#word of jeffandrew

[davlucies]

"Davenport, I have a specific question for you. What does Davenport regret most, across the entire arc?"

"I think, and he would never admit-- he's never admitted this to anyone, but during the very end of their century abroad, they were deciding what to do with this incredible power that they had discovered. And there were, you know, two dissenting opinions. Most folks wanted to make these Grand Relics and hide them, and Lucretia wanted to put this shield up over the world.

"Even after everything that happened, I think Davenport regretted not giving Lucretia's suggestion the weight that it deserved and truly considering it, because if he had, he doesn't know if things could have turned out very, very, very differently. So there is no regret even close to that, in his life."

i've always thought how that cycle 92 conversation went down was depressing and kind of... awful in general, especially for lucretia. and it always really stuck out to me that davenport didn't vote and barely voiced his thoughts. plus, the fact that they made the relics and let them stay out in the world with a crew member so opposed to them and even as her predictions came true was horrifying. they were all miserable and going against their own morals and promises to each other. so that davenport would most want to give her opinion more weight and try to change the suffering and pain they all went through (plus the loss of life planetside) is heartbreaking.

under the cut i linked a few old fics of mine relating to this, though not what davenport literally does in imbalance e3. i've written some canon divergence relating to the crew considering aspects of lucretia's plan and averting the relic wars though, so i will probably be posting things along those lines, and other stories relating to cycle 92, soonish :3

supervivere (18+): this is set during the relic wars, focusing on their grief and poor communication. it is not meant to be erotic, but i do not want minors to read it due to sexual content. i wanted to focus on their heartbreak and pain, him pushing his down and her drowning in hers as the crew's misery and the loss of life below weighs on them both

blurb summary: “We’re okay,” she told him, like a promise.

He nodded, and he pressed his face to her skin. He was still and focused. He wasn’t a praying man, but his touch and intensity in the dim light felt sacred.

broken (drabble, wc 100): also set during the wars, a glimpse into davenport's frustration, grief, and the state of their communication. his awareness of her feelings and motivations at this point in canon is very important to me.

blurb summary: That was all them.

guilty (drabble, wc 100): yet another fic exploring their feelings during the relic wars, their grief and poor communication. this is one of my favorite things i've written for taz.

blurb summary: “Why do you have so many journals out?”

empty as a promise (see tags for cws): if you guessed that this might be a story about the relic wars again, you'd be right. there's some stuff in this i cringe about, but it's the strongest articulation i've had of "hey, what they were doing was wrong, and lucretia's intentions were always quakerly at worst." she's also quite upset here, which upsets dav too

blurb summary: “This is all because of the Hunger, you know that.”

She frowns, and she turns back to Faerun below. “We could say that we were pushed to evil. But evil is still evil.”

will it be a bang, or a whimper? (no pairing): this is a short dav character study set during the century. i liked exploring the idea that he's never considered an end or way of defeating the hunger even several decades into their journey, because i think it helps explain how the 92 convo went and his unwillingness to intervene during the relic wars, as well as his potential sense of hurt/betrayal that lucretia didn't bring her plan up with him in the decades she was working on it. his love of his crew and lack of optimism about their situation is compelling to me, to say the least

blurb summary: Their journey will end with their permanent death, the ship’s destruction, the snuffing out of his bond engine. In the meantime, Davenport flies his crew away, year after year, and he doesn’t allow for foolish dreams.

take this waltz, it's been dying for years (18+): this is smut with a cracky premise, as it's set on story and song, after... everything. their dynamic is a little different from usual, because everything is so fresh. and he tops her. anyway, their angst and deep unconditional love for each other is really what matters here. the premise is a stretch, but not wholly implausible with past/century-era davenport/lucretia (which is often my angle lol) this touches on the hopelessness and angst of the century, particularly during cycle 92 after their awful argument about the plans. i have written quite a bit set during 92 and exploring fallout from the argument, but i think this is the closest i've gotten to actually posting fic that touches on that point of canon. it just totally breaks my heart to think about

blurb summary: She looks up at him, only slightly. Even below him, she makes him feel small. Even on her knees and repentant as she’ll ever be, she leaves him powerless. But loving her was never about power. He handed everything to her, and she always took it with caution and grace.

He trusted her.

[catstospace]

Character ideas for each class in dnd

Artifisher: artificher who is obsessed with fishing and uses their skills to make increasingly complicated fishing poles

Cleric: a person with an administration job accidently attends a meeting for clerics instead of the one about clerical jobs. They end up going along with it and become an actual cleric

Bard: a terrible comedian who utilizes their absolutely bad jokes to defeat enemies

Barbarian: an ex? barbarian who has to attend court-mandated anger management sessions (like that scene in the Muppets, Jack black will do a cameo)

Wizard: just a ridiculously buff wizard

Warklock: a person who got blackout drunk one night and made a pact with a demon. When they woke up they didn't realize that they become a Warlock, and now they think they were a socercer this whole time

Monk: a retired monk who is very old but is still able to knock someone out with a single punch

Druid: a druid who thought that pollen made everyone sick, the big reveal is that they have allergies

Rouge: Jan Mülvaney, a thief whose nemesis is detective bb jittenjinder

Paladian: a Paladian who is on a crusade to spread the word of jeffandrew (they are NOT part of a cult)

Fighter: a fighter who used to be a doctor and feels obligated to treat the people they fight

Sorcerer: a very magical chaotic evil 12 year old girl

Ranger: a ranger who is a lot like a cowboy from rl wild west, actually they're a really like a cowboy. How do they have a gun? Those don't exist in this fantasy world

[ladyfl4me]

Ned Chicane is Garfield the Deals Warlock’s humansona.

Made it past that scaldingly cold take? Awesome. Let me explain. I hate this too.

Imagine a hypothetical scenario in which the world ended, irreparably and irrevocably, and it was all Garfield's fault. Most likely due to that goddamn boombox, and whatever magical items he collected over the course of his shifty grifting spree on Faerun. The entire planar system was destroyed, and Garfield was the only survivor, a la Jadis and the Deplorable Word in The Magician’s Nephew.

He was the only one alive. Because the planar system was destroyed, there were no gods left to punish him, no Seven Birds to get up in his joint and fix his mistake.

That is, except for someone who existed beyond the planes.

Jeffandrew.

And Jeffandrew was pissed.

See, it’s a slippery slope, between destroying one planar system and becoming a second Hunger. Jeffandrew couldn’t have another one of those punks on his hands. So, as punishment, he put Garfield the Deals Warlock into a human form and cursed him to roam the Plane of Thought (??) in another planar system, to atone for his crimes.

That’s how the Balance liveshows end, and how it ties into Amnesty canon! This is it! This adds an extra great layer to Ned Chicane's search for redemption - not only is he seeking to improve himself as a person and atone for his crimes on Earth, but his multidimensional self is appealing to a higher power for mercy!

...Yeah, I have nothing to say for myself.

[terezis]

after the elite four, the champion angus has to defeat is just. griffin, with his nuzlocke run team. alternately: the elite four is mcelboys and then the champion is jeffandrew, who is just griffin in a funny hat.

iz you can’t just say things like this as if they don’t immediately become canon the moment the words leave your mouth. or in this case your hands because you typed them on a keyboard

this is EXCEEDINGLY canon. this is most canon anything can possibly be

[calvin-reads-problem-sleuth]

TAZ: Balance as a musical

So I was sitting at my sister’s show choir concert one semi-recent evening- you know, like you do- and I had this weird thought: what if The Adventure Zone: Balance was adapted into a Broadway musical? After sitting on this post for what feels like aeons on account of me accidentally forgetting I’d saved it as a draft, I thought I’d share my thoughts on this bizarre topic. 

