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noodyl-blasstal · 6 months

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Piano Man

Big thanks to @ceilingfan5 who sang "pretty lizard" to the tune of "pretty woman" this morning, it got stuck in my head, morphed into "pretty wizard" and now we're here. Enjoy below or on Ao3.

Kravitz is tired. Kravitz is tireder than tired. Not in body, his hands would keep skimming the keys forever and always if he doesn’t occasionally put them away, and he can’t ever resist singing along to something whether he knows the words or not. No, what Kravitz is tired of is fancy people parties and all the fancy people nonsense that comes along with it.

The pay is good enough, that’s how he knows he won’t walk out, no matter how bad it gets - someone has to keep his apartment paid for - but these parties are always full of the most obnoxious people. His mouth is dry and his back is sore and Lydia, sorry, Ms Adventurezone, because ‘we don’t use first names, darling, it’s uncouth’ has been promising him a break for the last 23 minutes, but every time he winds down she suddenly appears to ask him for just one more song. It looks like she’s on her way to derail his break for the seventh time when someone, a glorious, perfect, wonderful man in a huge elaborate hat steps into her path, blocking her from Kravitz’s view which definitely means she also can’t see him!

Kravitz mentally beams gratitude at his saviour and respectfully doesn’t notice exactly how fantastic the guy’s arse looks in those silky trousers as he finishes up the song. The man is probably just intervening by accident, Kravitz needs to reign in his impulse to romanticise. There’s no deeper plot to rescue him from Lydia’s clutches, but he definitely needs to take advantage and escape while he still can - in fact, it looks like Edward, sorry, Mr Adventurezone, is headed his way. Kravitz will commando roll under this piano to escape if it comes to it. It doesn’t. He cuts the song a few bars early, pretends not to see Edward (ha, take that!) and beelines for the bar.

“Hey Krav, you sound great!” Ren waves in greeting.

“Thanks.” He croaks slightly.

“Say no more.” She laughs as she hands over a glass of water. “I’ll be back with your tea in a tick. Have this in the meantime.” She nudges a plate his way too.

Kravitz smiles his thanks and is already shoving the lemon-y mousse topped biscuit into his mouth. He needs to start eating before he comes to these things. They always say they’ll feed him and it’s rare they bother. Praise the lady for Ren, her fancy cocktail bar for hire tends to mean they coincide at a lot of these events. They very quickly worked out that they had allies in each other and used it to their advantage whenever possible.

“Anyone sat here, handsome?” Asks a voice over his shoulder.

Kravitz prepares to turn away whichever entitled prick is trying to ruin his break, but clamps his mouth shut when he realises it’s his saviour.

“No, no one is, that’s good, that’s fine, it’s free.” Kravitz intends to pat the seat invitingly, panics, withdraws his hand, and ends up caressing it instead. Perfect. An incredibly normal gesture. Maybe the guy will just turn and leave, spare Kravitz from any other awful attempts to flirt.

The man sits down instead.

“Thank you.” Kravitz says, realising slightly too late that the guy probably doesn’t have any idea what he’s thanking him for.

“No problem, I figured you were due a break. I used to work these things before, well, you know.” He waves a hand as if whatever incomprehensible thing he’s alluding to is obvious. “She hates that she has to invite me instead of hiring me. The handle’s Taako, by the way, what’s yours?” He crosses one knee over the other and his trouser leg parts to show a length of dark skin. Kravitz wants desperately to find out exactly how high the split in the thigh goes.

“Kravitz.” Says Kravitz. Focusing on doing anything that isn’t staring intently at Taako’s thigh. Not that Taako seemed to mind, he definitely grinned when he noticed Kravitz go slack jawed. But still, he could have misinterpreted, easier to stick to small talk. “What did you use to do at these things?”

“Steal, mostly, you know, light pick pocketing here, grand theft auto there… the usual stuff.”

Kravitz’s eyes widen. Fuck. He couldn’t tell Sloane about this one, she was already keeping the list of ‘reasons Kravitz isn’t allowed to pick his own men’ and ‘being immediately attracted to possibly a mob boss’ was likely to make it into the top 3.

“I’m joking, Krav.” Taako takes a sip of his drink, swallows slowly, eyeing Kravitz as he does.

Kravitz’s stomach clenches, he likes this, he likes this a lot. Taako’s welcome to observe him as much as he wants, preferably when he’s wearing less.

“Of course. Yes. You got me!” Kravitz manages a short laugh, it’s breathier than he intended it to be.

“Good to see you, Taako!” Ren greets Taako, plonks a cup down in front of Kravitz, winks, and leaves to attend to the disorderly queue because none of these people knew how to wait their turn.

“Do you like these things?” He asks Taako, then sips gently at the tea. It’s sweet, honeyed and fiery with ginger. Ren’s good to him.

“Nope.” Taako says passionately, looks like he means it. “They’re boring as all hell, my guy. No one is any fun.”

“You seem fun, the hat’s definitely fun.” Kravitz points at the spangled monstrosity atop Taako’s head.

“I’m a wizard and a genius, obviously I’m a delight. I meant the rest of them.”

“No one else is worth it?”

“You think Lydia’s fun?”

“I thought she might be if she respects you.”

Taako snorts. “I’ll let you know if that ever happens, but I wouldn’t hold out hope… fuck, speak of the devil.”

Kravitz turns to see Lydia stomping over. By the time he turns back, Taako’s gone.

“Kravitz! There you are.” The vulgarity of first names didn’t extend to talking to ‘the help’ clearly. “You need to be very careful about overdoing your breaks, you were supposed to take 15 at 9 and it’s already half past. You wouldn’t want me to review you badly would you?” She smiles her awful poisonous smile and eyes him with undisguised glee.

Thankfully he knows this dance. There’s no point in arguing. He’s only had 5 minutes and the reason he didn’t go at 9 was because of her, but she’ll just use any rebellion against him. He just nods demurely, finishes his tea in a long gulp, and says. “Of course.”

She looks disappointed about the lack of fight in him, which is exactly what he was hoping for. He leaves without another word.

–

The first few times he thinks he might have imagined it, but Taako is definitely gravitating closer to the piano. Kravitz didn’t notice him at all before, but he’s danced by, walked past, or stopped to look on appreciatively. Kravitz smiles every time he catches his eye and Taako’s even winked back at him a few times, but he needs to do something to show he can be the fun person Taako’s nights are lacking.

Lydia doesn’t seem to notice the Thong Song instrumental he works into the rotation, Taako spits champagne through his nose and claps so hard Kravitz can hear it over the general smattering of applause when he finishes a piece. It emboldens him enough to try something, he just needs to wait for the perfect moment.

Taako finally does a walk by, flicking his gaze to Kravitz as he finishes a song and transitions into Roy Orbison.

“Pretty wizard, walkin’ right past me”

Taako pauses.

“Pretty wizard, the kind I liked to meet Pretty wizard, I don't believe you You're not the truth No one could look as good as you Mercy!”

Taako turns, wide eyed. Points to himself, innocently.

“Pretty wizard, won't you pardon me? Pretty wizard, I couldn't help but see Pretty wizard, that you look lovely as can be Are you lonely just like me? Rwar-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r”

Kravitz gives it beans with the roar, if there’s a bit, he will commit to it. Taako laughs delightedly, it’s worth it.

