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they have to make a way to let you listen to the adventure zone for the first time again

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it’s TTT* yall

(*Taakitz Tender Time)

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From TV...

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fuck it sure

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The Final Parley.

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Crossover where the IPRE visit the Ghost Trick world one cycle, and it turns out Light of Creation-irradiated timeloop bullshit is close enough to the Temsik meteorite-irradiated timeloop bullshit for the IPRE to all have cores, which drives Sissel absolutely bonkers trying to understand it because who the HELL is the ghost who could've possibly revived all SEVEN (7) of these people?!

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Been showing a friend taz balance for the first time (we are halfway done with stolen century at the time of this post) which means I'm listening to taz balance all the way through for the first time in like 7 years so I wanted to make myself some wallpapers for my phone's lock screen :] great opportunity to tweak my old designs for these guys and see my progress as a character designer since I was a teenager lol! alt text should have image descriptions if Tumblr logged them properly.

Bonus Fisher under the cut vvv

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Let! Hermine! And! Devo! Be! Friends! I'm gonna start a petition

let 👏 them 👏 be 👏 friends

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Does anyone remember the adventure zone

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it’s an awfully lonely galaxy without you

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[Image description: A compilation of sketches of the characters Raven Queen, Lup, Kravitz, Barry, and Taako from TAZ Balance.

First sketch is of the Raven Queen, a raven-like humanoid woman, her head obscured by a bird skull, her body long and spindly and covered in grey feathers. She is wearing a black and red dress, with exposed-ribs-like design. She is holding her hand up in a welcoming gesture.

The second sketch is of the Reaper Squad huddled together in discussion. Lup happily suggests “I can blow that shit up so we can catch them off guard?” to which Kravitz reluctantly replies “Uh, let’s not??” while Barry encouragingly adds “But she’s so good at it!”

The third sketch is of Taako and Kravitz, chilling at home on the couch. Kravitz has a book in one hand, mid-read, while the other is slung over the couch. Taako takes Kravitz’s spare hand and is painting his nails, while Kravitz is looking at him lovingly with a smile on his face.

The final sketch is Kravitz, stanced and ready to strike. The feather tattoos on his forearm manifests and forms into the scythe, with more black feathers swirling around him as he powers up. END ID]

Some Reaper Squad (and Taako) sketchies.

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taako taco, from tv

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Just because I know I can’t save everyone doesn’t mean that I won’t feel responsible for them.

[ID: A colored digital sketch of Merle Highchurch and Lucretia from The Adventure Zone: Balance. The scene takes place during the Stolen Century arc.

Merle is a middle-aged dwarf man with dark brown skin and long, wavy gray hair and a full beard. He has several otter-like features, such as a thick tail, whiskers and a protruding fang. He is wearing a red robe and brown pants. There are bloodstains on his hands, sleeves and robe. The stains are from a now deceased party member (up to interpretation on who it was).

Lucretia is a young Black woman with her hair in locs tied into a loose bun. The ends appear to be bleached. Like Merle, she’s wearing a red robe and gray pants as well as light brown boots. She is kneeling with her back to the viewer.

They are holding each other as if only just recovering from an attack. Even though her face is obscured, it is hinted that Lucretia is crying as she is trembling. Despite appearing to be comforting her, Merle is noticeably fighting back tears. End description.]

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These are the ones they put forth in the show, as well as common fanon ones

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"Don't think I didn't notice you slip out when we had Lucretia over yesterday," Lup says. She and Barry had a nice enough lunch with her, did their best to pretend they weren't all drowning, but the third member of their household had made himself conspicuously absent all afternoon. In fact, this is the first time she's been able to catch him still, not in between some task or other. He's kept himself busy lately.

Taako rolls his eyes, trying, in the way he does, to hide the way his shoulders start to creep towards his back-angled ears. "It's not really a secret I don't want to see her."

Lup sighs. "Taako, she's already apologized. What more do you want from her?"

"I don't want anything from her," he says, voice tight, eyes down. "I thought I made that pretty clear."

Lup flinches, despite herself. "Then what, you just.... never talk to her again?" Could he really just cut her out like that? After everything? Could they really go back to how they used to be? After everything?