• The songs are a mix of actual TAZ songs set to lyrics, completely original pieces, and covers/parodies of other songs. 

• Each arc is covered in the space of about fifteen minutes, with the total play taking a little over two hours. This obviously leads to quite a few scenes either being cut or being covered in the space of a montage number, similar to “Drive” from the Lightning Thief musical. 

• The first musical number takes place in the tavern where Tres Horny Boys first meet up, and is about their past exploits and what they’re looking for on their adventure. Magnus and Merle both have their own verse; Mangus sings the first chorus alone, and then both of them sing the second chorus together. Then the two try to ask Taako about himself, and initially he declines to give an answer, so the spotlight instead turns to Barry Bluejeans; he prepares for his own verse... and then Taako’s like “wELL SINCE YOU ASKED” and all the spotlights immediately swing towards him as he belts out his own verse. The last chorus is of course sung by Tres Horny Boys in harmony. 

• The Voidfish is a massive elaborate puppet which is suspended from the ceiling Peter Pan-style; Junior, meanwhile, is a hand-puppet controlled by Angus McDonald, who pulls him out of the tank while excitedly going on about how cute the baby Voidfish is. 

• The Fantasy Costco jingle is expanded into a full musical number, which plays during the first (and only major) Lunar Interlude. Rather than having a visit to the Fantasy Costco between every arc, the play instead opts to have a single extended visit shortly after the Boys officially join the Bureau; the musical number is interspersed with scenes of the Boys buying various items which will be used later in the play. Garfield the Deals Warlock is wearing a heavy robe and a Garfield the Cat mask, so the audience can’t tell what he really looks like (if indeed the mask is not supposed to be his face). 

• I can vividly see the way the Merle’s Arm Incident is handled. Kravitz’s portal opens just offstage, so Merle wanders off in the middle of the conversation. Then, as Magnus and Taako are discussing something else, Merle sprints back into the room screaming that his arm is turning to crystal; at this point, the actor playing Merle has a Plexiglas arm shoved into his sleeve, his real arm withdrawn into his shirt and clutching the fake arm. Magnus brings his battleaxe down on the fake arm, at which point the actor drops it and falls to his knees screaming (possibly going into a musical number). When Merle gets his wooden arm, said arm is a similar prop when it’s first given to him; in all future scenes, it’s part of the costume itself and done with makeup. 

• When Merle does his “My name is Elder Merle” goof in The Eleventh Hour segment, the orchestra actually plays the few notes of “Hello” from Book of Mormon; the music trails off as Merle is rebuffed. 

• Lucretia doesn’t get a solo song until the end of Reunion Tour / start of Stolen Century, and her big solo number is called “No Words”; it’s a heartbreaking ballad about the journey of the Red Robes, and how she can’t even begin to describe how painful it was to do what she did. (I’m a terrible songwriter, but I keep imagining the first chorus ending with the lines “We flew through the universe like seven birds / But when I try to speak of the pain I feel, I have no words”.) 

• JeffAndrew always has to be played by either the director of the play or another member of the production team. 

• The very last song in the musical is a joyful reprise of “No Words” in which Lucretia summarizes the events of the time-skip and what Tres Horny Boys and the others have been up to; the song has new lyrics to reflect that, now that the Hunger is finally defeated, she has no words to describe how happy she is to have her family back together. 

Please reblog if you have any additions of your own! 

[septimusprime]

A Little Bit of an Idea I Have

(TAZ: Balance/Stolen Century spoilers)

When I first started college I was deeply into biblical studies and I would stay after class or during office hours to have conversations with my Literature of the Bible/Milton professor. One thing she always talked about was the idea of The Word.

She would talk about Genesis and how we never see any actual Act of Creation. God SAYS “let there be light” and there just is. Nor does he simply will the light to appear in his mind. The words themselve have the power to call things into being.

“And The Word was with God and The Word was God and through The Word God created all things”

(I don’t remember where she got that from, but she said it enough that I still have it word perfect ten years later)

The Word of God, as she interpretted it, was a sort of fourth piece of the holy trinity; the extension of God through which he creates.

It’s not the being that created our existence, but may very well be the tool that that being used. It’s the paintbrush that illustrated the very first tree. It’s the yardstick that told the stars where to hang in the night sky.

Does that sound familiar? It should: I’m quoting directly now from Stolen Century Episode 1.

The way that Griffin talks about the light of creation when he’s first introducing it to us as a concept reminds me in a way I can’t shake of the way my professor used to talk about The Word.

This is a really cool connection to me, because what my professor was always getting at was the power of words to create. The tool that God used to create the universe is exactly what we use when we want to create new worlds: we use our words.

And I don’t think anyone would accuse me of talking out of turn if I said that one of the Big Ideas that The Adventure Zone: Balance gets at is the idea of creating worlds through stories.

So JeffAndrew (for lack of another name) isn’t God, but he is a creator of worlds. And, just like all creators of worlds, he uses The Word to create. However, somehow, The Word was given physical form and placed into the world it had created, instigating our story.

Another thing my professor used to say was “Well I knew The Word was with God and The Word was God and through The Word God created all things, but when I realized that The Word became flesh and walked among us!” (She’s talking about Jesus now). She’s pointing out what happens when pure creative force is manifest and goven form and placed among its creations.

Idk exactly the point I’m trying to make but there’s something to be said about

Creating worlds through the sheer creative power of words

Giving your creative energy form and handing it over for your creations to use

These ideas coming up across different stories in different times

[ao3feed-taakitz]

the last of the real ones

read it on the AO3 at https://ift.tt/2UGMQcf

by onArete

If anybody looks at the lease, they’ll see that the house actually belongs to Julia and Magnus Burnsides. But walking inside, they’d have a harder time figuring out who’s actually in charge, and who’s a weird roommate, or quasi-uncle, or just some kid who wandered in. They still laughingly argue about how Taako and Lup got there. “No,” Julia will insist, chuckling, “I’m pretty sure that I we helped them stop that bank robbery.” “Nuh-uh,” Magnus will laugh back, “They were robbing the bank but they liked us enough to stop!” And then Taako will throw a loose brick in their general direction, and Magnus will catch it and crush it, and whatever criminal they’re super-illegally pursuing will be intimidated enough to surrender right there, or at least freeze long enough for Davenport to fly into his face and knock him out.

Oh, yeah. Because the Burnsides and the Taaco twins and Davenport aren’t just weird suburban roommates. They’re also superheroes.

Words: , Chapters: 1/?, Language: English

Fandoms: The Adventure Zone (Podcast), Incredibles (Pixar Movies)

Rating: Teen And Up Audiences

Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply

Categories: F/M, M/M

Characters: Magnus Burnsides, Julia Burnsides, Taako (The Adventure Zone), Lup (The Adventure Zone), Davenport (The Adventure Zone), Merle Highchurch, Barry Bluejeans, The Director | Lucretia, The Hunger | John, Kravitz (The Adventure Zone), The Voidfish, Angus McDonald, Killian, Carey Fangbattle, Johann, johann the dog, Junior, Avi, Jeffandrew

Relationships: Julia Burnsides/Magnus Burnsides, Kravitz/Taako (The Adventure Zone), Davenport/Merle Highchurch, Barry Bluejeans/Lup

Additional Tags: TAZ meets the Incredibles, Incredibles 2 AU, who let these idiots be superheroes, Incredibles 2, incredibles - Freeform

read it on the AO3 at https://ift.tt/2UGMQcf

[charmandhex]

Pen to Paper

Read previous part here.

