plain, unexpectant.

Draco closed the little distance left between them. “And I love you.”

[orykorioart]

June 2023

How could you forget Lup?

[Image Description: A 5-panel illustrated comic featuring Taako and Lup in a limited color palette of pink, light brown, light red, purple, blue and yellow. Taako is is depicted with light brown skin and dark hair, which he ties behind his back. He wears a purple cloak. Lup is depicted with light brown skin and dark hair, which she ties in front of her. She wears a red cloak.

Panel 1: Young Taako and Lup, on both sides of a pot. Lup is stirring as Taako looks in. Below the panel is captioned with purple text:

“What’s the feeling”

Panel 2: Close-up of young Taako and Lup. You can see half of their face, and they are excitedly talking to each other. Below the panel is captioned with purple text:

“When you have a broken home, home, home?”

Panel 3: Pans down to young Taako and Lup’s torso. They are standing close to each other, indicating that they are holding hands. Below the panel is captioned, text in purple:

“Where’s the love when you were left on your own”

Panel 4: Taako’s hand, wearing the Bureau of Balance bracer. His hand is relaxed, but alone. There is a brief out line of Lup’s hand, reaching out for his. Below the panel is captioned with purple text:

“So alone”

Panel 5: Taako is standing center-frame, and you can only see the bottom half of his face and his torso. There is a single tear rolling down his cheek, his mouth slightly agape. He is grasping the Umbrastaff tightly in one hand, holding it close to his chest. There is a faint outline of a hand on his shoulder. Below the panel is captioned with red text:

“Who said you’re on your own?” End ID]

[anistarrose]

colors of space and time

On the Starblaster, one could distinguish which twin dyed their hair recently by simply walking into the bathroom, and noting the color and intensity of the stain. But you would only need to if somehow, you missed them parading their new looks around that day.

Sometimes, they’ll bleach it at the same time, but Taako always dyes his pastel. He’s the more likely one to spring for cool colors, too, but always seafoam greens (on the beach world) and pale purples (on Tesseralia). Lup isn’t so reserved — she dyes hers a saturated, electric blue the year after the Conservatory, and when she pulls it back in a ponytail, it looks like flames fanning out behind her head.

They coordinate, but never by choosing the same color, their crewmates notice. No, they go complimentary — Lup goes violet while Taako goes blond, he goes green when she chooses red. Some of the time that she chooses red. She chooses red a lot, after all.

When did they dive into hair dye for the first time? When did they realize they liked the look of purposefully messy roots? Lup can’t recall the answer anymore — it must’ve been well over a century ago. Maybe two — Lup had lived so many lives, even before the start of the cycles. Sometimes the details of her early adulthood blur, let alone childhood.

But nevertheless, she knows the reason why it all started. To remind everyone looking on that though twins, she and Taako were different people.

(keep reading on ao3!)

[umbraastaff]

"You just bent that man!" Taako shouts, with that sort of loud stupidity that Barry is only just beginning to recognize as feigned.

Barry's face heats up anyway. "I bent the water inside that man," he corrects defensively. His arms sink awkwardly from the makeshift bending stance as their final assailant tumbles down the steep hill, and then, sufficiently spooked by that experience, scrambles to his feet and runs away. "And he was already off balance--"

"You're a waterbender?"

Barry looks at Lup, shocked. He didn't even realize he'd never mentioned it. "It... It never came up?"

"Never came up?" She demands, and he flinches as a breeze whips up around them. "I've been trying to learn waterbending for weeks, and you could've at any point been like, Hey, by the way, I'm actually so good at water that I can do some unheard of shit, but it never came up?!"

"I'm really not that good--" Barry calls desperately, but she's already storming off.

He looks hopelessly to Taako. "I'm-- I'm sorry, I--"

Taako shrugs. "I'm not the one trying to learn every element, my man."

--

Barry finds her sitting under a waterfall, eyes shut tight and meditative position looking very tense under the barrage of water.

"SORRY!" He calls out, trying to be heard over the violent white noise.

"WHAT?" She squints out to see him, and then frowns so intently at his presence that he immediately wants to disappear forever.

"SORRY!!" He tries again, hands cupped around his mouth. He starts wading into the river towards her.

After watching this for a minute, Lup finally climbs off the rock and gets close enough to hear him. "What?"

"Sorry," Barry says, all the courage drained from his frame upon seeing her close up. "I-- I really didn't mean to-- I didn't think I'd lied, I thought you knew."

"What, like, psychically?"

"I guess," he says sheepishly. "I just forgot I hadn't done any bending in front of you, and I-- I figured you wouldn't be interested in... in learning from me, anyway. I'm really not a good waterbender."

"I saw you bloodbend, dude. How can you not be a 'good waterbender'?"

Barry waves his arms at the water they're both waist deep in, but it barely ripples in response. "Water is big, and overwhelming, and I have to give it a shape. When it's inside of something, like-- When it's in a circulatory system, it's always moving the same ways. You really only have to bend a tiny bit of water to trip someone up, and it already has a shape."

He reaches forward, a question of permission in his eyes, and she holds out an arm curiously. Barry points to her shoulder without touching, and traces his hand down her arm to her finger, where she's suddenly compelled to curl her fingers for a second.

"I know enough about waterbending to know that's not normal. It's for sure not the kind the Avatar should be learning."

"Well, I'm the Avatar, so maybe let me decide what I should be learning," Lup says, punching his arm. Barry chuckles with her, still a little embarrassed.

"And-- I'm sorry too," Lup adds. "For just, like, running out like that. I've just been so frustrated with this. I know I'll meet a master at the North Pole and all, but if I can barely even move water before I get there, it's like... Why am I even the Avatar? It's only the second element! Fuck!"