“Pretty wizard, stop a while Pretty wizard, talk a while Pretty wizard, give your smile to me..eeeeee Pretty wizard, hey hey hey Pretty wizard, saw you look my way Pretty wizard, say you'll stay with me 'Cause I need you, I'll treat you right Will you maybe, dance with me tonight?”

Kravitz wiggles his eyebrows alluringly. Taako laughs, not unkindly, eyes soft, the corners crinkled with mirth. Lydia’s aggressively trying to catch Kravitz’s eye but he resolutely refuses to look away from Taako.

“Pretty wizard, can we go for coffee? Pretty wizard, just you and me? Pretty wizard, I’ll even spring for the whipped cre-eeeaaam”

Taako’s laughing so hard that he’s dabbing his eyes with a handkerchief, trying desperately not to smudge his eye make up.

“Okay I see you’re dairy free, okay I guess I’ll get the coconut cream, but wait I could get you some lactaaaaaaaaaid A scone, or two, or three? I can do that for you, you’ll see! If you’ll just go out with me, Oh, oh, pretty wizard”

Kravitz plunks out the last notes and laughs at Taako lounging dramatically on the front of the piano.

“Here’s Taako’s number, handsome, cha’boy can do dairy and he’s absolutely going to need those three scones tomorrow.”

“Kravitz!” Lydia yells.

He starts playing a jazzy version of Ace of Spades.

“Kravitz! I know you can hear me. We didn’t discuss any deviations from the playlist or the lyrics.” Kravitz nods as if he’s listening to everything she’s saying, and not staring at Taako.

“If you like to eat scones, I tell you I’m your man. Plain, fruit, cherry, they’re not all the same to me. The pleasure is to spread, jam, butter, or cream instead, If a scone is what you need, the only place you should be’s, Paloma’s Bakes, (Paloma’s Bakes)”

#They go on a date and Taako has four scones and Kravitz doesn't complain or resent him for it #It's three months in before Kravitz gets a straight answer about what Taako does #Surprise! He's a super famous chef now #Taakitz #Noodyl Writes #TW alcohol mention #It's just a mention of a place that serves it but I didn't want to jumpscare anyone with the implication.

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voidfishling · 4 years

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“You, Taako Taaco, are a liar.”

Taako looks up at the Grand Auditor with all his abject terror frozen into flippant contempt.

The Auditor sneers, leaning forward on his throne. “There isn’t so much as a wisp of necromancy clinging to your being.”

With a wry sort of smile Taako looks the human up and down. “Some of us have hidden depths, my man.” He just needs to buy time. Enough time for Magnus and Lucretia to destroy the lab with the regeneration pod and for Davenport and Merle to hide Barry and Lup somewhere far, far away. Somewhere where the Auditor’s reapers won’t find them. Out of the city, if they can manage to get over the wall.

The Auditor rises from his seat, the raven feathers on his cloak ruffling with the sudden movement. “Your sister died,” he growls. “I have read the reports. She died exactly three months ago and yet-” He taps at the hourglass with Lup’s name on it, still full of glistening sand streaming merrily downward. “Here she is.” His pale eyes spark furiously. “And you’re trying to tell me that you – a little fool of a transmuting cook – singlehandedly brought her back from the dead?”

Taako’s insides twist. No one is getting their hands on his stupid litch sister. No one is laying a finger on his stupid necromancer brother. No one. They can do with him whatever they want. “Ya,” he sneers. “That’s what I’ve been telling you, right? You p—”

“No. He didn’t.”

The blood freezes in Taako’s veins. He knows that voice.

Kravitz is standing to attention in the doorway to the interrogation chamber. He is looking at the Auditor with restrained respect and Taako feels as if someone just stuck a knife between his ribs. Kravitz. The only Reaper that was willing to listen to them. The only Reaper that had responded to their heretic claim that they did not believe the Grand Auditor still operated on the mandate of the Raven Queen with a harrowed “you’re right”. The only Reaper they had trusted enough to tell him that they had not been able to find any devotee of the Goddess of Death that had been able to truly commune with their Queen for years, and who had answered this with a grey-faced “I know.”

And now he’s here, bowing to that two-faced, stupidly dressed, tyrant like none of it ever happened.

The Auditor grins, his shoulders broadening with triumph, until Kravitz suddenly continues:

“I did.”

Taako does not manage to keep a straight face, which is a bloody rookie mistake, but it doesn’t matter. The Auditor isn’t looking at him, he’s gawking at Kravitz.

“You what?”

Kravitz stands in front of him, unflinching. “We all get three passes, he says tensely. “Three opportunities to sow instead of reap.”

Even through his bewilderment Taako feels a stab of fury. Of course. Of course they are allowed to toy with the rules of life and death.

“I have never made use of it,” Kravitz continues, his dark eyes fixed on the Auditor with a strange sort of force. “Bringing back Lup Taaco is my first invocation of the privilege.”

All of the Auditor’s features seem to bulging out at once with anger. “And on what grounds do you expect to justify this invocation?” he spits.

Taako just catches Kravitz’ eyes darting in his direction with a look of frantic, desperate apology.

“Personal gain,” he replies, sounding far calmer than what Taako just saw in him. “I thought bringing back the sister was as good a way as any to court the brother.”

A single split second Taako floats in a void of shock, and then he breaks out his most self-satisfied smile. “And a good thing too, I wouldn’t have settled for anything less.” He smoothly sidles up to Kravitz and links his arm with his. “A handsome face alone is not enough to get a crack at all this, you know.”

The Auditor is spluttering, all but choking on his objections, and Taako knows why. The Auditor doesn’t possess anything even close to the magical prowess that his reapers do. That’s what he employs them for. That’s why they get privileges. He needs them. Kravitz – Taako has to begrudgingly admit – has made a pretty brilliant move here.

Well, no use half-assing things. That’s absolutely not the Taaco way. Unless it’s boring responsibilities, of course, but pretending to be the Grim Reaper’s new flame does not – whatever else it might turn out to be – boring. So Taako deliberately leans his head against Kravitz’ shoulder, idly blowing one of the raven feathers adorning his dreads out of his face. “You could have told me about the ‘reapers get a free pass’ thing, babe. I’ve been behaving like a major doofus in front of your boss there.”

For a horrified moment it feels like Kravitz is actually going to freeze up, but then he suddenly pulls him a little closer and hums:

“My apologies, I really wasn’t expecting you to give yourself up like this.” He glances at the Auditor. “But I’m sure His Honour will forgive you, now we’ve explained the situation.”

Taako doesn’t have a reply to that, mostly because Kravitz just did something weird and purr-like with his voice that he’s never heard before and that’s currently stuck in his chest somewhere. But if he’s going to keep this thing up long enough to get his family out of trouble, he had better get used to that. And as for that furious, helpless look on the Auditor’s face, he could definitely get used to that.

#taz kravtiz #taz taako #taako taaco #taakitz #taz fanfic #the adventure zone #taz balance #fake dating #fake dating au #I'm just gonna toss this out here and leave it #this is for you sis <3 #my stuff #the fake dating au

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youhearstatic · 5 years

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Cor’s Adventure Zone Writing

Longer Fics - solo

Chrysanthemums (Lovesick) - A Blupjeans hanahaki fic.

Barry Bluejeans knows what’s happening the moment the first petal appears.

And he knows how it will end.

Losing Time - (Set after Story and Song) After being missing for three days, Barry has been mysteriously de-aged. Now he looks 20 years old and doesn’t remember anyone. Lup, Kravitz, and Taako are trying to figure things out.