Read part 1 here.

Read on ao3 here.

Part 5: Story’s End, Story’s Beginning

Lucretia doesn’t need to consider what will happen after. Because she knows what’s next.

The time comes. Lucretia knows the signs; she’s been watching for them since the day those many, many eyes stared down at the Bulwark Staff, with three sevenths of the Light of Creation in it, clenched tight in her hands. As the eerie calm creeps over the world, as the winds still and the thrum of life quiets, Lucretia knows it’s time. They’ve prepared as much as they can. They’re strong, almost, almost as strong as the three she once knew as well as her own heart.

Still. Wonderland.

In the end, she has to steel herself with the very memories she had never wanted to see again, the end of the world, one hundred times over. She calls to life the words unflinchingly recorded in the last few pages of each journal for each year and lets heartbreak surround her. Again and again, she watches the Hunger attack, a tidal wave of black opal sweeping implacably over the world, inhabitants screaming and running and trying to hide. And as the cycles go on, there are fewer and fewer glimpses of a bright silver ship, glowing with the Light aboard, escaping. Onto the next cycle.

No more cycles now. One way or another, the story ends here.

So she calls them into her office. Explains, mostly. Sends them off knowing full well what they’re walking into. Sacrifice. Pain. No healing.

Well. Merle wouldn’t be able to do much now anyway. She breathes a silent apology to her friend, one that he doesn’t hear.

And then they’re gone.

Moments before the end of the world, the world that Lucretia carefully built out of the wreckage the seven had left behind shatters, and shatters several times over.

Magnus is dead.

Barry is not; he’s with Taako and Merle.

Magnus isn’t dead.

He remembers. They all do.

She has the final piece. Taako has a look in his eyes she’s never seen there before. His voice is angry and yet empty. His hand is steady as he points his sister’s focus at her.

This is the ending she’s earned though. But her story yet has a few more lines, and she keeps her shield raised. Taako’s evocation cannot match his sister’s, and Lucretia’s shields are themselves unmatched.

They are interrupted by the Hunger. And then the Hunger is interrupted.

The joy she felt when Magnus walked through the door, alive and whole, returns in full when Lup explodes from the Umbra Staff, neither alive nor whole, but joyfully, joyfully free and returned at last.

And then Lucretia vanishes. She needs to complete her work, raise the shield to protect them all. Words dance up from the journal still in her pocket, a ghostly shield surrounding an equally ghostly plane. A war of attrition, to starve the Hunger, is their best choice, the only choice to survive.

It’s neither the only choice, nor the best one.

There is a third choice. Impossibly simple, should have been impossible to overlook. And yet they all had.

As the Starblaster takes flight once more, Lucretia concentrates. Now is the time to give everything. They are going to win, and she is going to protect them all. And when she doesn’t make it out, well, that’s the best she deserves, isn’t it? The ending she’s earned?

They make it to the plane of the Hunger, an impossible plane of darkness, discontent, dissatisfaction. Lucretia’s hands, so much older and so much younger than she herself, are as steady as Taako’s had been earlier, wrapped around the only true source of Light in hundreds upon thousands of planes.

Her family stays.

The Bulwark Staff, nearly fracturing into splinters trying to contain the Light of Creation (though the staff was made by Magnus, and it is as strong and sturdy, and it holds), shoots a beam of light upward. But not just light. Brilliant words pass before Lucretia’s eyes, all of them, all of her journals and their journey, powerful and stunning. And they begin to take shape, spinning and weaving together into a shield, the most powerful shield she’s ever made, powered by Lucretia’s faith in herself, in her family, in the plane and people they will not leave behind.

And then Light. Light everywhere, Light surrounding and abounding, Light blazing its way through the longest of nights.

Lucretia’s first realization is that she isn’t dead, and, if she’s being entirely honest, that one might be more surprising than coming face to face with Jeffandrew and being told she’s the most powerful person he’s ever met.

And then they’ve won.

And Lucretia isn’t gone; her story does not end along with the end of everything. The ending she’s given is not the one she’d thought she earned.

So she works to rebuild the world. Big projects, rebuilding cities and towns, enough to fill books. And there comes a day when the number of these books surpasses the number she’d devoted to the Relic Wars. And also small things, comforting still fearful children with colorful butterflies and flowers of planes returned to their rightful places. And those children can go out and face a bright world and make it brighter still. And they do.

Naturally, she continues her writing, because she can’t not. After all, there’s more story to write.

So she writes, and she works, and against all odds, Lucretia finds happiness, too, in the story that did not end.

And that’s a kind of magic, too.

[internutter]

can I request the moment that Angus knew he was in love with Agatha? or just some Romantic Angus and Agatha? thanks for taking the time to read this and have a nice day!

[AN: This took me a while, my life has bit a teensy bit sideways lately]

Ominous chanting, necromantic homunculi, a succubus of all creatures and a really, really stupid offshoot of the Cult of Yug-Rathoth[1]. Could things possibly get worse?

Professor Angus McDonald, one day away from graduating from Boy Genius to just plain Genius, really should have known better than to ask that question. The universe always loved to answer it by demonstrating how, exactly, things could go from bad to worse.

Besides, in his lifetime, he had met extra-dimensional aliens, been adopted by Death, been also adopted by said aliens, worked to defeat a multi-planar menace that even Jeffandrew had needed assistance with defeating... oh, and solved so many crimes that he had actually lost count. He had experienced, up close and personal, exactly how things could go wrong, and how badly it did when it happened.

Therefore, the small figure in the upper gallery should not have been a shock. During his youth, Angus had been told numerous times not to meddle in affairs way above his education grade, pay grade, and - how old are you, kid? Yeah, you must be this tall to enter crime fighting, there, Junior.

Now it looked like someone else was just as bad at listening to authority figures as he was. And, oh shit, they had an Obscura 6000.

The latest from Miller Labs, those who didn’t have the time, energy, or inclination to sit with a piece of paper and a magic marker could now capture a moment in mere instants. It used, in Taako’s words, an unholy mish-mash of magic to accomplish it, including Miller Labs’ Artificial Eye. Which needed a lot of light to function properly. Which, in turn, had lead to the invention of the Nova Flash. Which technically counted as a weapon in many circles.

It was time to pull a Taako.

What was the highest-level spell he could use that could incapacitate these walking offal-bags without harming the photographer upstairs? Ah. All these chucklefucks were in a thirty-foot circle.

Angus ducked out of hiding and cast Weird on them. Just as the figure above primed the Obscura 6000 and said, “Smile for the front page, boys.”

Whoomph.

Angus had employed his smoked glass lenses for this turn. And closed his eyes. And raised his wand arm so that it should obscure any flash.

He still saw his bones when the light went off.

The chucklefucks were blinded. Angus wasn’t much better and the mystery person in the gallery, shielded by her own tech, said, "Professor McDonald?” in an awed yawp.

Angus summoned his invisible servant, Reeves, and bade it escort him out of the danger zone.