"I hear you," Barry says. "You, uh, wanna get started?"

"Yeah, but let's get out of the water first. Can't be in a river if I'm gonna learn proper waterbending." She grins, and Barry laughs.

[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.

[cataztrophi]

Lup hopped onto the counter and sat down cross-legged, resting her chin in her hand. “Honestly, Taako, I didn’t think you had the attention span to hold a grudge this long.”

“She made me forget you, Lup.” He crossed his arms and leaned against the kitchen island, scowling at the floor. “She didn’t know if you were alive or dead but she made me forget you anyway.” There was a hitch in his throat that could have been anger or tears. Lup doubted even he knew which one. “I would have kept looking, I could have–”

“Bud, that’s exactly why she had to make you forget me. She knew you would never stop looking. She wanted to keep you safe, and give you a chance at a happy life while she made things right.”

“But don’t you see that’s worse?” His arms were clenched so tightly to his chest that his whole body shook.

Lup kept her tone gentle, tilting her head down in an attempt to meet his eyes that he refused to acknoweldge. “What do you mean?”

“Because I was happy, Lup! I forgot you, and I was happy. Not all the time, okay, there were some rough patches, but at least some of the time? Yeah, I thought I was doing okay, because I didn't know I had this big fucking hole in the middle of my chest."

Lup shook her head gently. “Taako-”

“How could she just erase you like that? How could I let her? I should have fought it, I should have kept something, like- like Barry did, or….” He threw his hands up, frustrated and overwhelmed by the thoughts that had clearly been running him ragged for months now.

Lup climbed down from the counter and went to lean next to him, their arms almost touching as they both stared at the floor. “You did keep something.”  

He snorted. “If you're going to start on Magnus' bullshit about the umbra staff and how fate brought us back together, don't bother. I already told him where he can stick it.”

“No, that’s not what I mean. Do you remember how, every time you cooked something, Magnus always complained because you used all the spoons?”

Taako looked up at her for the first time, surprised. “What does that have to do-?”

“Do you remember?” There was an insistent edge to her voice now. Desperately trying to make him see.

“Okay, fuck! Yeah, I remember. I kept telling him you have to taste the food as you go.”

“You’re preaching to the choir, my man. But that’s not why you always used all the spoons.”

He was silent for a long moment, considering this. “What do you mean?”

“You used all the spoons because every time you went to taste what you were making, you always grabbed two spoons. I don’t know if you ever even noticed. But you did it because you knew I was supposed to be there with you. Barry told me that, when he couldn’t remember me, he felt it like a weight in his chest. But you, Taako, you felt me in every act of creation, in every moment of joy when you knew you had something good and you wanted to share it with someone. You can’t say you ever really forgot me when I was with you every time you cooked.”

[noodyl-blasstal]

King of the (bouncy) Castle

It's @taznovembercelebration day 17 and today I drew the prompt "soft"

Read below or on Ao3 if you prefer. Missed yesterday's? Find it here.

-

“Ko!” Lup yells from the hall.

“What?” He screams from his bedroom, because he’s still deciding on what to wear and if it’s that urgent she can come in.

“Do you know anyone else?”

“In general? Or?”

“Don’t be a dick. Do you know anyone who can come today?”

“Why?”

“Magnus had to drop out.”

“We can win without him.”

“A team is four people.”

“Ask Dav.”

“He’s racing today”

“Lucretia?”

“She just laughed until I hung up. It was a solid 3 minutes.”

“Merle?”

“I’m going to need you to work from the assumption that I have remembered our joint friends with whom we spend all our time”

“But seriously, Merle.”

“Taako, I have tried everyone we jointly know. He said he was going to be busy in the greenhouse, and then he said some other things. Would you like me to tell you what those other things are? Because I can. I can tell you exactly what he had planned for the onions because he told me because I had him on speaker phone and I got trapped in my shirt and he said a lot of words before I could hang up. They’re burned into my brain forever and cha’girl is happy to share that burden.”

“No! Lulu, don’t! I’ll cast silence.”

“I’ll counterspell it. Now start thinking of people.”

“Angus?”

“I also know Angus, and he’s a literal child.”

“He’s, what, 6 now?”

“He’s eleven, Taako, you baked him a cake in the shape of the number for his birthday two weeks ago.” There’s no need for Lup to slander him like this.

“Eleven! That’s basically an adult for humans, right?”

“No.”

“Are you sure?”

“Are you going to stop doing special magic boy lessons with him because he’s all grown up now?” Lup goes for the jugular. He doesn’t have to stand for this cruelty, for the implication that he actually likes spending time with the baby.

“What aboutttt… erm…” Taako changes the topic seamlessly and casts his mind furiously about for a name, any name, of a person Lup wouldn’t have already called. There’s one that popped up as soon as Lup asked and he’s trying his best to see round it but it keeps sidling into his eye line. He can’t though. It’d be a disaster. “Errrrr… Brian.”

“No. Absolutely anyone else.”

“What’s wrong with Brian?”

“He’s in a cult!”

“But apart from the cult stuff he’s lovely.”

“Taako! Do you want to win or not?”

Fine. Fine! Taako does very much want to win, especially after Lydia tripped him last year.

“Kravitz.” He says it fast, like he’s ripping off a plaster. Maybe Lup won’t put two and two together.

“The guy from work?”

“No?”

“Oh, you know another Kravitz, do you?”

“Yes?”

“Is any of that supposed to have convinced me?”

“Is it working?”

“No.”