Losing Time “Exit Interview” (10 fanfic questions answered about Losing Time. Includes a lot of behind the scenes and extended explanations.)

It’s About Time - This is a love letter to Barry Bluejeans of sorts: the whole campaign of The Adventure Zone: Balance (and then some) told from Barry’s point of view. (Part of ‘All the Time in the Worlds’ series, this fic covers their Stolen Century from Barry’s POV.)

It’s About Time “Exit Interview” (10 fanfic questions answered about the fic. Includes a lot of behind the scenes and extended explanations.)

Time After Time - With Lup missing and he and Taako unable to find any sign of her, Barry Bluejeans had thought things couldn’t get any worse.

He was wrong. Now he’s completely alone, on the run, hoping to find a way to fix everything and reunite his family.

These are Barry’s voidfished years, his years without Lup, his years forced to play the villain.

(Part of ‘All the Time in the Worlds’ series, this fic covers the Faerun part of the podcast from Barry’s POV. Updates on Fridays.)

Bluejeans, Boxers, and One Bed - A prompt that got out of hand, this is my contribution to the best mutual pining trope out there: There Was Only One Bed! 4500+ words of ridiculous pining with a side dish of underwear angst. Yup, it’s a thing.

Legato Solos - Before their song was ready, before their big performance, Barry and Lup spent their last few months consumed with thoughts of one another. (Rated Mature.)

Like Friendship Set Aflame - Barry has been searching for the perfect gifts for everyone. The problem isn’t finding something perfect for Lup. It’s that it’s too perfect. (Rated Explicit. Essentially? This is over 12k words of smut. )

This necklace was incredibly and conspicuously expensive. There was no way to give it to her at the same time he gave Magnus nail polish and a silly stuffed animal. There was no way to not be obvious that he cared about her as more than just a crewmate. This was a piece of jewelry that said ‘I have been painfully in love with you for decades and will continue to be for as long as I exist’ and said it in big, shouty letters.

This necklace was overt. Undisguised.

This necklace was a declaration.

Like Friendship Set Aflame “Exit Interview” (10 fanfic questions answered about the fic. Includes a lot of behind the scenes and extended explanations.)

A Thousand Tiny Moments - Before being chosen for the Starblaster crew, Lup meets someone at a party. It doesn’t go well. (Part of the ‘All the Time in the Worlds’ Series, this is the Lup POV companion fic to It’s About Time. 14k words)

She drifts closer to him and slowly, so slowly, she bends her head to his. She pauses inches away, not yet touching but so close they share breath. Her hand slides along the lapel of his jacket and she feels his chest rise as he breathes in.

She looks at his mouth and thinks this is the last moment before I kiss him. It’s as inevitable as his chest falling beneath her hand as he exhales. So she kisses him. His lips are warm and soft against hers with the rich sting of alcohol painted on both their mouths.

The Lup POV minific that became A Thousand Tiny Moments

A Thousand Tiny Moments “Exit Interview” (10 fanfic questions answered about ATTM. Includes a lot of behind the scenes and extended explanations.)

Longer Fics - colabs

Wild Dragon Chase - Having spotted the same distinctive looking dragon several times and in several different planar systems, Lup is ready to force a meeting. A dragon on their side against the Hunger would be a tremendous advantage.

Barry Bluejeans has kept his true nature a secret for half a millennia. He’s been alone since the rest of his flight died trying to defend the town they were the protectors of. That’s a difficult life for a crystal dragon who hoards sentimental and emotional bonds the way other flights hoard gold or relics. Can he risk his secret when half the crew despise dragons? (By @tanger-catnip & @youhearstatic)

Also, here’s a quick scene that would take place about two weeks after the events of Wild Dragon Chase, a conversation between Taako and Lup about her and the dragon.

A Single Slat of Wood and Canvas - After months of training, Lup fails to bring in her first solo reaper contract. She won’t tell anyone exactly what happened, even Barry. (By @tanger-catnip & @youhearstatic)

Barry woke with a start. His hand reached for the other side of the bed before he even knew who or where he was.

“Lup?” he asked the empty room.

Her side of the bed was cold. Barry was up and fumbling for his glasses in an instant, his heart pounding.

Made Before the Voidfish (Broken by a Voidfish) - For months Lup, Magnus, and Merle have been haunted by the presence of the ‘red robe’. Often showing up after their adventures to offer cryptic and usually unhelpful warnings and advice. Shortly after the events at Refuge, Lup hatches a plan to finally pin this incomprehensible creature down and get the answers to the questions burning inside her. [TwinSwap AU 1.0] (By @tanger-catnip & @youhearstatic)

Lup heard her own voice twist into a burst of static. She couldn’t remember what she had just said or hold it in her brain, but her mouth knew the words. She bent over, a lance of pain shooting through her head. It hurt so much, but she was so close to something she just had to keep going.

More static. It was like something was stealing the words away from her. She tried to claw them back, but they just would not stay in. It was like vomiting, but with words that she couldn’t hear.

Lust is a Thing with Fangs - Lup tries to sneak in one more day of laboratory work before her annual heat cycle kicks in. Barry is there. It goes about how you would expect. (Explicit content.) (By @tanger-catnip & @youhearstatic)

Lup paused at the door to the lab. She stood up straight, wrapping herself in dignity and ignoring her heart pounding in her chest like a jackhammer. It would be fine. It was only Barry. He would be way too focused on his work to notice her trembling, or the fact she was flushed from the tips of her ears to her toes.

Lup licked her lips. She suddenly had the strangest feeling. Like part of her had come to a revelation about something and another was frantically trying to muffle it before it could be brought to her attention.

A Night at The Naughty Kitten - Out of options after the Starblaster hastily relocated without them, Lup and Barry spend the night at a “boutique” “short stay” hotel.

There’s only one bed, but that’s the least of anyone’s problems. (By @tanger-catnip & @youhearstatic)

The tension was so thick you could cut it with a knife. It wasn’t the first time she’d ended up like this, but every time Lup wondered if it would be the one to break her. He wanted her so badly. Lup didn’t understand how she was supposed to handle seeing it so clearly on his face on top of her own longing.

Sandworms and Other Concerns - Barry discovers that Lup’s presence can improve any situation, including having his arm torn off by a fifty-foot-long, carnivorous, burrowing, acid-spitting, hook-toothed, pinstriped Sandworm. (By @tanger-catnip & @youhearstatic - Also on AO3.) {Hey guys, just to let you know: The sandworm is all in the title. This is Hurt/Comfort wrapped in Fluff. Angst levels are at absolute minimum!}

Short Fics

Barry & Lup:

Lup watches Barry Sleep - Post S&S

Ghosts of Candlenights Past, Echoes of Candlenights Future - Barry feeling sad about the holiday and not realizing just how close he is to having what he always wanted.

Morning in Bed - Lup and Barry just cuddling and being in love. Prompt Request.

It’s Cold Outside But You’re Warm - Lup and Barry mutual pining. Prompt Request.

Strings - Lup and Barry just performed their song. Lup has a few final doubts.

What If She’s Just Gone? - Barry’s anxieties get away from him when Lup is missing. Prompt request.

Will You Marry Me - Barry does what he has to. Prompt Request.

Reactions - The twins deal with Barry being ill. Prompt Request.

Curse and Canyon - Barry is hurt. Lup is trying to deal. Prompt Request.

Take a Picture - Lup is frustrated. Prompt request.