His eyes stay on the floor, and he shrugs like he doesn't care. Maybe he really doesn't anymore. "That's the idea."

Read on ao3 or continue below

"That's awful," Lup says. "For both of you. That doesn't make you sad?" She wants to believe it does, but she just doesn't know anymore. Her brother has always had hidden depths, but they've never been hidden to her. Is his anger and hurt really stronger than the bond he and Lucretia had built? What if—

"It makes me less sad than the thought of you left to rot in an umbrella for ten years. I robbed your body, Lup." Taako only meets her eyes then, and his are so anguished, she knows there's no convincing him. From the tiny slivers of the intensity of his hurt she's seen—all that he's allowed her to see—she's starting to understand why.

Still, she tries for defense. "She didn't mean for any of that—she couldn't have known—" It's weak, and she knows it.

Taako scoffs, carefully avoiding her gaze. She wishes he'd just look at her. "It still did, though! It all still happened!"

Her heart sinks in her chest and she tries one more time. "She only did what she thought was right!"

His eyes would be ablaze, if she could just see them. "Well, she was wrong!"

"Stop blaming her for my mistake!" Lup finally shouts, and it all comes rushing out. "I came up with the relic plan in the first place, Lucretia only did what she could in the face of my mess! It was all me! I disappeared! I left you!" I'm the one you should be angry with, she doesn't say. I'm the one you are angry with. You just can't say it.

Taako can only stare at her, openly shocked. "No," he says, "no, Lup, I don't blame you—" He does, though. Everything he'd said was true of her, too.

"It doesn't matter if you blame me," she says bitterly. "It's still true." Of course he doesn't want to blame her. Of course it's easier to foist it all onto Lucretia and then cut her off—but it's not quite the full scope of the thing. He was left alone before Lucretia ever made her mistake.

Taako looks at her helplessly. "Well. I... I will make up with her. If that's what you want. I don't—I don't think I can forgive her. But I will move on. For you."

"I'm not—I’m not asking you to do anything you aren’t ready for," Lup says, regretful. She should've known this is what he'd say, but she wouldn’t ever try to pressure him into anything. "Your relationship with her is your business. I didn’t mean to make you think you have to do anything for me. I just—I've already lost too much from my mistakes, and gods know you have. So I don't want you to push her away as—as a proxy. She did her best with what I left her."

"She's an adult, Lup," Taako says, his eyes flinty and cold. "I know you have a hard time seeing her as anything but the Starblaster's baby, but I got to know Madame Director. She made her choices. And she knew the consequences. For all of us.”

“Yeah. So did I.” Lup looks away, eyes watering. “Gods, don’t you get it, that’s why I feel so bad for her—she didn’t know how bad it would get, she didn't know the consequences. ‘It’s only for a little while,’ that’s what I told myself, too.”

“But you—no,” Taako says, “no, I don’t see it that way. You didn’t betray us. Lup, it’s not the same. If everything had gone right you would’ve been right back. And it's—you sacrificed yourself, you know? I don't think it was a good decision, but it was your decision. You and your fucking martyr complex—" It's meant to be teasing, but now's not the time, and it comes out bitter.

He continues, "But she made the decision for everyone else. Lucretia always knew what she was doing. She doesn't get to do that to us. To me. Take away everything good I've ever had. Even if it had only been a year—even if it had only been a day! I’m not only angry because she took time I could’ve spent finding you, because she's the reason you were trapped so long, I was fucking miserable, too, it hurt like half my fucking life was missing, like everyone I loved was gone, all the time, and I couldn’t even understand why—"

He cuts himself off, eyes wet, jaw set, and looks away, like he doesn't want her to see. Like he can’t bring himself to let her see how badly he’s wounded; and it's her fault. "And she saw how it left me, she could've ended it any time, and she didn't. It’s not the same, Lup, it’s not.”

“It’s close enough,” Lup says, swiping at her eyes. “We both hurt you. You wouldn't be so angry—so hurt—if I'd stayed. You can say you would, but we both know you wouldn't. I didn’t betray you, but I abandoned you, she and I both thought we could fix things alone and we were both so stupid for it—“

“God damn it, stop!” Taako shouts, flings his arms out from where he'd been still and tense, takes a step forward, and another, closing the gap between them, the gap Lucretia left, the gap Lup left, shrinking it by explosive force of will. “Fucking stop. You don’t get to decide, Lup! You don’t get to decide if I forgive Lucretia and you sure as hell don’t get to decide if I forgive you. Stop pitying yourself and just fucking listen to me!"