“Fuck.”

“So… different Kravitz? How do you know Kravitz-Who’s-Not-From-Work? Why do you have a way of getting in touch with him?” Lup’s going to cling to this an unnecessary amount.

“Ooooh are we talking about Kravitz?” Barry, fucking Barry, asks. Wandering his ass right into their private conversation.

“This is a private conversation, Barold.” Yells Taako through the door of his room into the hall of their too-small shared apartment.

“Would you like me to put my noise cancelling headphones on?” Barry asks, earnestly, like he’d actually fucking do it if Taako said yes.

“Absolutely not, Barry, You live in this house and you have every right to be in this hallway.” Lup snaps. She’s still mad about last time Taako forgot to tell Barry he could take the headphones off. In his defence, he made him a cake about it. A jake, in fact, with edible press studs. Barry loved it! Plus, he was listening to one of his lectures, he was fine, happy as a clam!

“Fine.” Taako threw up his hands, no one could see him, but it felt important to do it anyway, you know, for the drama. He couldn’t argue with this, he didn’t have a choice, he may as well give in and call Kravitz, they’ve both worked together to twist his arm. “You’re making me do this though. It’s not because I want to. I’ve been compelled.”

“What?” Says Barry, perplexed. “I thought we were just talking about your crush.”

“His what?” Says Lup.

Taako springs forward and manages to flick the lock across the second before Lup tries the handle.

“You’re in love with death?” She tries the handle a few more times, as if it’ll jiggle the lock free.

“A man isn’t his job, Lup.” Taako shouts back. Denying everything.

“That wasn’t a no!”

“I have to ring him, because you’re making me. Or do you not want to win Bounce Off 2: Bounce in the City?”

There’s grumbling from the other side of the door followed by a muttered “c’mon Barold,” fakeout. Taako’s wise to it though, so he isn’t shocked by her ‘one last try’ of the door handle, or the second attempt that follows after she does fake footsteps away from the door.

“Fine! He’d better be down though and good.”

“He’s tall.” Says Barry, conversationally. He’d better not plan on telling Lup anything else.

“Good. We can use height.Is he strong?” Lup asks.

Kravitz is strong, Taako knows that for normal reasons, reasons like he can carry a lot of pastries when he orders them; and that time he helped Taako move the big table when someone spilled and he had to clean under it. Not reasons like all the time he spends staring at Kravitz’s forearms, and his thighs, and his everything else. Because he doesn’t do that. Taako would never.

“Fine. Don’t answer me.” Lup actually leaves this time, Taako pretends he can’t hear Barry telling her about Kravitz and his newfound love of coffee and baked goods.

Taako [10:23] Yo stud got a minute to chat?

It was only polite to text first, he doesn’t want to jumpscare Kravitz with a phone call, he isn’t a sadist. The three dots flashed up immediately. Thank fuck he’s awake at the crack of dawn.

Bones [10:24] Dear Taako, Of course, I’ve always got time for you. All best, Kravitz.

Taako has been trying hard not to find his ridiculous dork texts endearing. He’s failing. Badly. He ignores the squooshy feeling it gives him and hits the call button instead.

“Hello Taako, it’s lovely to hear from you!” Says Kravitz like he actually means it.

“Hey Krav, quiiiiiick q for ya. What’re you doing this morning?”

“I’m just practising.” Of course he is. Why wouldn’t Kravitz be sat straddling his giant instrument right now? Taako’s mature though, he won’t make a joke about it.

“Can’t keep your hands off your instrument, shameful!” Fuck.

“Well, someone has to keep it in tune.”

Gods, he wasn’t supposed to play along. Why did he keep flirting back? Was this whole thing actually plausible?

“Wanna spend some time with Taako instead?”

“I’d be very interested in that.” Kravitz says, buttery and glorious.

“How do you feel about inflatables?”

There’s a long pause.

“It’s not a sex thing.” Taako says, to make it less weird.

“I’m not sure that makes what you said less weird, Taako.”

“You know, like bouncy castles.”

“Okay.” Kravitz doesn’t sound particularly convinced.

“And my sister will be there.”

There’s another pause. “...And Barry?”

“Obviously.”

“Uh huh.”

Fuck, Taako’s losing him, and it’s suddenly incredibly important that Kravitz not only agree to this, but is also enthusiastic about it. “It’s a competition.” Says Taako.

“Oh?” Of course that piqued his interest, Kravitz loves competition. He tries to help harder than any other customer, tip better than anyone else, and he races people in the street.

“We lost last year, but we’ve been in training.”

“You’ve been in bouncy castle training?”

“Obstacle course training… and also trampolines.”

“Is that what the weird squeaking is when we’re on the phone sometimes?”

“What?”

“You know, the calls where you’re all breathy and there’s the squeaking noise.”

Taako didn’t realise Kravitz had picked up on that. “You didn’t think…?”

“Well now I know it’s not a sex thing.”

“You thought it was a sex thing and you stayed on the phone?”

“I don’t judge.”

“You didn’t wanna ask Taako what he was up to?”

“I know you’re a private person.”

“Not if you think Taako’s doing sex things on the phone without your consent. In fact, that’s the least private a person can be.”

“You make a compelling point.”

Taako doesn’t even begin to know what to do with that. “So… bouncing?”

“Where is it?”

“We can pick you up.”

“All three of you?”

“Barry said he’s sorry and he’ll stop asking about the ‘secret sauce.’”

“I just really don’t think it’s a respectful way to talk about embalming fluid.”

Taako thinks it’s a great way to refer to embalming fluid, but he also wants Kravitz to be happy. “He double pinky promised.”