Your Laugh is so Adorable - Lup does some reluctant pining. Prompt request.

Don’t Touch Me - Barry and Lup short experimental piece.

Gathering - Taako plans a party. Prompt request.

It was the Pottery - Taako teasing Barry. Prompt request.

Super Short & Cutesy - Barry and Lup in the lab. Prompt request.

What You Did Was Stupid - Barry and Lup on Tesseralia. Prompt request.

This One is Really Dark - You’ve been warned. Prompt request.

Let Me Help You - Prompt request for Barry & Lup.

You Don’t Have to Act Like You’re Okay - Prompt request for Barry and Lup.

Pride - Prompt based minific of Lup coming to Barry’s rescue at a Pride event.

Hotel Balcony - A prompt based modern meet-cute for Barry and Lup.

Hotel Balcony Pt 2 - Hey look, there’s more!

Contradictions - Test minific/opener for the Barry POV fic.

Lup and Barry switch - Lup is the one that falls from the Starblaster, taking Taako with her.

At the Wedding - Barry and Lup at Carey and Killian’s wedding. Quick scene inspired by a post.

True Seeing - Barry in a voidfished body with a group of adventurers. Short group write piece.

TazDelightful’s personality swap - A short piece with Taako and Evocation Specialist Barry talking, the echo of their beach discussion in an AU where Barry is the rowdy flame mage and Lup is the nerdy science officer.

Whumptober Prompts: A set of prompts for October 2019, all focused on angst and “whump.” Despite the focus, many of them do still have happy endings or at least, given the nature of Stolen Century, imply an eventual happy ending, since they still fit roughly within canon.

First fourteen prompts - The first fourteen days of prompts were strung together into a single story. Links at the bottom will lead through the story. This is a sort of general angst piece that delves into sci fi magical realism.

Breathless - Lup wakes up alone. Set post S&S.

Pinned Down - Barry and Lup encounter a problem trying to get across a battlefield to return to the Starblaster.

Stay With Me - Once again, fate keeps them from having a certain conversation.

Bound - Barry dies again. This might be his worst one yet.

Asphyxiation - Lup is nervous about getting in a body again after so long being noncorporeal.

Trembling - Lup and Barry and a few, final minutes.

Laced Drink - A poisoned drink makes Lup reassess priorities.

Hallucination - Barry wakes up sure a terrible situation is happening again.

Other Short TAZ Pieces:

Love is Dead - Taakitz Soulmate/Soulmark AU with Blupjeans background. Also on AO3.

Just Like the Movies - Taakitz first Candlenights. Also on AO3.

Getting Home - Super short Magnulia prompt

Second Chances - When Lucretia gets the second void fish she realizes she can inoculate Davenport and talk to him.

Just You and Me - JohnChurch prompt request.

Karma is a Bitch/What Did You Say? - Taako & Barry’s friendship prompt request.

Can You Keep a Secret? - Taako & Barry’s friendship prompt request.

What if the Stones of Farspeech hadn’t been confiscated? - THB and others develop a friendship with the mystery contacts in their stones. Short group write piece.

Meta, Etc

Headcanons:

[The Twins | Taako & Lup]

[The Lover | Barry]

[The Protector | Magnus]

[The Lonely Journal Keeper | Lucretia | The Director]

[The Peacemaker | Merle]

[The Wordless One | Davenport]

[Kravitz]

[Miscellaneous]

Meta:

Lucretia and the Red Robes (Pt 1) Lucretia and the Red Robes (Pt 2)

A list of every conversation Lucretia has with the boys about the Red Robes and a discussion of her thought process/intentions. Part 2 focuses specifically on how her words in Ep 59 may have influenced Magnus’s decisions going forward.

Murder or Suicide: What is it when lich!Barry sets up his living!Barry body to die?

Other:

TAZ Balance Characters as WoW Classes

#blupjeans #barry and lup #barry bluejeans #lup #taz balance #taz fic #fic list #mywriting #mystuff #the adventure zone #long post #i apologize for how long this is #but i don't want a read more on it because i link this in my header

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believingbrook · 6 years

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i’ll always love you

(you’ll never know, dear)

concept spinoff posted with permission from original author

Kravitz stumbles home with the liches in tow. His back is ramrod straight as he negotiates their fate, claims the responsibility of teaching them as his own. He’ll teach them well, he promises. They’re fast learners, as they all know.

The Raven Queen has heard many things about these two from the Story but nothing impresses her more than the sympathetic looks they shoot Kravitz’s way before they leave.

My son, she says.

“My Queen,” he murmurs in return, and sits, heavily. He buries his face in his hands and his shoulders begin to shake with broken sobs and she sighs. “My apologies,” he whimpers, “I — I should not — ”

Do not apologize, she commands. She cannot kneel, because she is a goddess, but she lays one winged arm over him. Tell me, what troubles you?

He does.

So Death pays Fate a visit.

“Just promise to be back by dinnertime,” Taako grumbles, waving a spatula in their direction. Spaghetti sauce flecks Lup’s cheek and she laughs, whipping him with a shaker of salt in retaliation. “Do that again and I’ll burn the goddamn pasta!”

“No you won’t,” she sing-songs. “Bye, bro!”

“Yeah, yeah,” he mutters. “Don’t beef it.”

They tear a rift through space and step out of the kitchen, slightly too large for three people.

They meet Magnus and Merle in the center of the Felicity Wilds.

“It didn’t have to be here, you know,” Barry says. “We really could’ve gone from anywhere.”

“We know,” Merle shrugs. “But this felt right.”

The clearing has been restored in full. All around them spring trees of green and yellow, full and blooming, barks a hard and sturdy brown. Not a trace remains of the hell that once grew in the clearing’s center.

“Fair enough,” Barry mutters, and tears a second hole into the Eternal Stockade. “Remember: never lose sight of your soul cord, it’s the only thing tethering you to this plane. Merle, you’re with Lup; Magnus, with me. If either of us catch whiff of anything trying to fuck with your cords we’re outta here, got it? We can always try another day if this fails.”

Twin nods. There’s a determined set to Magnus’s jaw that makes him look five years older. “All right then. Grab your assigned hands and let’s move out.”

They stay together until they reach the mass of souls in Wonderland.

This towering heap of gelatinous silvery something is the Astral Plane’s worst logistical nightmare. Tangled in this mess are hundreds of souls, all decayed and warped from years, decades trapped inside the hellhouse once called Wonderland. Some were simply rent to pieces when their suffering had maxed out and they were no longer useful.

Communication between planes was impossible in Wonderland. Once they died, they could not move on.

“Gods,” Magnus breathes, staring up and up and up at the towering ball of souls, stuck together like spiderwebs. Strands of souls dangle toward the Astral Sea, and even young a Reaper as she is Lup feels sick. Souls shouldn’t look like — that.

“Yeah.”

Beside her, Barry’s face is grim. “It’s somewhere in there,” he says. “Looks like a feather.”

“This is gonna take a while,” Merle grumbles, but he hikes up his sleeves around his shoulders, flexes his soulwood fingers, and pries a path directly into the heart of the nest. Barry sighs and floats after him, shuddering as wisps of shattered souls brush against his robe.

Magnus looks nauseous. “Are they okay?”

“No,” Lup says bluntly. “Most of them have been completely destroyed. The rest that awaits them after we extract them is the Astral Sea. At least they know oblivion, there, instead of the hell that they found in Wonderland.”

Magnus looks at her. “What about Taako’s soul?”