Someone was floating his way. He could tell by the softly flapping fabric. “So sorry about that,” she said. “Agatha Tremaine, investigative reporter. I had no idea that you were this close to that case.” Her feet finally touched the ground. “If you let me give you a piggyback, I can Expeditious Retreat our way out of here while the authorities arrive.”

Taako and Carey should have dealt with the wards by now. “Well, yes. The Bureau forces are on their way. I was sent ahead to make sure they didn’t up the odds on us.” He still allowed her to give him a piggyback, dismissing Reeves as the cult wasted their turns and spell slots on thin air and each other.

Pattering feet and a rush of air. Cool brick against his back. A warm presence that smelled of Sweet Nectar, one of the lower-end ladies’ perfumes. A little went a very long way and, judging by the scent, she had either watered it down or was using it very sparingly.

“We should be out of the line of fire, here.”

“Great. We can talk about how an investigative reporter didn’t know the best people were on the case and nearly fucked up the entire mission.”

“It’s not my fault you never tell the press anything...”

“No, it’s the fault of hundreds of snoops like you getting in the way, getting in danger, and gumming up the works of a finely-tuned crime-fighting machine.”

Something exploded. Great. Auntie Lup was in the mix.

“Sounds like it slipped a cog.”

Sigh. “No. That’s Lup doing her thing. She likes to make certain that any transgressors regret it for the last milliseconds of their lives.”

“Wow. I wish I could get pictures, but that was my last Big Bang.”

Even though he couldn’t see her, he leveled a glare at her. “Your last what now?”

“Nova Flash is fine for taking pictures and temporary incapacitation, but if you want a baddie blinded for twenty minutes or more, you need better than that. So... I invented the Big Bang. Fifty times brighter than a Nova and with that long-lasting kick that means they’re out of the game until it’s over.” She sounded so very enthusiastic about it all. “And it gives great fidelity. Just loo- oh.”

“When will this wear off for me?”

“Oh. Whoops. Here.” A small phial pressed into his hands. “Potion of seeing. Lasts just as long as the ill effects from the Big Bang.”

It tasted like Jersey Caramels. Angus blinked and... smiling back at him was a lovely young lady about his age. She had Tinkers’ Goggles on her head, holding down her Newsie cap. A bandolier of potions hung across her torso and her satchel of holding had her Obscura 6000 poking out of it. And some impressive tools. Her hand, still holding his, bore the distinctive stains of a potions brewer and alchemist.

“You’ve multiclassed,” he said. “Alchemy, tinkering, potions... why are you just a newsie?” Oops. He hadn’t meant to sneer in her direction. “The Bureau should have snapped you up ages ago.”

“I keep getting letters from them. Well. From people pretending to be them. After the fifth death trap I stopped paying any attention to them. Did you know? There’s even people who tracked me down pretending to be from there.”

“Were any of them wearing bracers like this one?” Angus showed his left arm.

Agatha stared. “That’s... not a fake.”

“It’d be a shock to everyone if it was,” Angus joked. “How many fakes have you seen?”

“Fifteen of varying quality. The ones you can get from the costume stores get told to go home and think about what they’ve done. I’ve taken notes about the others.” She had a Book of Transcription. What she wrote on those pages would appear in its clone, doubtless in a very safe place, for the erudition of another. There, in the pages, in tiny writing, was all the details the Bureau would ever need about the false Bureaus they had been hunting down since they went public.

Angus had to use his magnifying glass to read it all. “This is amazing. I take it you didn’t fall for any of their shenanigans.”

“Only the most convincing one,” Agatha pointed to the most realistic bracer variant. “Good thing I always give them my ‘special’ tea.”

“Sleepy drops and truth serum?” Angus guessed.

“More or less right on the money.”

“Madam,” said Angus, just as the main warehouse imploded. “How would you like to work with us?”

It was, compared to some members of the family, a whirlwind romance[2]. They shared their first kiss after a week of working together, in congratulations for busting the most dangerous ring of Bureau impersonators.

After that, their missions out in the field were more like dates, replete with witty repartee. He even proposed during a mission where they were posing as newlyweds. The kissing, the champagne, and her no-nonsense way had all gone to his head and he didn’t regret an instant of it.

After all, when you find a truly competent woman, who isn’t already involved with someone smarter or faster than you, you do not let her go.

[1] Why DO all of those Lovecraftian cults exist anyway? If something was gonna eat me whether I wanted it or not, I sure as sugar would do my best to firkin starve that mofo. Or at least poison it.

[2] Barry and Lup took almost fifty years to admit they were in love. Magnus and Julia had to stage a rebellion before they got married. Taako and Kravitz finally tied the knot after two years of living together. By comparison, Angus and Agatha’s six-month engagement was very rapid indeed.

[thereisnoyellinginfantasycostco]

“All That Lives Must Die” Part 10

[Part 1] [Part 2] [Part 3] [Part 4] [Part 5] [Part 6] [Part 7] [Part 8] [Part 9]

As the door swung shut behind them, Taako’s reaction was instant. A flick of his wand casted both Silence and locked the door, Lup was cut off from the other Birds, but she could roll with that. It was her brother, how much could she have to fear? “What’s up, Lup?”

“I called you in here to talk, and you locked the door. Why?” Lup tried to act like she had the upper hand, tried to intimidate. But she was never good at that with her twin (she never knew she needed to be good at intimidating Taako. Now her blood was screaming for a different reason).

“Don’t play dumb, Lulu. We both know that you know what’s wrong.” A slight sneer (it looked conflicted, Taako was conflicted and Lup could use that. Why did she have to think about using her brother’s emotions against him) flicked across his face, “Magnus and Merle are trying to ruin everything.”

“What’s everything?” Lup’s voice was soft, almost quiet (she didn’t have to be loud no one would hear her anyway).

A showman’s grin (drop the act, Koko, she’s not in your audience) spread it’s way across Taako’s face (wrong wrong wrong she was always allowed to be vulnerable with him and he with her he shouldn’t have an act on) as he gestured to the kitchen table, “Let’s sit and talk. Tea?”

It was a fake offer (why was he being so fake around her), and Lup didn’t bother answering as she took a seat at his table. In a practiced move, she leaned back in her chair, kicking her boots up on the table.

A tut of his tongue and Taako pushed her feet off of his table, “Don’t be rude, Lulu.”

“Don’t call me Lulu.” The words were out of her mouth before she realized that this was still Taako, still her twin and her heart and her companion.

It was a few seconds (was he figuring out how to react?) before the hurt flickered across Taako’s face.

She forced herself to be convinced that it was an act, that she didn’t actually hurt her twin brother. “What’s everything.” She redirected the conversation, desperate to ignore the fact that while her brother won’t be soft with her he can still be hurt by her.

A showman’s smile and a showman’s gesture as Taako spread his arms wide, “This...is everything.” His eyes shone with light (almost blinding and Lup had to look to the left of his face to stayed focused), and he paced in front of the table, “Lulu, how long were we separated?”

“Ten years, two hundred and seven days, four hours, and seven minutes.” The answer was immediate, the number branded into her brain. Years and years of loneliness in an umbrella and unable to think. She hated that fucking thing, that prison of black curtains and unending silence and boredom. Hated the panic and pure animalistic fear of

“Exactly,” His eyes (while unnatural and bright) softened, as if he pitied her (wrong wrong wrong Taako never pitied her, not in this condescending way), “I don’t want to lose anyone else. Never again.” There was an ounce of steel in his voice and Lup remembered his decade of loneliness. “I’m never going to be alone again and neither will any of us.” He turned his head from her, beginning to pace again.