“Oh, well if he double pinky promised.”

“Great! Pick you up in 20, wear something snazzy.”

Taako hangs up the phone before Kravitz can object or ask anything else. He has limited time and an outfit to re-plan.

[rattoes420]

Taz liveshows my beloved

Image description: digital art of Lup from The Adventure Zone, a slim elf with brown skin and long, wavy blond hair. She wears a long green dress, black gloves and wide-brimmed hat, and black lipstick, and she's smiling and winking at the viewer. Text to the left of her reads: "She intends to collect." End description.

[jigenstits]

..... do you think lupin's dirty talk to zeni when theyre fucking is stuff like "im all yours" and "you caught me"?

...bc i do JLKHGJFH

[yardsards]

a canonically queer (with a musically-inclined love interest) pointy-eared magic user who has trust issues (influenced partially by their sister (whose name begins with L) who was their best and only friend as a young child) but acts aloof and cocky to hide it, begins begrudgingly giving magic lessons to a heavily neurodivergent-coded human child (who has a special interest in a certain book series and models their life goals around the protagonist of said series) and accidentally grows attached to and trusts that human child wholeheartedly

am i talking about them:

or them:

[jerreeeeeee]

there's nothing inherently wrong or unhealthy with a platonic relationship being the most intimate and important in someone's life (whether that person is also in a romantic relationship or not). this has been said before but people still treat it like its true. ESPECIALLY that a prioritized platonic relationship belies “codependency” even though no one would bat an eye at the exact same dynamic if it were romantic, because of the idea that a prioritized platonic relationship is somehow immature/unhealthy and something to grow out of/move on from.

the idea that the twins just go, well, you've been the person i felt safest loving and trusting in my entire life, our souls have been bound by fate and magic and our love for one another is one of the strongest bonds in the multiverse, transcending death and unimaginable loss, the motivation behind everything we’ve ever done, but since we're both in romantic relationships now and the story is over, the reasonable and in-character thing to do would be to split up and have separate nuclear families because that's the "healthy thing" (read: expected thing). there's no other form of a domestic happy ending than a marriage and typical nuclear family. you're everything to me, my entire world, my heart, see you later.

ok this got too long i'm putting it under a readmore.

(also why i don't really like the idea that taako adopts angus. "parent" is not the only important, loving role an adult can play in a child's life but people feel that need to shove everything into a nuclear family. also taako has too much going on to be the good parent that angus needs anyway. and magnus and lucretia are right there. but this is another post <- this is actually a fan fiction i’m writing, kind of)

i just find that frankly silly. i truly believe that the twins live together for the rest of their lives and are always each others' most important person (before anyone kills me i do think barry is there too. they also both love him so much. capacity for love INCREASES there’s no need for a replacement or a “moving on” it’s an addition). there's not any reason they wouldn't live together other than that it’s not “normal?” but why would they give a shit about that. their prioritization of one another isn't the unhealthy thing about their relationship. they do have other stuff going on that's actually codependent, but i think they eventually work past it and come to have a healthier (yet no less close) relationship. actually this post was originally just supposed to be about those codependent tendencies but i felt like i needed to compensate by clarifying that there are only a very specific few things abt their dynamic i find unhealthy and that by and large they’re fine, actually.

the main thing is, as is so succinctly put in this post—they aren't able to communicate about big, important decisions. not to say they never communicate about anything, i think they actually do communicate effectively about a lot of things—warning i’m going into a complete tangent here—i see a lot an idea that they’re not siblings who hug or really verbalize affection at all which is crazy to me (<- personal opinion alert) like they’re closed off and distrusting (taako more than lup, but she’s certainly not exempt from their trauma) to other people and the world at large but they have always always been each other’s exception, each other’s utmost safe place, the one person they could be absolutely comfortable around, who they never have to be afraid of. that’s one of the things i find so compelling about them, that they trust each other with their entire selves. they have no reason to ever feel defensive around each other. oh to be known so entirely and intimately and never feel ashamed or afraid of judgement or abandonment. augh. so i do think they hug.

also—i don't think they're unhealthily codependent in the sense that they "don't know how to be a person without each other" like that's certainly not true for lup and i don't really think it's true for taako either. they have their own distinct personalities and identities they just also both inform each others’ lives. they're an integral part of each other's identity the way your family or best friend or partner or most important person in your life is but again i think that's fine.

but back to the topic at hand anyway they DO hide their misgivings from each other when it comes to huge shit with world-changing, life-threatening consequences lol. when it comes to, like, turning herself into a lich, or leaving to recover her dangerous magical artifact, lup feels like she needs to be entirely decisive and confident for taako, and when it comes to his sister turning herself into a lich, or proposing a dangerous magical artifact plan, taako feels like he needs to be unflinchingly supportive and loyal for lup. and those both backfire obviously. because they trust each other so completely that they don't trust each other enough to not trust each other. weird paradox.

but really its not a lack of trust in each other its their own insecurities projected onto each other. lup second guesses herself but feels like she can’t express that uncertainty so she’s alone with her doubts which increases the pressure and stress and creates a feedback loop that only makes her more insecure. and taako feels like he doesn’t have anything to bring to the table other than backing up lup and is afraid doubting her would hurt her which means he never has an opportunity to find out he does actually have good ideas and that lup would listen to him constructively. but it manifests in lup “not trusting taako” to have her back even if she doubts herself and taako “not trusting lup” to take criticism even if his idea is good.