Lup stares straight ahead, ends of her cloak catching fire as she strides forward. “We’ll find out when we get it.”

They eat spaghetti that evening, pot roast the next, and three different pizzas the following day, because Angus comes over.

It takes him less than two hours to deduce what he’s doing. He offers to help, and looks unsurprised when he’s turned down.

“Stone me if you need help,” he says in his piping little voice. “I want to do whatever I can.”

They promise they will. They can’t endanger him the same way they’re endangering Magnus and Merle — the Astral Plane was never meant to host the still-living, after all — but they truly are all hands on deck.

They find it drifting toward the center of the mass. It was nearly impossible to see even staring straight at it. Even several months in the Astral Plane had curled it in on itself, shrivelled, with the wisping edges little more than ash, but Lup floats toward it as though entranced and cradles it in her palms.

“That’s it,” Magnus says, peering down at the feather nestled gently in her hands. He looks at Merle, then Barry, and doesn’t smile, not yet. “That’s it.”

“Taako,” Barry says, that evening. “Back when you couldn’t remember Lup. You would’ve given anything to remember her again, right?”

Taako studies him. “You already know the answer to that question, Barry. Why are you asking me?”

“A hypothetical.”

“About as hypothetical as your necromancy, huh.”

“More hypothetical than that.” Barry drums his fingers on the tabletop, the sweet aroma of blueberry cobbler wafting through the air. Angus tells him it was Kravitz’s favorite, and Taako doesn’t seem to realize it’s the only dessert he bakes, these days. Claims he’s working out kinks in his aunt’s recipe. Every time they eat it Lup says it’s the exact same. “If you had to give up your soul to get hers back.”

“Of course,” he says.

“What about for me?”

Taako narrows his eyes at him. “You know the answer to that too. Barry, what the fuck is going on?”

Barry considers it, briefly; telling him everything. But the words wouldn’t stick. He stands, pushes in his chair, levitates his plate into the sink with a neat clatter. “I’ll tell you tomorrow,” he promises.

They don’t tell Kravitz.

Pushing a soul back together like this is necromancy, of course. But even so, they don’t want to raise his hopes.

They do, however, tell Angus. He adjusts his little glasses on his little head and with determination set in his face he says, “I’m going to be there.”

So he is.

Lup has hardly stopped cradling this part of her brother’s soul since the moment they found it. It glows an ethereal white in the comparative dark of Taako’s room. Taako had never questioned why he had a king-sized bed instead of a single because, Barry thinks, some part of him was scared of the answer.

There are no words; Magnus and Merle nod, Barry sets a hand on her shoulder, and Angus takes a deep breath. The feather flutters in Lup’s hands as she lowers it, gently, into her brother’s chest.

A heartbeat passes, then two, then three, and Taako sits bolt upright, gasping “Kravitz — ”

He honestly can’t remember whether he snatched Lup’s scythe, or Barry’s; all he knows is that he’s barreling blindly through the halls of the Eternal Stockade, maybe two seconds from just shouting Kravitz’s name until he finds him.

A bad idea, no doubt. This place is full of the worst murderers and necromancers and liches their world has ever seen. But Taako wants to see his love, damn it, and he’s about to throw caution to the wind when a faint thread unspools around his feet, nearly tripping him.

Taako stops, looks at it askance. It’s a deep purple. It shimmies at him as he watches and stretches behind him, in the opposite direction.

Taako takes a moment to pray a quick thank you to Istus before sprinting that way. His feet pound above the thread for such a long time he loses track. He traces a path out of the Stockade, along the winding beaches, heading toward the Raven Queen’s palace. He knocks impatiently on the front door, watching the thread dance weakly in the gap underneath, and slips inside before they’ve creaked fully open.

The Raven Queen’s palace is fucking huge, and normally Taako would appreciate the sheer scale and grandeur but right now it’s just really fucking inconvenient. He must trace his way through some forty full-length halls before finally, finally, catching sight of a familiar robed back.

He doesn’t slow down. He barrels directly into Kravitz, sending them both skidding along the floor.

“What the fuck,” Kravitz says in his accented voice, struggling from where Taako has him pinned, and flips them both easily. “Who are you and — Taako?”

“Yeah,” Taako says, breathless, and he’d be reaching for Kravitz’s face except Kravitz is currently kneeling on his hands. “It’s me. You made yourself real fuckin’ hard to find, by the way, bubbeleh, had to sprint all the way along those beaches. Did you know the Astral Plane just has too much fucking beach? Because you do. Not great for tourists. Could you get off my wrists?”

Kravitz, still in shock, obliges. Taako grabs his face with two hands and sits up and kisses him fiercely.

The kiss is cool and Kravitz makes a shocked noise into his mouth but Taako only holds him tighter, wrapping an arm around his shoulders. Eventually Kravitz kisses back, hands resting tentatively on his waist, and they stay that way until Taako pulls back, gasping for air.

“How did you do that?”

“What, remember?” Taako grins, and Kravitz smiles back like he can’t help it. “Fuckin’ easy, when you’re family’s the best wizards in the planar system. I, uh, didn’t actually stop to ask.” He nods toward the scythe he’d dropped at the entrance of this room. “I’m not sure whose scythe that is but, uh, I stole it.”

“I — I thought I’d lost you,” Kravitz whispers, awed, and as his smile begins to tremble he buries his face in Taako’s shoulder. “You didn’t recognize me at all — ”

“I know, and I’m so sorry,” Taako says. “I mean that, by the way. Did Magnus tell you — ”

“Yes.”

“Everything?”

Kravitz swallows hard then looks up, eyes glinting even in the ambient light of the Astral Plane. “Everything. And, Taako — I love you too. When I was over here I thought about you constantly. I was so worried. I couldn’t reach you at all.”

“Yeah, kinda half-and-half gig for me too,” Taako says, and laughs, breathless. He leans forward and kisses the worry off Kravitz’s face, and he intends it to be quick, he really does; but Kravitz holds him tight and Taako shifts so that he’s sitting on Kravitz’s lap and they don’t move for a long time.

Eventually Taako nudges Kravitz onto the ground and follows him down, resting with their chests pressed together. Taako peppers his neck with kisses, tracing a line from his chin to his ear. Kravitz laughs softly and bats him away when he blows a raspberry.

“I’m so glad you’re here.”

Taako kisses him again, reborn heart soaring with joy. “Me too,” he says, and kisses Kravitz again. “I missed you.”

“I missed you too. I couldn’t — ” One of his hands flies to his face, regrettably leaving Taako’s side, and covers his eyes. “I thought you were just gone, I didn’t know what happened, and even when Merle explained it — ”

“Hey,” Taako murmurs, prying Kravitz’s hand away from his eyes. Kravitz looks at him, heartbroken and vulnerable. Carefully, Taako kisses each tear away. Despite the sympathetic pain thrumming through his chest he’s elated, because Kravitz is his, and they have an eternity together. “I’m back. And this time, for good.”

Kravitz swallows hard, nods. “Okay,” he whispers.

“Can’t get rid of me now,” Taako says, prodding his chest with every word. “You’ve signed onto the Taako Express and there’s no de-boarding, my man.”

Kravitz catches his hand and kisses the back, laughing softly when Taako groans theatrically and oh, Taako had missed that quiet laugh. “I wouldn’t want to.”

“Sap,” Taako murmurs, curling his head into the hollow of Kravitz’s neck.