“What….what are you doing?” Lup almost didn’t want to ask, didn’t want to face the truth that was slowing creeping upon her.

Taako fixed her with a glance (not a glare he’d never glare at her and for once Lup feels relief), “I know you know, Lup, I know you aren’t stupid.” He let his disguise self fall (it wasn’t an unfamiliar feeling, whenever her brother dropped his Disguise Self fall she knew), and Lup had to restrain herself from physically cringing away.

Her brother looked...normal, but not. His features and body were average like they were after Wonderland, and if she focused on everything seperate it was like they were having another 2 am talk. But when she looks at his face, Lup was looking the truth in the face.

“You’re a relic.” The words were barely audible, fueled by the memories of cities turned to black glass, a city stuck in time, two lovers temporarily stuck in time, two liches laughing over the sound of a chiming bell.

Taako’s face split into a wide grin, the tendrils shifting across his face as they curled around all of his features. His eyes weren’t his own now, no soft brown that she’s seen reflected in the mirror before her. They were black with flickers of light that reminded her from the storm that she escaped again and again for a century. “Oh, Lup. I’m so, so much more than just a relic.” A glow filled him from within. Cracks in his skin were filled in with molten gold and light glowed from behind his eyes and his mouth like he was a hollowed out pumpkin for some childish holiday.

Hollow, that was the best word for him. A facsimile of her brother with none of what made Taako from TV. Empty charm that still captivated a room, but that’s all it did: captivate. He didn’t impress or wow or amaze, he captivated. And he seemed content to merely have them captivated. There was no mission with him, and she didn’t understand why...yet.

“You’re the…” Lup’s voice trailed off, unable to call her brother that. Unable to say that he was the Hunger, playing into the childish thought that if she didn’t say it out loud it would go away. The word that was plagued with resetting to the same form for one hundred years until they didn’t anymore.

“Hunger.” Taako finished her sentence (he had done this many times, classic twin stuff but this was the one time Lup wished he let it disappear into silence).

“How did this happen?” She asked, unable to stop the need to know. A masochistic need for her to know everything that happened to her brother in all it’s gorey details no matter how much she wanted to cover her ears with her hands and babble to drown his words out with meaningless noise. But she didn’t, her hands tightened on the arms of the chair until her knuckles turned white.

“You know how I got the last hit on ole Johnny boy?” Taako’s voice had the same familiar lilt, but Lup hated it all the same. He didn’t wait for her to nod or give any confirmation, “Well, I got one of his bonds. Connected from John to Merle than to me. And it latched on, desperate for something to keep it alive and stewed in me for the past two years.” And he laughed slightly (laughed like it was funny that he had a great ancient evil in him), “And then...you killed me.”

Lup felt ice water sink into her blood, this was her fault. Her brother would still be alive, still be unharmed (liar liar he would’ve been like this anyway). She killed him and he was corrupted. She remembers the feeling of it all. Of her body shambling towards him like she wasn’t his sister (his sister) and the feeling of her scythe sinking into him.

A wave of his hand (casual like the last time they saw each other she didn’t kill him. Casual like she apologized for something she didn’t need to) and he dismissed her (he doesn’t dismiss her, he’s her twin he’s supposed to listen to her and not act like one of their “caretakers”), “It’s fine, I’m happy you did it.” He grinned a jack-o-lantern grin, “Turns out one of those pretty little bits of the Light of Creation got stuck between planes when Jeffandrew tried to remove it all. If I died in the normal way, I would’ve stewed in that Soul Soup for eternity until I became the actual Hunger. But since you killed me, you got my lovely Angel of Death to bring me back, with two more extra things inside of me. And I can do what I’ve always needed to do on this plane with all of you.”

“What…” Lup swallowed, trying to wet her dry throat, “What do you need to do.”

There was a sort of frenzy that entered his eyes, a shining light that sent thrums of wrong through her veins, “I need to keep all of you safe.”

“What do you mean?” Lup was struck with the memory of a dragon she had fought, so protective of it’s hoard that it turned violent. Too protective and possessive that it turned blind towards anything that was needed.

“You see, it’s simple, Lulu.” He turned from her, his pace faster and more erratic as he gestured wildly, “If you all stay here with me, you’ll be safe! You and Barry’ll never have to go ghost again, Magnus’ll never lose anyone he loves again, Davenport will never lose what he lost again, even Lucretia-” There was a slight hiss to her name, “-will never lose her family again. Everyone can be happy, everyone can be safe.”

Lup decided to handle this like she handled the dragon, and attempted to appeal to his possessive nature, “Davenport will never be happy trapped in a home, and Magnus has his dog training zone.”

“Hmm, fair point. I’ll just give him a charm to keep an eye on him.” Taako shrugged, all ease and carelessness thought through. “Magnus...Magnus can stay. I’ll bring his dogs over and get him a house very close by and he’ll be happy here.”

“Koko, you can’t honestly think that anyone here would be happy being stuck here!” Now, now Lup stood up, fire raging in her eyes. There was a pang of wrongness chiming in her heart and she realized that the wrongness was him. The wrongness was her brother.

“I’ll make them happy,” Fire, equal and identical to her own, blossomed in his eyes, “Lulu, come on!” He shouted at her (he never shouted like this at her, never with this annoyance and vitriol in his voice), slamming his fist (knuckles down) on the table. Cracks of the same golden light that was shining from inside of him shot out from his fist into the wood.

“Magnus is going to kill you for that.” Lup’s voice is soft, as if this was a goof that had gone too far (if this was a goof, it was weeks past too far, seconds past too far). As if he wasn’t just talking about how he’d keep them trapped and complacent. As if he had accidentally set a table Magnus carved on fire when they played with their magic.

A grin tore itself through his lips and he laughed, unclenching the fist and pressing his palm against the wood. Near instantaneously, the cracks of light (Light?) reacted to his touch, and shot back towards his hand. The wood sealed back up as if it had never been cracked and the light was buzzing in her twin’s hand, “No...no he won’t.”

“He’ll know about it.”

“Why? You’re going to tell him?” Taako tilted his head at her, arching one of his eyebrows at her, “You’re going to tell him and Merle all about my plan to keep them safe-”

“-keep them captive you mean.” Lup interuppted, eyes flashing.

“Keep them safe.” Taako repeated, hard steel entering his tone. “So come on, tell me. Tell me that you’re going to betray your twin’s trust and spill all my secrets.”

Lup turned around, hands clenched to fists at her sides. Her face was drawn and hidden from him, “I’m doing this for you, Koko, you’ll thank me when this is over.”

“I’m doing this for you too.” The words were spoken a lot closer than they should’ve been as Lup felt a slash of stinging cold across her back.

Her eyes went wide as she stumbled back into the arms of her brother. Lup tilted her head up, eyes filled with memories of a similar stinging pain sometime and someplace else. The feeling of deft hands catching her arms mixed with the memory of deft hands snatching her gauntlet from her. But instead of being met with unfeeling gray stone walls, Lup was met with the unfeeling black eyes of her twin brother.

“Don’t worry, Lulu. I remember you this time, you’ll be out once I figured out how to keep you safe too.” His words swam, fuzzing at the edges as her senses faded from her.

A lich form erupted from the crumbled body of the elf, and as she turned around (phantasmal and resplendent), she was met with the tip of a very familiar umbrella.