and honestly i think the solution to this codependency just comes with… not being in those lifethreatening situations anymore. the universe was saved and they have normal (magical fantasy world) lives. so now when they’re hiding things from each other the stakes are a lot lower. and when the stakes are lower they’re able to express uncertainty because they don’t feel that extreme and terrifying pressure anymore. lup doesn’t have to make impossible decisions and stick to them despite any doubt because she doesn’t have the survival of entire worlds on her back anymore. taako doesn’t have to always agree with lup and uncritically support her every choice because he’s not the only thing holding her together from oblivion anymore. so they're able to express doubts and nothing falls apart and they're actually stronger for it. and they’re already doing so much work on fixing their relationship just from being separated and kinda grieving for a decade too, so they eventually work past that.

and also because they have to face those insecurities and their consequences. lup got trapped in umbrella limbo for a decade and taako had his life destroyed. if lup had been able to overcome her need to put everything on her shoulders and expressed uncertainty, if taako had been able to overcome his blind loyalty and expressed doubt, would they have gone through with the relics? would they have even gone through with the lich plan? they realize only afterward that they should’ve talked about it, and so they learn from their mistakes.

another tangent—isn’t it so crazy how, by any standard, lup should be the strongwilled, passionate, heroic protagonist and taako her cynical, pragmatic, yet loyal sidekick? and yet he’s the protagonist and she the supporting character in the actual narrative? so subversive and intriguing. i cant believe this was all masterfully and purposefully written. anyway. (<- in the in-universe metanarrative version of the story, lup [and honestly, probably davenport] is the tragic ghost who haunts the narrative and lucretia & barry are the morally gray protagonist foils, and tres horny boys are supporting characters/comic relief who go on to have their own semi-important b-plot arcs that ultimately serve to further the protagonists’ arcs. btw.)

back to the twins. i also think they don't only grow post-canon, i think they grow a LOT during the century, because in the beginning, they're coming from a life where they have been not only the most important people in each other's lives, but the ONLY people in each other's lives. and now they're suddenly faced with more people, which they handle fine individually, more or less—lup is faster to warm up to the others, but even though taako's attitude is very much that he only cares about him and his, he is capable of expanding the people who are "his" (eventually). but they've never had to bring other people into their dynamic with each other before.

i don't think either of them are possessive, their relationship is built on deepest mutual respect and love and trust and "possessiveness" is kinda antithetical to that, but they can both be jealous on occasion. although there is a difference—lup is the only one who will outwardly display jealousy (and maybe a better word than jealousy would be insecurity), again because of the dynamic earlier: taako must always support whatever decisions lup makes without question. so when taako dies one cycle and all of a sudden merle and magnus and everyone else grieve him too, lup feels a sense of ownership over grief (not over taako himself, but over loving taako, just because no one else ever really has before, and she’s never had to think about the possibility that he might love other people too) that she initially may not challenge but does eventually let go of, because it's actually a good thing that other people love him now, and bringing new people into their family doesn’t make their love for each other any less. and taako has a similar experience but tbh i think its a little easier for him bc, like, who wouldn’t love lup, and lup loves other people way more freely than taako does (still not super freely, its a low bar). not that lup thinks taako is unloveable OBVIOUSLY (taako does think he’s unloveable tho) i just think they have different attitudes abt it, like they both have the moments of “but you don’t love them as much as i do!!” which is true, no one loves them as much as they do, but taako’s more willing to let that shit go bc he just doesn’t care as much what the others do as long as they don’t fuckin bother him about it. like lup sees the others equate (as she sees it, but oc they’re not actually grieving At Her) their (comparatively shallow) grief to her world-shattering loss of her best friend, only family, soulmate, silly rabbit, and she gets angry about it, but taako’s reaction is more like, “ok they’re stupid. who cares.” meanwhile and more importantly, all of a sudden lup is falling in love with barry, but taako's not one to throw a fit or demand that he's the only one who can love lup nor the only one lup can love. she’s made her decision. he just gives barry advice and lets it quietly hurt and draws distant, because he has a deep seated fear of abandonment that is now, for the first time, clashing with his unshakable trust in lup. and their relationship irrevocably changes but maybe not for the worse, because taako has, for the first time, doubted lup, a disruption to their typical (codependent) dynamic. but, of course, in the end his fears are unfounded and lup pulls him back in, because their capacity for love increases—of course lup still loves him just as much and yknow what, so does barry, and so does the rest of the crew. so he doubts and fears and is proven wrong. and so they grow and change, and their world increases from two to seven.

but that doubt doesn’t really go away for a long time, exacerbated and strained the more lup keeps secrets (especially with barry) until it reaches a head when lup finally doubts taako and does truly abandon him. but again, of course, never on purpose and never forever, they find their way back to each other despite everything and, again, come away stronger for it. the idea that the twins’ relationship is never as close again after story and song is so fucking tragic and heartrending but really i just think its unrealistic. because the rift between them is what caused their pain in the first place, of course they wouldn’t just shrug and move on. they would do anything for each other, including a lot of difficult emotional work and healing. for a little while they do have to deal with the reality that they’re not as close as they were. but they can be again. it just takes time and effort.

but anyway just to drive my point home—we mostly see taako's side of it since he is the protagonist in the real world narrative, but lup is always, always positioned within that narrative as his most important person. (and even then, lup says as much for taako! she loves barry of course but she loves taako so much he’s her heart!!) when thb see their lives after the hunger in paloma's prophecy, taako sees himself cooking with lup. she's textually representative of healing and joy in his future, and she's the main character present in his epilogue too. she's his greatest loss and his greatest love, positioned in exactly the same place as julia and merle's kids. there are a myriad of love stories going on in balance and a myriad of love stories involving taako that are all beautiful and significant in their own right but i really do think the main one in his life is lup!!

well all that to say they’re my favorite little critters ever and i’m studying them under a microscope forever. how do you end posts

[lupine-trees]

tidings of comfort & joy

[ the boys spend a cozy christmas morning with the weasleys. something light & homey for the season— wishing you all a merry drarry christmas & happy holidays. ⋆⁺₊❅⋆ ⁺₊❆⋆ ]

word count: ~350, rating: g

On Christmas morning, Molly opens the newspaper-wrapped gift last. As the fabric unfolds with a soft swish in her hands, her eyes well. “A tea towel?” George snickers, and Angelina shoves an elbow into his side.