“Your sap,” Kravitz murmurs back, hands linked securely around the small of Taako’s back. Taako cards a hand through his hair until he feels some of the tension drain from Kravitz’s body. “I love you.”

Taako kisses his cheek, just because he can. His soul sings. “I love you too.”

#sunshine fic #me six months later: hey kids you wanna see something cool #taakitz #taako #kravitz #lup #bluejeans #barry bluejeans #magnus #merle #in part for determinedprince #i am indeed not a void and indeed was :3333 at all of your tags

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mslullabies · 7 years

Text

wrote a little fat-positive ficlet based on this headcanon – although note that this does not feature or discuss eating disorder!Taako, just stressed lonely and unhappy!Taako. do not read if you are not into fatness being portrayed as a good thing.

Magnus is on the bar stool on the opposite side of the kitchen counter, watching Taako make diplomat cream.

"Why diplomat cream?" Magnus had asked, making trouble on purpose, holding back a grin, "Why not just custard?"

"Excuuuuuuse me!?" Taako had all but shrieked, and banished Magnus to the bar stool, where he couldn't sneak fingerfulls of the cream he was so obviously unworthy of.

The banishment also got him out of Taako's personal space, which Magnus knows he's been encroaching on a little too much ever since they saved the world. He doesn’t mean to, it’s just -

He remembers everything in its proper order now, remembers all the people he loves and all the ways he grew to love them, but his sense memories still trip him up sometimes. His body doesn’t have it straight. For a while his ears held on to this timeline of Merle's voice - the warmth in it growing deeper over the course of a hundred years, and then his voice was gone entirely, and then it was filled instead with tired obstinacy, before slowly growing warmer, more affectionate, again. Magnus knew in his head why those changes happened, but it's like his ears couldn't let go of the strangeness. Ears don't know about interdimensional travel, they don't know about memories stolen and returned.

That, at least, had faded in the months that followed the almost-apocalypse, probably because Magnus hears Merle’s voice plenty often, but with Taako it’s different.

Magnus has had his arms around Taako exactly three times: there was the first time Lup died, and Taako had been... Magnus had carried him back to the Starblaster, and his weight in Magnus's arms had been a comfort of sorts - the heavy, tear-soaked reality of him, the shake of his girth as he sobbed, his pain and the ache Magnus felt for him marking them both as undeniably alive. Then there was the third time they'd lost Cap'nport, and lost him when he'd been right beside Magnus, not even six inches away. One of the only things Magnus can remember from the days that had followed is the sound of a put-upon sigh, and then a sturdy warmth all around him, the soft press of Taako's body against his chest, the way he had felt when Magnus finally managed to lift his arms and hold him in return – a thick comforting squish giving way to a solid core of strength.

And then most recently, after the destruction of Phandalin, he'd caught Taako in the moon base’s observatory - his slight shape silhouetted against the sunset, tendons showing in the back of his hand as he’d gripped the telescope and looked down at that crater of glass. Taako had immediately pretended to be looking at something else, and Magnus, unremembering, had looped an arm around his shoulders and squeezed him. He’d gotten a good second and a half in maybe before Taako had shrugged away. Taako had been skinny and sharp-edged then, and even pressed up against him, Magnus hadn’t thought anything of it, of what might have made Taako that way. His fingers could have met around Taako’s arm, and he’d had no idea what that actually meant.

Now Taako's got his nose in the air as he pointedly faces away from Magnus and vigorously whisks heavy cream into whipped cream. Magnus can see the muscles in his arm move, but the lines of them are diffuse and gentle. The reverberations of his stirring jiggle through his side. Now Taako is thick and hale and his skin is smooth and glowing and his eyes shine and Wonderland or no, he is as gorgeous as Magnus can ever remember him. Magnus understands what happened, how Taako got so thin and how he got chubby again, it makes sense in his brain - but his body cannot shake the feeling of the narrow ridge of Taako's shoulders against the underside of his arm. He can't get rid of this urge to put his arms around Taako and feel that he's well and happy and not alone and isn't afraid to cook or to eat anymore. He wants that feeling to overtake the memories his body made when neither of them were their whole selves.

"Ya know, I can get you an 8 by 10 if you want," Taako says without turning around, and Magnus realizes it’s been several minutes and he’s gone from watching Taako cook to just kind of staring at him.

"Yeah, you already gave me like a dozen," he answers, laughing.

"So then what's with the star gazing?" Taako asks as he tests the peaks of the cream. He sets the bowl down on the counter, apparently satisfied, and turns to face Magnus.

Magnus shrugs dismissively and looks away. Hugs aren’t exactly Taako’s jam, and he doesn’t want to make him feel weird or obligated about it.

Taako sighs.

“Listen, I’m normally all about just bottling that shit right up, but just this one time I think I’d rather you spat it out. Not that I don’t want you around, but you have kinda been right on my jock lately, and that real estate is in high demand. What gives, homeboy, what’s going on?”

Magnus debates internally for a split second, and then gives up the ghost. He doesn’t have it in him to give Taako the brush off, and there’s no law that says they have to get into details about it.

“I kinda want a hug,” he says, and smiles when Taako’s eyebrows shoot up. “But I know you’re not into that, so don’t worry about it. I’ll uh. I’ll bottle that shit right up.”

Magnus isn’t sure what he’s expecting Taako’s response to be, but what he gets is Taako whirling around, leaning halfway out of the window over the sink and looking left and right as if checking for intruders. He withdraws and pulls the shutters closed, then goes and performs the same comical look-around at the doorway leading to the dining room. Apparently satisfied, he turns around and shoots Magnus a conspiratorial look.

“Ok, you can’t go blabbing about this to everybody,” he says in a stage-whisper as he comes around the counter to Magnus’s bar stool. “Part of how I make sure the demand stays high is by keeping the supply low, ya feel me?”

“Uh, yeah?” Magnus guesses, still not sure where this is headed.

“Good,” Taako says firmly. Then he holds out his arms.

Magnus slides off the bar stool and into the hug Taako is offering on instinct or reflex or something, no conscious thought to it at all. It doesn’t even occur to him to laugh at how ridiculous Taako is until he’s already there, and then he’s too busy getting a little choked up.

Taako doesn’t feel the least bit fragile or sharp-edged, just sturdy and soft and substantial, so Magnus squeezes him tightly, and the circle his arms make around him is big and wide and right. He can feel something inside himself click back into proper alignment, like feeling a joint move more easily after it’s popped.

“You don’t have to be a fuckin creep about it, ok?” Taako says into Magnus’s neck. Magnus just nods, his throat too closed up to bother defending himself.

Taako allows the hug for another moment before patting Magnus’s back in that way that means ‘done now,’ and Magnus lets him go.

“I mean it,” Taako says immediately, pointing a finger in Magnus’s face, “Don’t go telling people about this.”

“Ok,” Magnus says, amused and still a little dazed with relief.

“I can’t have the likes of Kravitz and Ango thinking they can just get all up in here whenever they want.”

Magnus manages a laugh at that. “Not even Kravitz gets the unlimited hugs pass?”

“Especially not Kravitz, are you kidding me. He’s gotta earn it every time.”

Taako sashays back around the counter and reaches over the sink to open the shutters again, and although shutting them hadn’t made the kitchen dim by any means, the sunlight streaming in feels refreshingly bright and clean.