Already, Taako’s form was shifting, but not shifting back. It shifted and shifted, and adjusted itself until Lup saw herself holding her own body. Until she saw her own body (face, hair, features Taako was are you doing) pointing her weapon at her and smiling.

“It’s a good thing we already look so alike.” The words were spoken in an exact replica of her voice as Lup felt her ghostly form begin to get sucked into the Umbra Staff for the second time on Faerun.

When Lup didn’t come out from the silent kitchen, Magnus and Merle flashed each other worried looks. As he stood to confront Taako (he might not win, but at least Lup won’t be alone), the kitchen door swung open and Lup exited.

She flashed him a dazzling smile, and flicked her hand, “My brother doesn’t want to be disturbed in the kitchen and he told me to tell you all that if you interrupt him, he’ll hit you with the KrEbStAr.” Lup laughed and Magnus stepped back (or, stepped back as much as could without falling onto the couch) as he noticed an umbrella swinging from her belt, “Now, I gotta go figure out what Mr-” There was a slip, a tiny one, but a noticeable enough for Magnus to know something had gone wrong. “-what babe’s doing in the basement.” With a flutter of her fingers, Lup moved towards the basement and shut the door behind her with a jarring slam.

When the door closed, Magnus picked Merle up (much to the latter’s distaste). He hauled him into Angus’s bedroom and slammed the door behind them, “That’s not Lup, Merle.”

[Part 11]

[ghosty-schnibibit]

taz liveshow liveblog :D

i cannot believe i downloaded an rss feed reader specifically for the purpose of knowing when taz updates only for it to not work, smh. at least i didn't see any spoilers lol. here we go! :D

i still really need to listen to commitment...

hells yeah, another liveshow on the 28th :D

HYPE HYPE HYPE

"don't naruto shame them" pfff

"i am prepared and a good good dnd boy!" ilu travis

this is just the "and ___ walks over to ___" scene from the finale all over again, poor griffin lol

the story hasn’t even started and already i’m feeling super nostalgic... i wanna do a fourth re-listen so bad, fuuuck

"the THREE OF YoOoU" griffin is so salty already this is gonna be good

i like crush already 

fantasy burt bacharach lol

"sleeveless tuxedo" MAGGIE

"tuxedo sleeves!" M E R L E

merle the beach dwarf in his swimmy trunks :')

he sounds like gundren omfg

LUP LUP LUP :D

THE BREAK IN MUSIC YEEEAH 

HOLY SHIT THIS IS SO GOOD AAAAAAAAAA

"played by al pachino" B)

"it's a little assertive" pfff

i love the idea of lup and taako both studying transmutation together as lil kids and lup just being like "nah, this can be your thing koko i'll be over here blowing shit up"

"greg FUCKIN grimauldes" ilu lup 

"my moral guide, merle highchurch" merle continuing to be the dad of ipre

"maybe?" IT'S YOUR HOME PLANE, YES IT PROBABLY COUNTS

FUCKIN CHARACTER VOICES

so we're looking at a null suit situation here, cool, cool

this raises so many questions though, like... could they visit other planes that got fucked over by the hunger? like the animal kingdom? taz knights? legato? would those planes have heard the story and song broadcast since they were inside the hunger at the time, or no? are they still super fucked up or are they just plugging along like they would have been otherwise? because the set up for this show implies time has passed in their home planar system after the hunger disappeared and jeffandrew put everything back in order, and that lup somehow knows that this has happened in their absence... has she used the belt before, and that’s how she knows? are the planes where they escaped with the light (fungsten, the beach, tessaralia, etc.) accessible too, or did they just get left behind in the multiverse after the hunger passed over them? i'm assuming lucas made the belts (or probably a combo of lucas and barry? planar studies nerd buddies), so how do they work? magic? bonds? what would happen if they broke mid-use? would they be stuck in their old plane with no way to get back? this is such a weird but good setup and it makes for a shit ton of fic possibilities

i have no idea what that means but it sounds bad

oh nooo, maggie, oh nooooo

"well... slam" griffin what is it with these names

aww, crush :(

i ship crush and slam

magnus what the fuck

i can't wait to see how that table flip works later lol

TAAKO ILU 

"NINETEEN!" aww travis i love you

ewwwww, this is worse than the beach episode :(((

TAAKO WHAT THE LITERAL FUCK

"old blue eyes...?" griffin said that with that 'are you sure?’ dm voice and that makes me super nervous

"i don't know 'cause i wasn't expecting him this early" i'm calling it know, griffin's either gonna do his super gruff gundren voice or his bad new jersey accent marvey voice

IT'S THE MARVEY VOICE, I CALLED IT

AND NOW IT'S JUSTIN DOING GRIFFIN'S MARVEY VOICE

NAT 20!!! :D

"THE REAL NICE CHOICE MOPS" I’M DEAD

they never would have thought to do that on their own lol, lup playing the part of competent woman this adventure

continuing the trend of magnus being mr. fanservice lol

"lots of beautiful scars" nice

okay i have to know tho... was the tattoo pre or post stolen century??? because i love the idea of it being something he got in his youth without realizing he'd be stuck with it for 100+ years, but i also love the idea of him and julia getting matching tattoos together at some point

MERLE WHAT THE FUCK

"I CAST PUNCH DAD" 

"WheEeEREe?"

lup and taako just chilling in the corner playing pokemon go

magnus turns himself in samus lol

clint continuing to be the worst at rolling, aww

"i had no muber prepared for... this" poor griffin lol

"it... worked?" pfff

IS THAT CATWALK BOY JERALD

okay, it's not catwalk boy jerald then :T 

good to see griffin's not defaulting straight to jerry like he always does lol

wait shit, if they're in their original plane... is terry gonna recognize them from the IPRE mission???

"GEORGE CLUVEY" 

TAAKO WHAT THE FUCK

"THE THIEVERY KID" T A A K O

this is just like jenkins with the voice lol

merle doing his accidentally insincere voice again

"oh shit we did do this in the mining one” did griffin forget his own puzzle?

oh no... this can't be good

#I'mWithTerry

are you really casting arcane eye for this taako?

T U R K E Y  B O Y

clint the pun master strikes again

i take it griffin’s been playing evil within 2 with the whole chip mechanic

"i could kill him" MERLE WHY ARE YOU LIKE THIS

welp, they're all dead :T

BARRY WITH FUCKIN HOT CHOCOLATE, I’M D Y I N G

LUP I FUCKIN LOVE YOU HOLY SHIT

"THAT'S MY SISTER!" TAAKO ILU

"my words are my pictures!" griffin you are precious

this is the tomb of horrors all over again with the puzzles

justin's killing it today witht the nat 20s damn

"rouge perversions" pfff

all i can imagine is magnus telling carey about his sweet chest trap diffusal later and her being proud of her bff

travis the music boy strikes again!

oh jesus this is going to take a million years

"it's not the letters" then what is it?

i’m a dipshit too than lol because i have zero idea what this is

so it's just like the scene form the bank in refuge

GO MERLE! :D

"yeah, elevators, fuck yeah" nice

so now magnus just has a workshop full of gold :/

GLASS SHARK, GLASS SHARK

“NOT SOMETHING MY DAD SHOULD KNOW ABOUT” PFFFFF

"oh fuck" my thoughts exactly travis

OH SHIT 

OH CHIRST IT'S LIKE UPSY MECH

LUUUUUP FUCK YEAH, THERE'S MY GIRL :D

i missed the ad break music :')

i can't fuckin wait til the candlenights show omg

yay, initiative time!