Molly raises it to her cheek, a deep cream against the rosy, freckled flush of her face. “A scarf. It’s a cashmere scarf.”

Then she’s crying in earnest and Bill is resting a steady hand on her shoulder as Percy pulls a handkerchief from the interior of his cigar jacket. Angelina’s giving George an earful, and in spite of the glint in his eye he looks a bit like he wants to sink into the sofa. Fleur’s rocking the baby, who snoozes on unbothered, and Charlie’s laughing, delayed over the patchy Floo connection, and Hermione’s leaning into Ron’s side, trying to stay awake in spite of the circles under her eyes. Harry’s hand settles at the base of Draco’s spine.

Suddenly the room feels so full, full to bursting, and Draco’s not sure he can breathe, feels his face going blotchy, throat tight, that old tickle persistent behind his eyes. He exhales.

“Alright,” Ginny says, “who made Mam cry on Christmas?“ And Molly laughs, but it’s a warbly sound.

She looks up and finds Draco’s eyes, a smile easy on her lips. “Thank you, dear,” she says. “Look at me, blithering like an old biddy. I’ll ruin the thing before I even get to wear it.” She swipes at her eyes, laughing. “Who’s next?!” she demands, suddenly ready to be done with it, the tears and the watching. “It’s Christmas, for Merlin’s sake!”

Harry’s arm wraps around Draco’s side, tugging him closer. “You did good,” Harry murmurs into his neck, and Draco hums, turning to press a quick kiss to his mouth.

As the morning goes on, the family opening gifts and laughing and bantering and filling the room with pure Weasley-ness, Draco’s eyes drift back to Molly’s hands, folded in her lap, stroking the cashmere. The scarf had been his mother’s once. His heart quivers. Maybe, in some way, it is, here, now, too.

[holdmecloser-gandydancer]

So uh, it's @taznovembercelebration time yet again! I wanted to at least get one out so when i pulled Celebrity AU, i had a pretty perfect opening (because the au that lives in mine and Hali's head is constantly rotating like a chicken in my mind)

---

“So that neighbor guy.” Lup states, nary a preamble in the same square mile. She’s perched on the counter, supervising while Taako scrambles a half-dozen eggs. It’s entirely too early or perhaps too late for food, guess it just depends on your perspective. But, far be it from either of them to ever ask for someone else’s perspective.

“He’s certainly a neighbor,” Taako says. He’s not willing to take whatever bait it is that Lup’s dangling. He pokes at the eggs with a spatula and sprinkles a hefty pinch of salt on top, mixing as he goes. 

“He was remarkably kind, given how obnoxious the party was. And his pajamas were awfully cute.” 

Taako fakes a gasp. “Lup, I thought you’re with a very dashing Apple store employee! How quickly your eyes wander.” He hasn’t thought about whatshisname (Kravitz Queen in apartment 22F) since the party he so rudely intruded on. And then fell asleep at. Right at Taako’s own kitchen table. 

She groans and rolls her eyes. “Taako, you’re being purposefully obtuse.” 

“I’ve been told I’m quite acutie.” 

“Awful, I want a new brother.” 

“Sorry, no returns,” he says gleefully. He shuts the burner off and grabs two plates from the cupboard, evenly distributing the eggs across them. “Like. I dunno, Lup, what do you want me to say? He’s cute, sure, but I thought I wasn’t supposed to be pursuing new relationships right now.” That’s what all the doctors at Hollybrook suggested, anyway. He’d rolled his eyes when he first heard that, but as the months have progressed, it’s been a nice break. 

“I’m not saying you need to get married or anything, I’m just saying he’s cute and nice and a musician. Simply stating facts,” she says around a bite of scrambled eggs. “I’m supposed to be on set today, the director apparently has a bold new vision and needs some more cash to make it happen. You wanna come?”

He mulls it over for a moment. “Anyone cool? Last one you produced had that shitbag Jerre whatshisnuts and he was so smarmy at the premiere and I think if I ever saw him again I’d deck him.” 

“No Mr. Whatshisnuts, scout’s honor,” Lup says, giving him a faux-serious two-fingered salute. 

Taako snorts and rolls his eyes. “We were never scouts, goofus. But, nah. I’m going to sit this one out. Probably do some journaling and go to bed.” 

“Okay, call me if you need me. I’ll be back this afternoon, probably. Maybe we can get dinner tonight?” 

He nods. “Sounds good, be safe. Love you.”

“Love you!”

—

“—And rather than scripting this out, we feel that this sequence is going to be shown best through a kind of dream ballet scene that’ll last for about seven minutes,” The director excitedly explains to Lup. She’s trying hard to focus, she really is, but her phone seems intent on boring a hole through her leg. She sneaks a quick glance to see that she’s missed a fourth call from Lucretia. That’s never good.

“Hey, Todd, love this idea you’ve got going on. My publicist is like, blowing up my phone so let’s regroup in half an hour, okay? Okay!” She says as she extricates herself from the conversation. 