His eyes are wide, he looms as she shrinks back, and isn't that an odd reversal. She's almost glad he's angry with her. She knows she deserves it, and he certainly deserves to get it off his chest. It's just more volatile than she'd expected. She's not afraid of him, she never could be, but she is afraid for him. Something's broken and wild in him now, and she doesn’t know how to restore it.

So he just raves, untethered, "It’s not up to you! It’s too late! I already forgave you! I forgave you as soon as it happened! Just fucking let me!”

“Taako,” Lup gasps, finally weeping, as he takes the last step to bring them together, and she lets his arms sweep around her, falls into them. Her eyes squeeze shut and she wipes her tears in his shoulder, lets his words sink in.

“It’s over,” he says, holding her tight. “It’s all over now.”

“I’m sorry,” she says, one last time.

He only grips her tighter. “Stop being sorry.”

They stand there for a few minutes, and Lup does her best to quell the guilt that threatens to rise like bile in her throat. It won't do any good to hold on to it. Taako said he forgave her. She should believe him. She still feels she shouldn't be letting him hold her while she tries to get her tears under control. He's more hurt, she shouldn't be making him comfort her, it's not fair that he always has to be the one propping her up, holding her together while she falls apart, just like before, and then she just went and left him all on his own—

"I said, stop being sorry," Taako says quietly, after she's been silent.

Lup becomes aware of herself, like waking up for the first time, like being in her body for the first time again—it happens sometimes, she doesn't realize she's been caught in her mind until she's back. But she's here now. This is real. She feels her soft sweater, Taako's arms around her pressing the fabric into her back, his hair tickling her face, a little longer than she's used to, and she realizes she's gripping the shoulders of his shirt in tight fists.

"It's not that easy," she mumbles, unwinding her hands. "But. Thank you."

"'Course." He pulls away and holds her by the shoulders, looking suddenly sheepish. "Uh, sorry for yelling at you." He softens for her, makes himself gentle as best he can, like always, though it's slow and awkward now. He's out of practice.

"Nah," she says with a small smile, reassuring, "I needed to hear it." He's spent too long not being listened to. They both have.

"I did mean it," Taako says. "I'm not angry at you. I'm really not. I should've—nothing I said about Lucretia was about you. I didn't mean to make you think that. And I... I will make up with her, someday."

"You don't have to, Taako," Lup says. "I shouldn't have come at you about it. You're right, it's not for me to decide."

"Yeah, but..." He trails off and then switches to another thought, sure she'll be able to follow, and she does, of course she does. "I just have a hard time getting it into my head that Lucretia's the same person as Madame Director, you know?"

"Yeah," Lup says. She almost knows, but she only has the one memory, and even after everything she still can't look at the old, weary woman without seeing their Lucy.

"I just—I might take a while," Taako says, squeezes her shoulders even as his eyes drift away. "I don't know."

"That's okay," Lup says. "Babe, you don't have to rush anything."

"I do, though, don't I?" He frowns, face open, eyes flicking toward her. "We're mortal now. Most of us," he gives her a fragile smile.

"Some of us are also grim reapers, bud," she says, and takes his hands, holds them between the two of them. "And Lucretia looks older than she is. From stress, not just magic."

"Yeah," he says, unsure. "Maybe."

"Are we..." she starts, suddenly afraid, her ears tilted back, and this time it's her that glances away. "Are we okay?"

He gives her a strange look. "Yeah, I just said so."

"I mean, in general," Lup says, voice gone thin. "Everything's different, it's..." She can't express it. After a lifetime of profound understanding, the tiny space still left between them feels vaster than words.

But even still, after everything, Taako understands her. He tugs on their clasped hands, pulls her closer, and step by step, the gulf shrinks. "We're gonna get there," he says. He lets her hands go, and for a moment she's lost again, floating in endless darkness, but then she's shocked back into presence as his hands cradle her face, and he's right there in front of her, eyes locked to hers, trying for a reassuring smile. He presses their foreheads together and she finally feels solid, real, safe.