DELLA!!!!! :D

what would that even look like holy fuck

yikes holy shit, can't wait to see how lup reacts to her brother getting dunked on so badly 0 _ 0

MAGGIE YOU CANNOT RAILSPLITER THIS SHIT IT’S NOT AN ACTUAL TREE, THIS HAS BEEN FIRMLY ESTABLISHED

apparently he CAN railspliter that shit, nevermind :o

awww, this is so freakin cute omg ^u^

"that's taako's fire" maggie plz :T

i thought his ac went up after story and song though?

taako's gonna fucking die holy shit

YES YOU CAN TAAKO YOU DUMBASS

"but he WAS at magnus's bedside" FUCK NOW I'M SAD :’(

"WHO, LUP?" STOP ZAGGING ON PLANT DAD

"as a sentient being who want's to preserve it's own life" pfff

griffin always forgets to make enemies beefy enough for magnus and/or taako to not kill instantly lmao

everyone loves lup so much lol

SAME HAT? SAME HAT! SAME HAT...

"awww... no, no... do i have to specify?" i love the idea that merle would be tempted to heal the monster, he’s such a sweety

OH SHIT

OH FUCK MAGNUS’S IS TOAST

I T ' S  T H E  S E X  N U M B E R ! ! !

"what? chicken butt" griffin ilu

yikes trav holy fuck

YAY WORD PICTURE TIME

YEEEAH THAT'S SO FUCKIN GOOD, THAT'S SOME GOOD SHIT

"COTTON!" omg you silly boy

what are you about to do merle

ZONE OF TRUTH YEEEEEAH

clint is crushing it on the merle voice today

"i liked the ending of lost" pfff

WHAT THE FUCK MAGNUS, WHAT THE FUCK

WAIT WHAT

TERRY HOLY SHIT

OH MY GOD WHAT THE FUCK

GRIFFIN WHAT THE FUCK OH MY GOD

that was super feckin good omg, i loved every minute of that. that was exactly what i needed to de-stress before my world history final tomorrow, gods bless

[astriiformes]

listening to the ttazz ep from today and i finally formulated words for one of the things i’ve wanted to talk about since the finale aired

griffin talked about the whole “jeffandrew” character representing the idea of worlds creating worlds, existence creating other existences, that sort of thing. and i love love love that idea so much, because when you think about it, as a core idea of the podcast, it also works from a completely meta perspective

i made some tweets about this the day of the finale, but what i mean is like, how many of us are currently in d&d campaigns that someone started because they were listening to the adventure zone? i know i am, and i know i’m not the only one. those are new stories. which is so cool, because it thematically meshes with that idea of worlds creating worlds so well -- taz is a story that has inspired other stories. which as something that directly deals with telling those kinds of stories and creating new worlds, makes it feel like it accomplished its goals, and it makes the ending feel even more satisfying to me

[balladweave]

IPRE handwriting (plus other stuff) HCs:

Lucretia's is very neat and tidy, especially in the journals. She uses shorthand in the field and writes it out later. She writes poetry (and it's actually really good)

Lup's is a kind of messy cursive she learned the night before the Starblaster set off. It's legible, but barely.

Taako’s is just this mess of cursive and (fantasy) print that drives Lucretia absolutely insane. She can't stand reading it.

Merle's is very plain and clean. The things he occasionally draws around his words (involving plants) are not. He has a secret stash of self insert plant erotica. Magnus found it by accident once and he still hasn't recovered.

Magnus's is chicken scratch. It's really bad. Lucretia hates it so much.

Barry's is the second best, behind Lucretia's. He only uses blue ink and has his own denim pen. Taako stole it once and, well, thank Jeffandrew that Barry's dating his sister.

Davenport doesn't write often, not that anyone can see, anyway, but his handwriting is very uniform. He may or may not secretly be writing a book in his free time.

[aquelondungeonmaster]

Hey, so uh, I'm running into a smaaall advance difficulty for my NaNoWriMo, specifically that what the frick even is characterization ever, and I decided to crowdsource some solutions.  Tagging @anonymousalchemist​ and @terezis​ because they showed some prior interest in this sort of stuff and if you don't take every opportunity to tag cool people then what are you even doing.

With that aside: The Adventure Zone characters + Classpects, discuss.

Lots of ideas but still not enough finalised ideas and also contextual TAZ spoilers under the cut because I did not stop:

Magnus: Knight, possibly?  Like, knight is the obvious class choice for Magnus, right?  For aspects, though, I'm really not sure: I've been leaning towards either Time or Space, but that's not really characterisation-based.  Time fits because of the Temporal Chalice; most TAZstuck AUs are likely to make some sort of connection between the voidfish and the genesis frogs, so Space and Time are both good fits for Mags because of that.  I'm trying to avoid having classpects that are the same as the classpects of canon homestuck characters, which complicates some of the ideas here slightly.

Taako: Maaaybe Witch, on the premise of like change and stuff.  Changing stuff up is integral to Taako's schtick, so it sort of works.  Aspect-wise, Breath is also about change, as well as isolation which also fits Taako, and I saw Rage be described as the "no" sort of aspect which fits with "good out here"... okay-ly?  Additionally, Mind is described as impersonal and indifferent, as being about thinking with your head and putting up a mask over your heart, and also has something to do with how people are different in different timelines, so that fits Taako very well.  Life is about food to some extent, so there's also that to think about.

Merle: Page of Life is a definite possibility, but not the only option.  Life because healing and nature stuff, and Page because he takes like forever to figure out how to healing.  Also, that means he wears the Page undies and dude, that's... regrettably in-character.  However, something to do with Zone of Truth is also a really good idea.  Light and Mind are the knowledge-iest aspects, but I don't know what class that would be: something that 'forces' their aspect, perhaps?  I don't know what class does that.

Lup: I really don't know what class Lup would be, and getting y'all's opinion on that sort of stuff is the point of this post.  Aspect-wise, I was originally thinking maybe Hope, in a very literal sense, in that she keeps everyone's morale up quite a bit just by being around and not letting them Do A Major Murder on the robot world.  But Heart is described in some sources as being emotional, passionate, and having a good moral compass, plus if Taako's a Mind player it puts a nice twin paradigm on things probably.

Lucretia: I think someone else already talked about this, but I don't remember whom.  Um.  Lucretia fits the Bard role quite well :(.  I mean like, let's take a moment to ignore the fffuckin' codpiece and talk aspects that aid in this tragic endeavour.  Specifically, Heart or Blood have the most to do with bonds as a concept.  Bard of Heart could be "Invites the destruction of" "emotional connections (bonds!) and soul consistencies (exhibit A: Davenport.  Exhibit B: Taako)." Bard is also a passive class, which depending on who you ask either means that they stay to the sidelines most of the time, or that they're committed to things bigger than them more than they're committed to themselves.  Both of those fit Luce.  I've also seen stuff with her as a Void player, though, or like a Seer, and I guess that both of those also work to some degree.

Davenport: Okay, so the part of classpecting I'm worst at is the class part.  This is why I'm crowdsourcing ideas, guys.  When it comes to aspects for Davenport, though, this is what I've got: Blood, or maybe Void.  Void because the Oculus is basically doing something that has a lot in common with the Rogue of Void's schtick, but I mean it also has connections to irrelevance I guess or unaware obliviousness, which sort of does in fact work.  Blood, though, also really makes sense, because that's like the leadership aspect.  It's also a stabilising force that has a lot in common with bonds, which fits well for the operator of the bond engine.