“Luce, what’s up?” Lup asks, just managing to catch this fifth call. 

“I thought Taako was off Twitter for now,” Lucretia says, sounding exasperated. 

“Uh. Well he was while he was in Hollybrook but you said it’d be cool for him to reconnect with the fans now.” 

“Remind me not to have any more stupid ideas.”

“Is it bad?” Lup hasn’t been on the damn app since the last premiere. She usually lets Lucretia handle her social media except for her Letterboxd. 

“Not bad just…thirsty?” 

Lup does her best not to laugh. Well. She makes some attempt to not laugh. “Thirsty?”

Lucretia sighs. “It started off fine, just him tweeting about this musician, but a few fan accounts started stirring the pot and. Well. I guess he’s ‘down horrendously for that kravitz guy’ as @taacocat69420 so eloquently put it.” 

“God he’s a mess,” she says fondly. “I think it’ll be fine though. Kravitz is cool. Hope this gets him some extra streams or something.” 

—

Kravitz stirs at eleven. He’s a little surprised that his alarm never went off, though a quick glance at his lockscreen lends some light to why. His notifications are atrocious. Good atrocious, it just looks like the whole internet threw up in them maybe. When he finally traces the source of why, he starts to get dressed. Best not to make another pajama clad impression. 

[anistarrose]

on gray matters

Magnus chats with Lup about relationships, and winds up realizing something new about himself.

“I don’t get it,” Magnus says, leveling an open hand towards the television, where a so-called romantic comedy is playing out. “It’s like they ran out of ideas four episodes into the first season. Who makes a show if you have less than four ideas for it?”

On the couch next to him, Lup clicks her tongue, looking up from the denim miniskirt she’s embroidering. “This plane just invented TV, remember? You can’t blame them for still working on the whole making-TV-good thing — they’ll hear you heckling, and they’ll give up right away and never get there, bud!”

Magnus huffs. Lup snorts, tossing him the remote.

“You can still turn it off,” she tells him, “just put on literally any other background noise. These skulls and marigolds aren’t gonna embroider themselves, and neither is my ADHD ass, if —”

“I gotcha, I gotcha.” Magnus clicks to another channel. Perhaps fittingly, it’s a recording of one of Taako and Lup’s post-Story and Song cooking tours. “Your ass isn’t so one of a kind, you know —”

“Barry would disagree.”

“Gross!” Magnus shoves her in the shoulder, and she elbows him back. “Seriously, that show, though. Couldn’t go an episode without that guy getting a new rebound crush — like, who gets five crushes in a year? Rebound or otherwise?”

(keep reading on ao3!)

[umbraastaff]

There are two figures silhouetted against the iceberg's eerie glow. Both humanoids. The first is curled over the second protectively, and the second seems to be reaching back, trying to do the same.

Barry contemplates this for a minute. He's for sure not powerful enough to bend the ice apart, and even if he was, there's no guarantee he could do it without hurting them. Assuming they're alive, anyway, which is a long shot in itself.

But he's out here alone, and this floating mass of ice might float away if he leaves it alone to go get help. So, feeling a bit like an idiot, he starts whacking at it with his club.

A few hits later and he's being blasted in the face by pressurized air. Oh, shit, the ice was hollow. With that knowledge, he smashes through more of it, to where the two figures have now fallen limp to the ground.

They're nearly identical, and they've both got long ears, like… elves. Like air nomads.

He hovers awkwardly over both of them, trying to figure out what the fuck to do. They are both comically underdressed for the weather, in elven wear designed for the light, free movements of airbenders, not for the warmth needed by earthbound (icebound) peoples. But he can see their breathing, so shallow and fragile; they're both going to die if he doesn't do anything.

Barry pulls his coat off; adrenaline lets him ignore the frozen air for now as he starts shifting them so he can get it underneath, keep their backs from lying flat against the icy ground. But as he lifts the first one, she groans, and he startles, jostling her slightly.

Her eyes fly open, and she punches him in the gut. It's definitely not at full power, being in an awkward position and half-frozen, but she clearly knows where to aim: the breath is knocked out of him, letting her shove him away and scramble to her knees.

Then she sees her twin, and she grabs his shoulders. "Taako! Taako, wake up," she hisses desperately. Her eyes only flick over to Barry once more, making sure he's staying back. Slowly, Taako comes to.

"Five more minutes," he says faintly.

"No! Get up! We're at the fucking– what pole is this?" She asks Barry sharply, pupils in slits.

"The– We're– South pole," he says, wide-eyed.

"We're at the south pole!"

That seems to wake Taako up more; he sits up of his own volition, at least. Then he twists and stretches a little, and hops to his feet with unnatural dexterity: the grace of someone being lifted by the air itself. A staff flies into his hand from the ground. "Who's this clown?"

"I don't know, I literally woke up five seconds before you. Where's my staff?"

She climbs back into the broken iceberg to look around, and Taako looks at Barry. "So what's your deal, Bluejeans?"

"Barry– I'm Barry," he says. "I'm, like, I live here. What were you doing in a fuckin' iceberg?"

Taako shrugs flippantly. Lup stands triumphantly, a bright red umbrella held up above her head. "Fuck yes!" It's in impressively good condition for apparently being frozen in this iceberg for however long. As are both of the elves.

Lup looks down to see Barry gathering his outer coat up from the ground, and her gaze softens a little in realization of what he must've been doing with it. "You should put that back on, dude, it's cold."

"I mean– I've still got thicker clothes than you without it, s-so–" Barry starts, clearly shivering. He tries to hold it out towards either one of them, but she shakes her head and nudges it back to him.