#Magnus Burnsides #is def the kinda guy who lives very much in his body ya know?#Taako #soft shell taako #fat positive #fat!Taako #chubby!Taako #The Adventure Zone #fic #ficlet #might clean this up and put it on ao3 #but might also be a coward and not do that #might also write another thing about this topic but from Lucretia's perspective #bc i can imagine that seeing Taako all skinny might be the first sign that her plan for him had not gone as well as she'd hoped

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noodyl-blasstal · 7 months

Text

A Work of Art

It's @taznovembercelebration day 16! Still goin'. Today's card was "laugh" and we got here somehow.

Read below or on Ao3, missed yesterday? Catch up here.

Kravitz has no idea why he agreed to this, no idea what kind of person he thought he was when he did. Kravitz: Comfortable Around Naked People; Kravitz: Chill About Crushes; Kravitz: The Most Regular Guy. In reality, he was none of the above.

“Sure, no problem, Taako, I’ll help you with your portfolio.” He’d said. Honestly, I’d do anything for you, no don’t test that theory, I know you want to. He’d meant.

“You’d like some body paint? Wonderful. That’ll be fine. You’re right, I am a good artist.” I’m sure you being half naked in close proximity to me won’t feature in any late night thoughts… or middle of the day thoughts… or morning thoughts. I know, I know, I swear I wasn’t like this before I met you.

“Oh, you’d like to do it fully nude? Yep, we’re both adults. That’s fine.” Taako, you cannot do this to me. I am going to die.

It was okay, actually, the art bit. He knew that it wasn’t sexual, knew that it was just for Taako’s modelling portfolio, knew that Taako had asked him because he was an artist, because Taako trusted him, there was no way he’d misplace that trust. But what he didn’t consider, what he should have considered, was the Taako-ness of it all.

They’d agreed to do it at Kravitz’s place because he actually paid for heating. Taako’s career was feast or famine and he refused to accrue any unnecessary bills. The fact he avoided these by hanging out at Kravitz’s when it was hot in Summer or cold in Winter hadn’t passed Kravitz by, but he also cooked, and ‘secretly’ stocked the fridge when Kravitz was snowed under by an avalanche of deadlines, and made the place feel so much friendlier that Kravitz was happy to pay slightly higher bills to account for the second person. Also, it meant that at least three of his neighbours thought they were together and it was nice that a version of them existed out there, comfortable and together and happy, just like Mauro and Imran, and The Carrots, and old Mrs Chen thought.

Taako had announced his presence (Kravitz gave him a key months ago, it seemed easier) by loudly asking: “Do you want to start with my dick, or my not dick?”

Which, honestly, Kravitz should have expected. But he struggled to find the I’m-Definitely-Not-In-Love-With-You-And-Only-Have-A-Friendship-Level-Interest-In-Your-Dick, honest, answer to Taako's question.

"Yes."It turned out, was not the best option because it gave Taako the chance to ask:

"Yes Taako's dick, or yes not Taako's dick?" And look at him with his perfect eyebrow quirked and his ridiculous smirk and his flushed cheeks making it look like maybe he felt weird about it too.

Obviously the answer was ‘yes Taako’s dick.’

"Either. Dick or not dick, that is. Whichever way you want." Was as much as he could manage in the being regular about this situation stakes, but it he was still convinced it would be okay, he could handle it. In fact, it’d probably get easier as it went.

Or maybe not, but even when Taako said, ‘oh, so you're happy to take Taako both ways?’ and touched his arm Kravitz managed to keep his (outward) composure.

What he couldn't have anticipated, whether he’d accounted for Taako’s inherent Taakoness or not, was the laughter.

Kravitz stoops, eye level with Taako's nipple, wondering exactly why Taako had decided to take all of his clothes off straight away even though they agreed Kravitz would start with Taako's arms and then move to his torso. He knew models had to be comfortable with nudity for shows, but Kravitz isn't a model, Kravitz is a man who is deeply in lust and is suffering.

Even still, adversity inspires creativity and there's a glorious swirling design sprouting from Taako's arm in golds and greens and pinks. It's beautiful, even if Kravitz does say so himself, which he does, because he's working on his confidence. Yes he's a good artist, yes he makes nice things, yes he can work up to asking out the very handsome man that basically lives with him at this point. He'll get there any minute now probably.

Right now though, right now, the fern leaves sprouting up from Taako's taught stomach (which Kravitz has definitely not had any inappropriately lustful thoughts about) are in peril because apparently Taako's torso is ticklish and apparently he didn't think it was worth mentioning that fact before Kravitz had to paint every inch of him with a brush. Every time Kravitz adds a brush stroke Taako shakes and snorts and attempts and fails to stand still and pretend nothing is happening.

“Taako, please. You have to stay still.”

“Cha’boy’s, snrk, trying.” Taako wiggles, leaving a broad stripe of green across his hip.

Kravitz reaches out and smudges it away with his thumb. He almost thinks he hears a hitch in Taako’s breath when he does, but it’s probably just that type of touch when it’s been a while. Last week Taako was lamenting how long it’d been since he’d gotten laid, apparently it was hard to find someone you could trust when you were on the cusp of being famous, hard to find a friend who you were interested in who was interested in you too, hard to find someone to be the ‘whole ass boyfriend’ Taako confessed to wanting. Kravitz could be all of that if Taako could just see it.

“Maybe you need to hold me down.” Taako suggests, as if he’s not proposing Kravitz restrains him while he’s naked and writhing. Is Taako trying to kill him? Is this a really bizzare assassination attempt?

“What do you mean?” Kravitz asks, clarification. Assassins have to tell you if you ask otherwise it’s entrapment. He’s fairly sure that’s how it works.

“If you just, like…” Taako lies down. “Straddle me here.” Taako indicates his hips. “That should do it.”

“Hrnk.” Says Kravitz’s traitor mouth, while his traitor body drops itself over Taako’s. It’s too late for his brain to do anything about it now.

This is bad. This is very bad… Although, actually, Taako looks pleased, so maybe it’s not that bad. Maybe Kravtiz’s weight is comforting, he’s like a weighted blanket! Plus, after a few brush strokes the ferns take shape again. Maybe it’s not so bad? If he can just keep his mind on the task at hand and not on Taako’s body it’ll be fine.

“So Krav, how’s this for you?” Taako squirms and snerks as another press of the brush winds across the centre of his chest.

“Good. Yep. Fine. Great actually.” Kravitz says, like a sane person, like a guy who didn’t have a crush on the person he was currently straddling and painting. The naked person he was currently straddling and painting.

There’s a pause, Taako fills it.

“How’s the weather up there?” Taako wriggles again as Kravitz adds gold accents and tries desperately to remember what Wiki How said about painting nipples.

“Warm.” Kravitz says, because he is. The temperature was cranked even higher than usual to make sure Taako was comfortable.

“You can take some clothes off too, you know, if you want.” Taako’s doing the faux nonchalant voice he does when he wants to have dessert but says it doesn’t matter.

“I wouldn’t want to make you uncomfortable.” Kravitz says mildly. He’s let optimism carry him over cliff edges before. Taako’s vulnerable right now, he has to be careful.

“Taako would definitely be more comfortable if you were wearing less right now, handsome.” Taako says, like he’s confident, like he means it, and then he winks. Winks.

Some things are slotting into place in Kravitz’s head. The visits, the earnest talks, the compliments…

“Wait… Hold on… Taako, did you specifically do this to hit on me?”

Taako grins. “Is it working?”

“Maybe.”

“Then maybe.”