Barry: I still don't have any ideas for classes, but aspect-wise, Time and Doom are the aspects that I think are most associated with death, which is sort of connected with Barry's deal most of the time.

Kravitz: Again, Time and Doom are like, death-related, but this time I have one (1) additional idea: the very literal description of Kravitz's job has a lot of overlap with the very literal description of a Sylph or Maid of Doom: they fix death.

Angus: Ango McDango has a high smarts -ness, and thaaat's what I'm basing this on thus far: Mind and Light are the smarts aspects.  Seer and Mage are the smarts classes.  Obviously there's gotta be more stuff I could base the classpect on that would be as incisively analytical as possible, but that's where you guys come in.

Johann: Again, no class ideas.  But Doom and Void are the aspects most suited to, like, feeling irrelevant.

Hurley: Okay, from here on out I literally just have aspect stuff.  I'm leaning towards Blood for Hurley's aspect because it has to do with rules a bit, which are a law enforcement thing, and also, again, bonds, which... love, guys.  Love.

Sloane: Initially, I was thinking either Doom or Life were well-suited to Sloane's encounter with the Gaia Sash and subsequent tree incident (thEY STAND NEXT TO EACH OTHER! UNDER TREES!) but anyway there's also the possibility of the Breath aspect, as a sort of contrast to Hurley and because it can be described as detached/ apathetic/ separated, which sort of is what happened during the Gaia Sash incident.  Also it just seems right in some ways.

Carey, Killian, Avi: Putting these three under the same banner because I have almost no ideas for any of them.  As a rogue, Carey could aesthetically fit Void (or the Rogue class, wow check it out I actually have some class ideas!).  Killian sort of seems to fit Rage, but I can't quite put it into words.  I tentatively put Avi down for Hope, because it sort of seemed to fit.  Y'know, I probably should have put this higher up so that people can actually read it and give me their ideas.  Thanks for reading to this point, guys, please keep reading because there's even more.

Ren:  Time and Doom fit with all the times she died in a time loop, and Life's edible food thing is also a thing that fits her, thematically.  That's not quite solid enough reasoning to really justify an aspect, though.

A bunch of characters who are also going to be in this but I have literally or practically nothing for:  Julia's class could be a Knight.  Lucas might have one of the smarts-related classes or aspects, but I'm not sure about that.  I have literally no ideas for No3113, Magic Brian, or Robbie, who are also definitely going to be in my NaNoWriMo, or Jess the Beheader or Klarg, one of whom will probably be in my NaNoWriMo.  Ideas would be appreciated.

Jeffandrew: Muse of Hope

John Hunger: Lord of Rage

[webbedfungus]

Steven is actually Jeffandrew

Spread the word.

[thatgirlonstage]

Now that you're done with TAZ, who're your top 3 NPCs? (I stan Johann) Whose your favorite THB? Have any favorite TAZ artists? (Glowbat rocks!) Have any headcanons? Do you ever plan on writing Fanfic for TAZ? (It actually inspired me to write my first fanfic ever!) Top 3 couples? Do you have any characters who some of the fandom hates but you like? (John, Lucas Miller, Barry, etc.) Are you excited for their next campaign? Who do you think will DM? What do you hope it will be about? -TAZ Anon

Phew okay I’m gonna try and answer each of these briefly so that I don’t clog up your dash with a mile-long post but also this podcast owns my soul now so we’ll see how unsuccessful I am with that

1. Gahhhh probably Lup, Angus, and Carey, but there are so many excellent NPCs - like honorable mentions for sure go to Johann, Lucretia, Roswell, Killian (really I pair her with Carey but Carey’s friendship with Magnus wins her a top spot if I have to split them), Fisher, Noelle, and also Magic Brian for making me almost piss my pants laughing every time I listen back to his death scene

2. Taako, but listen. Listen. All of them are my children and I adore them.

3. I don’t think I’ve waded deep enough into the fandom yet to have favorite artists - I’ve mostly just been going on reblogging sprees of whatever is on my dash or in the tags - but I will shoutout @stardustinjune‘s Hey Brother PMV because holy crap I’ve watched it like eight times and it still makes me cry. I’ll check out Glowbat!

4. I’ve actually been thinking I might make a post with a bunch of headcanons about Stolen Century and/or the years where they had forgotten everything, so I’ll hold onto this for the moment ;)

5. Hmmm well I’m knee deep in Voltron WIPs that I want to get through, and I have a Miraculous Ladybug fic my friend and I have been planning for a while, so there’s probably not anything long form on the horizon. But I might open it up as one of the fandoms I’ll write prompts for which I have a whole bunch of in my inbox that I need to get back to oops

6. Taakitz, Team Sweet Flips, and my beautiful dryad lesbians Sloane & Hurley. Although I do feel compelled to say that while I cried over every member of THB at some point, I was full-on SOBBING over Magnus and Julia’s epilogue, Jeffandrew almighty I was a mess.

7. WHO HATES MY SWEET UNDEAD DENIM-CLAD NERD BOY? WHO? POINT ME TOWARD THEM, I’LL FIGHT THEM

Tbh I like all the characters you listed. TAZ is one of those extraordinarily rare stories that... doesn’t really have a villain. I mean, yeah, it’s the Hunger, but even John had his morally grey areas and struggled for a small piece of redemption by the end. Most of the other “villains” THB fought had been corrupted by the thrall of the relics and it wasn’t really their fault. The ONLY characters I can think of who I actually hate are Edward and Lydia (and even then, I like them as characters, but the way I like Umbridge - fascinating and awful and I thrive on watching them get destroyed). Everyone else, even if they made horrible decisions or did terrible things like Magic Brian or Sheriff Isaak or Lucas Miller, and even John, are not totally evil people. They are COMPLICATED people who made bad and selfish decisions that spiraled out of control. I think Merle’s last scene with John is one of the most powerful and beautiful in the entire story.

8. I know it’s going to feel like a bit of a let-down starting over with a new campaign after they’ve built such a rich world, but I’ve listened to them talk in TTAZZ about the kinds of things they’re planning to try out and I’m really excited to see where they can take it. I think Clint’s idea of doing a superhero-style story could be really fun and different (then again I’m also just such a sucker for those kinds of stories). I have some reservations about him as a GM, since he seems a bit scatterbrained keeping track of his own character sometimes, but perhaps he’ll find a different style game or just the different demands of being a GM will work out better for him. I’ve also, because I became a donor and got the MaxFun bonus content, listened to the TAZ Knights episodes. I know they’re not planning on making that particular campaign into anything long-form, but Justin seems like a great DM and he built a really cool world, so I’d be very excited for whatever he does. Whatever they choose to do though I hope poor Griffin gets to rest, haha

Because this seems like a good spot for it-- Lastly, I just want to say thank you so much for encouraging me to listen to this show. It’s been such an extraordinary experience and I’ve really, really fallen in love with it, to a depth that most shows don’t take me. I don’t honestly have the words to express my gratitude that you shared something so beautiful with me. Perhaps the best I can say is, I’m pretty sure I’ve had at least five separate people tell me they’ve started listening to the show specifically because of how much I’ve said I love it – so by extension, you’ve brought TAZ to all those people as well