Lup tries to push her uncertainty down, and then thinks better of it. Taako's never cared about nobility. Martyring herself hasn't ever helped anyone she loves. He'll never be able to lean on her if she doesn't trust him enough to lean on him first. She lets her voice be small and scared. "Promise?"

"Yeah," he says, quiet and something approaching gentle, only a little hoarse around the edges, but he's getting there. "Yeah, Lup, I promise."

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Day Three - Myth

There’s something incredibly disconcerting about being able to see your own breath when you breathe out. For someone like Lup, it was always a reminder of where she came from. Cold, windy nights on the street with Taako, hidden in the back alleys of a city that never really went dark, unless you knew where to look. The chill was part of the reason they had moved away. Starting a fresh life somewhere warm had always been the goal.

It didn’t get cold out here. Even in the winter, the lowest it would drop would be the mid-forties. Lup hadn’t seen natural ice in years.

But here she was.

To be completely honest, being a YouTuber wasn’t the hot shit that it was made out to be. To be even more honest, Lup and Taako often put their lives in major jeopardy with the cryptid hunting videos. They had never actually gotten any solid evidence that the cryptids they were looking for existed, but that’s what video editing was for. Instead, the danger came from being out in places like the woods she was in now. Far enough away from town to lose even the shittiest of wifi, deep enough into nature that no one would know where to find her.

They took a lot of measures to make sure they never got separated. And now Lup was out in the woods by herself, with her way too expensive camera and a sweater not heavy enough for the chill that had settled over the area.

And the camera wasn’t even working. It had been static all night, but now it had dissolved into straight nothingness. There was nothing Lup could do to get the view back in focus, or back at all. Maybe if she hadn’t been so focused on it, she would have felt colder. Maybe she would have watched her step more carefully.

Maybe-

There was a flash of red from her left. Lup staggered slightly, then stopped walking. She aimed the camera towards it, just in case. If she was about to get murdered or some shit, then at least they’d have video evidence.

And she’d not be going down without a fight, thanks to the obsessive amount of pocket knives Magnus had given her. They had gotten her out of more than one shitty situation before and she could do it again.

The temperature seemed to drop lower. Just being able to see her breathe was something, but now the cold was starting to seep into her lips and fingers.

Logically, she should stay put. She hadn’t strayed far from where she lost track of Taako. Or Taako lost track of her, or whatever. But there was a dread creeping up her throat that had started with the static and increased with the chill. If it came down to fight or flight, she couldn’t exactly choose the latter and leave Taako behind.

And it was only when the screen of her camera cracked into shards that Lup realized. Oh.

Fuck.

Despite doing this for several years, they never really encountered a cryptid before. Like, duh. It’s not like they exist. If the Mothman was real, someone deffo would have gotten that guy on camera. If Bigfoot was out there somewhere, he’d probably be trying to buy some fuckin’ Air Jordans or something. If the Red Robe existed, then he would have been recorded already. The flimsy excuse of him “breaking cameras” was supposed to have been a convenient sidestep.

But here she was. Cameraless, freezing, and stuck staring at the red, hooded figure emerging from the trees.

He was fucking terrifying. Where there should have been a face beneath his hood, there was a curling ball of static that dripped down his chest. What could have been hands looked more like inky black claws, curved and pointed, much like the dozens of pocket knives Lup had on her. Past his knees, the robe began to fade away, leaving a wisp behind him, tangled up in static and empty air.

It was horrifying. But when he spoke—

When he spoke, Lup figured that the most awful part of it all was the ache in her chest.

“Lup,” he said, in what might have been some sort of twisted joy or disbelief. “Lup, you came back.”

Fight or flight, baby. And Lup was all out of flight.

She pulled the pocket knife out of her sleeve.

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[image description: A digital doodle of Davenport from The Adventure Zone. Davenport is a light brown skinned gnome with long orange hair tied loosely and beard that has grey hairs wearing a white shirt and a red captain duster with golden details. He is looking to the side with a serene expression. The background is light blue and has several white lines that are meant to look like sea foam]

o captain! my captain!