"We're good, but thanks. You should get that on before you get pneumonia."

He clearly doesn't find that a satisfactory explanation, but he can't find the words to object in the moment, either. He awkwardly starts pulling his coat back on.

"Barry, yeah? I'm Lup," says the one that isn't Taako.

"You're elves, right?"

"Uh, yeah," says Taako, ears a-twitch. "What, you can't tell?"

"Uh, how… How long were you guys in there?"

Lup frowns, turning to Taako with a furrowed brow. "Uh, like… a few days? However long it takes to float here from the Southern Air Temple? Speaking of, they're probably suuuper worried, so as cute as you are, we should probably be getting back–"

Barry's too shocked to even react to being called cute. "There's people there?"

"Yes?" Taako says; even he's letting concern color his voice now, though his ridiculously large hat covers most of his expression.

"Why wouldn't there be?" Lup asks, rounding on Barry as her expression hardens.

Barry covers his mouth with a hand.

[barry-j-blupjeans]

key to the storage unit/ oh but I gotta know? thank you!!!

object + emotion prompt list here! still accepting!!

19. Key to a storage unit.

20. OH BUT I GOTTA KNOW??? I GOTTA

--

Kravitz could have sworn that being sneaky used to be a lot easier. Maybe people— necromancers, in particular, because that's those are the only people Kravitz had been around for a good while— had just been stupider in the past? It was possible, considering the amount of necromantic knowledge that just got fuckin' blasted into everyone's heads thanks to Story and Song. People had definitely been more dumb when he was alive at least.

But maybe he was coming at this from a weird point of view, considering that he was still getting adjusted to having two people with him on every single mission. The two people who, in particular, had done most of the necromantic research that got blasted out to everyone. And the two people who had multi-classed in so much shit that Kravitz wasn't even sure what their main class was.

Kravitz missed when he only had to worry about Lup and Barry in abstract. Like, "wow, these folks have died way too many times, that's fucked up!" and not "if I say one wrong thing, they will immediately swarm me like over-eager dogs and demand to know where I'm going and if they can go with me".

Unfortunately, Kravitz was bad at saying the right things. So here he was, swarmed, just trying to get his work done.

"We have a storage unit???" Lup said, stepping out of the portal behind him. He heard Barry trip, but he didn't turn to help, because one: Barry should know better by now, and two: Kravitz had to mentally prepare for what was coming next.

"Yep," Kravitz said, walking up to the building. "Well, it's more of a warehouse, if we're being honest, but same difference." It was bleak and cold outside, but it always was in the astral plane. He'd given up asking for a heater long, long ago. Lup and Barry followed behind me.

"And you never told us because…??"

Kravitz stopped at the door, sighing. He turned to face them. Barry's glasses had begun to fog up due to the temperature.

"I need you to promise," Kravitz said, very seriously, very professionally, "that you will not take anything that is in there back with you. Okay? Just like, a little promise—"

"A prommy," Barry said. Lup nodded in agreement.

"A prommy, sure," Kravitz said. "You gotta prommy you won't take any of this shit home, okay?"

"What happens if we do, though," Lup said. She paused. "By accident."

"The Raven Queen will be very, very mad at you," Kravitz said. "Also, depending on what you take, it could fracture the connections between planes, or like, your mind, or your body, or someone else's mind or body, or— a lot of bad shit, is what I'm trying to say. Do you promise?"

Lup and Barry shared a look. That was never a good thing.

"Cross my heart," Barry said, drawing an X across his chest and holding his hand up, like a boy scout.

"Hope to die," Lup said sweetly.

That's… as good as he's going to get, probably. Kravitz turned back to the door, using his pinky to slice another portal through realities and reach his hand into it. He really needed to clean out this pocket dimension, because the minute and a half he spent rooting around in it did not help his cool factor, even like a little bit. He found like, fourteen pens before he found the key.

"What's even in there?" Lup asked as he dug around the pocket dimension. "I gotta know. For science reasons."

"Mostly pens," Kravitz said, embarrassed.

"No, the storage unit, babe," Lup said. "I couldn't care less about your fucked up pocket dimension. Taako's got a whole ass spa in his pocket, it can get worse than that."

It can, but Kravitz wasn't going to say that.

"Oh," Kravitz said. "I knew that."

"Sure you did, bud," Barry said.

"Well, uhm, it's a lot of different stuff?" Was that the key? Aw, fuck, nope, that's a fifteenth pen. "Mostly confiscated necromantic stuff— which you promised not to take!" He could practically hear their disappointment. "Mostly books, but there's some huge ass bones and a few like, cursed objects? It's hard to— You'll— you'll see what I mean."

At long last, he pulled the key out. The key itself was black and sapphire blue, with a raven skull as the bow. Behind him, Barry snapped in appreciation. He slid the key into the door, unlocking it, and then placed the key back in the pocket dimension, so future Kravitz could deal with it. (Future Kravitz would not.)

The room was large and, much like he said, mostly filled with books. There was a loft up near the rafters and rickety stairs that led up to it. Most of what was in here was dust, if he was being honest. Dust and spooky, illegal stuff.

"Alright," Kravitz said. "Much like the Eternal Stockade, this room is mainly a waiting chamber. We're trying to outlast the magical energy these objects have, basically. You should just be able to like, feel if the curses or enchantments have worn off already. If they have, we can start a pile right ov— and you're not listening anymore. Great. Stellar."

Barry and Lup had immediately split off behind him. Lup was headed towards the big bones, Barry was poking around at some of the books already.

Kravitz sighed again. It was going to be a very long day.