Kravitz considers his options. He wants to know. “It’s working.”

“You didn’t notice anything else I tried.”

“Well…” Kravitz doesn’t have a comeback, instead he uses every drop of courage that the stupid mirror affirmations gave him, leans down, and kisses Taako firmly on the mouth then sits up again. “How about that?”

“I’ve got a few more ideas about what you can do with your mou…”

“Nope! Don’t you dare suggest anything right now. We’ve got some art to finish. It’s for your portfolio.” Kravitz adds air quotes around the last bit, well, as best he can with a paintbrush in hand and dabs some more paint onto Taako.

“Fine, but you should definitely be wearing less too.”

Kravitz doesn’t finish his painting.

I hope you had a goodfun time. Wanna read more? Catch the next prompt here.

#taz nc #taz november celebration #they fuck - just so you know #Taakitz #Taako #Kravitz #Noodyl Writes

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youhearstatic · 6 years

Text

Cor’s Adventure Zone Writing

Longer Fics - colabs

Barry woke with a start. His hand reached for the other side of the bed before he even knew who or where he was.

“Lup?” he asked the empty room.

Her side of the bed was cold. Barry was up and fumbling for his glasses in an instant, his heart pounding.

More static. It was like something was stealing the words away from her. She tried to claw them back, but they just would not stay in. It was like vomiting, but with words that she couldn’t hear.

A Night at The Naughty Kitten - Out of options after the Starblaster hastily relocated without them, Lup and Barry spend the night at a “boutique” “short stay” hotel.

There’s only one bed, but that’s the least of anyone’s problems. (By @tanger-catnip & @youhearstatic)

Lup blinked. Once, then twice. At first, she didn’t know what had woken her up. The ship was perfectly still, aside from the faint thrum of the bond engine that she’d learned how to tune out decades ago. The interior lighting that simulated a day-night cycle was dimmed as low as it went which meant it was still ‘nighttime.’

After a moment, Lup realised what it was. The steady pattern of breathing that lulled her into sleep was coming at its normal pace. Barry was awake.

Longer Fics - solo

She’s tempted to watch but doesn’t, turning to give him the same privacy he afforded her. She already knows he wears boxers. They’ve all seen each other’s laundry enough to know every article of clothing by heart. He has navy blue ones, two different types of plaids, and red ones with white hearts that she’s wanted to ask about for years now. Something about them screams Valentine’s Gift Set and she wants to know the story. Were they a serious gift? A gag gift? Did he get his heart broken? Was he…

Lup’s heart stutters wildly for a few beats. Was he in a relationship when they left?

Losing Time - (Post Story and Song) After being missing for three days, Barry has been mysteriously de-aged. Now he looks 20 years old and doesn’t remember anyone. Lup, Kravitz, and Taako are trying to figure things out. (17k words)

His hair is thicker, his face smoother. He’s still heavy but lighter than she’s used to. She’s known him for over a hundred years while neither of them aged.

And now he’s a stranger.

Losing Time “Exit Interview” (10 fanfic questions answered about Losing Time. Includes a lot of behind the scenes and extended explanations.)

It’s About Time - This is a love letter to Barry Bluejeans of sorts: the whole campaign of The Adventure Zone: Balance (and then some) told from Barry’s point of view. (All the Time in the Worlds Series, Pt two. Meaning it’s essentially the Barry POV companion fic to A Thousand Tiny Moments. WIP, updates Fridays.)

Two days later Barry is dead.

Again.

All those contradictions and questions are filled when he rises, spectral and nearly overwhelmed with more emotions than his lich form can handle.

Because when he’s dead he can remember it all.

Contradictions (Prologue - tumblr link)

A Thousand Tiny Moments - Before being chosen for the Starblaster crew, Lup meets someone at a party. It doesn’t go well. (All the Time in the Worlds Series, Pt one, the Lup POV companion fic to It’s About Time. 14k words)

She looks at his mouth and thinks this is the last moment before I kiss him.It’s as inevitable as his chest falling beneath her hand as he exhales. So she kisses him. His lips are warm and soft against hers with the rich sting of alcohol painted on both their mouths.

The Lup POV minific that became A Thousand Tiny Moments

A Thousand Tiny Moments “Exit Interview” (10 fanfic questions answered about ATTM. Includes a lot of behind the scenes and extended explanations.)

Short Fics

Barry & Lup:

Morning in Bed (Lup and Barry just cuddling and being in love. Prompt Request.)

It’s Cold Outside But You’re Warm (Lup and Barry mutual pining. Prompt Request.)

Strings (Lup and Barry just performed their song. Lup has a few final doubts.)

What If She’s Just Gone? (Barry’s anxieties get away from him when Lup is missing. Prompt request.)

Will You Marry Me (Barry does what he has to. Prompt Request.)

Reactions (The twins deal with Barry being ill. Prompt Request.)

Curse and Canyon (Barry is hurt. Lup is trying to deal. Prompt Request.)

Take a Picture (Lup is frustrated. Prompt request.)

Your Laugh is so Adorable (Lup does some reluctant pining. Prompt request.)

Don’t Touch Me (Barry and Lup short experimental piece.)

Gathering (Taako plans a party. Prompt request.)

It was the Pottery (Taako teasing Barry. Prompt request.)

Super Short & Cutesy (Barry and Lup in the lab. Prompt request.)

What You Did Was Stupid (Barry and Lup on Tesseralia. Prompt request.)

This One is Really Dark (You’ve been warned. Prompt request.)

Let Me Help You (Prompt request for Barry & Lup.)

You Don’t Have to Act Like You’re Okay (Prompt request for Barry and Lup.)

Pride (Prompt based minific of Lup coming to Barry’s rescue at a Pride event.)

Hotel Balcony (A prompt based modern meet-cute for Barry and Lup.)

Hotel Balcony Pt 2 (Hey look, there’s more!)

Contradictions (Test minific/opener for the Barry POV fic that is in progress.)

Lup and Barry switch (Lup is the one that falls from the Starblaster, taking Taako with her.)

At the Wedding (Barry and Lup at Carey and Killian’s wedding. Quick scene inspired by a post.)

True Seeing (Barry in a voidfished body with a group of adventurers. Short group write piece.)

Other Short TAZ Pieces:

Getting Home (Super short Magnulia prompt)

Love is Dead (Taako has never had a soulmark. Kravitz gets one only after he dies. Taakitz Soulmate/Soulmark AU with Blupjeans background)

Second Chances ( When Lucretia gets the second void fish she realizes she can inoculate Davenport and talk to him.)

Just You and Me (JohnChurch prompt request.)

Karma is a Bitch/What Did You Say? (Taako & Barry’s friendship prompt request.)

Can You Keep a Secret? (Taako & Barry’s friendship prompt request.)

Meta, Etc

Headcanons:

[The Twins | Taako & Lup]

[The Lover | Barry]

[The Protector | Magnus]

[The Lonely Journal Keeper | Lucretia | The Director]

[The Peacemaker | Merle]

[The Wordless One | Davenport]

[Kravitz]

[Miscellaneous]

Meta:

Lucretia and the Red Robes (Pt 1) Lucretia and the Red Robes (Pt 2)

Murder or Suicide: What is it when lich!Barry sets up his living!Barry body to die?

Other:

TAZ Balance Characters as WoW Classes

#taz fic #taz balance #barry and lup #blupjeans #taakitz #barry bluejeans #lup #mywriting #mystuff #fic list #it was time for another update!

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