woodcarving | driftfleet inbox.

[In the midst of this happening on the Heron, Magnus will suddenly get this text]

did u kno abt Lup? we need 2 talk ASAP

[confused dog emoji]

all i need to kno is: is she guna kill us y/n

no ?? ???? ?

why

I'm coming over

bc im guna kill u l8r

GIMME A MINUTE IM BUSY RN

[Oh no.]

what
that makes no sense

wait

do you remember?????

dont remember shit

she said she's a lich????? if u knew I stg mags ur banned from cookies for a month

LEAVE COOKIES OUT OF THIS

I STG MAGNUS BURNSIDES IT WILL BE 2 MONTHS IF YOU DON'T ANSWER ME

I think this is something we should talk about in person

fine
gimme 1hr and come 2 the FB
bc i have a fuckn headache rn and shit makes no sense

not sure I can help with that but I'll be there
don't do anything dumb

that's my job

duh i finished my quota of dumb for the year already

the rest is up to u

[As promised, he shows up an hour later on the First Breath. He isn't sure what to bring, so he brings chips and dip. That's like... proper for a chat, right? A chat that might end up going badly?

Fuck, he doesn't know.]

Taako? You here?

[If Taako isn't here, he'll head towards the quarters.]

[Taako is there, but he's stress-baking the exact thing that he has nearly banned Magnus from. It'll add insult to injury at least and Taako's head is still spinning from the implications of his morning chat with Lup. A lot of information had been exchanged and he has no tools with which to process it all.

So he leans back on the old faithful method of "FUCK IT" and is making rainbow swirl sugar cookies. As he hears Magnus coming down the hall, he yells back:]

Kitchen!

[Magnus really shouldn't be surprised to find him in the kitchen. He cautiously pokes his head around the corner.]

I brought chips. And there's some cheese dip? I found it in the fridge.

-- Are you stress baking?

No. [Yes.]

What does it look like?

[Stress baking.

He rolls another batch of cookie dough up into a long line and presses it against the rest of the colored dough.]

Put the food on the table.

[He motions absently to said table, which is currently housing ingredients for other things he's planning on making.]

Right.

[He knows when Taako is like this there's no way to get him to calm down except by letting him scream it out, so he puts the chips and dip on the table in a blank spot and awkwardly shuffles ingredients slightly to make more room.]

Can I, uh... can I help?

You can help by answering the text I sent you an hour ago.

[He spins the dough up into a length of wax paper, cinching the ends with a pointed look at Magnus.]

How much did you know about her?

[Magnus' eyes shift to the dough in Taako's hands, and he has a brief thought where he wonders if those hands can also fit around his neck. He's silent for a moment, and then he sits on the nearest chair.]

Listen... I wanna tell you everything, I've wanted to, but the-- the voidfish static basically makes that impossible? And thinking about it only makes it worse. I know because I went through that.

Back in Refuge, June gave me something. And trying to understand what I saw drove me nuts. I did some... really... dumb stuff trying to find out more. I wasn't myself.

But I thought you remembered. Didn't you remember when we were on the big ship?

Edited (OMG i keep fucking up sorry!) 2019-03-10 07:00 (UTC)

[Okay, that's. Pretty much the answer he expected, except for that whole part about Refuge and whatever it was that June gave him. Taako can't remember when Magnus started acting cagey, but he has a vague recollection of things getting a little wonky around that time. They were all a little out of whack though what with the dying and the whole Chalice fucking with their pasts thing.

Taako frowns and shoves the dough into the fridge to set and goes back to the counter, setting up a second one.]

Glad to know I have that to look forward to in my future.

[He starts rolling out more of the colored dough and sighs.]

And if I did remember anything, when I woke up, it was all gone. I know I'm missing a lot of important shit, but I knew that after the Chalice showed me a fuuuuckload of static in my past. Whatever I knew? It's gone now. Back to square fuckin' one.

[He slaps the dough onto the counter with some powdered sugar to keep it from sticking and grumbles.]

Again.

[Magnus watches Taako work and he wonders if he should ask to help again, but Taako also seems like he needs something to punch. For the first time, Magnus is good out here.]

Sorry, Taako. It's not for forever though. At some point all this timey wimey bullshit will intersect and everything will catch up, and it'll be great.

But for now, uh... You can trust Lup. She won't hurt you. Believe me, that's the last thing she wants.

You're not back to square one because you have her now and you didn't have her before.

[He's pushing harder than he should with the rolling pin as he flattens the dough, agitated when it doesn't retain the shape he wants because of it. Each attempt to put it back into place seems to just make it worse until Taako slaps the rolling pin down against the counter with a bang. The sharp crack of the wood against the tile ricochets around the room and he takes a breath, touching his fingertips of both hands against his temples.

He needs to calm the fuck down and stop taking his anger out on people. It's not that he's mad at Magnus, just like he wasn't really mad at Kravitz, nor is he angry at Lup. He's pissed off at this entire situation. The voidfish, the time gaps, everything, it's driving a wedge between him and the only people he actually trusts in this hellish situation.]

I know. I know. It's not just-- It's not just about her, dumbass.

[Magnus was a mannequin. There were visions from the dreams that Taako could see but not understand. Whatever was going on with Lup? Was also going on with Magnus. He said June gave him something that almost drove him mad trying to comprehend. Somehow between them coming back from Refuge and wherever they were going next, shit got real and it got real bad. He can feel his heart squeezing like a vice at the idea of Magnus, forever optimistic, kind of like a giant puppy, brash, loud, crazy Magnus turning into that wooden dummy. Did it mean they lost him? Was he dying? If that's true, how was he here now? Was that just what happened when you died?

Taako takes another breath and lowers his hands slowly, palms flat toward the ground as he tries to center himself.]

Look. I- I know the time gaps and the static and shit is crazy difficult to get around. Trust me, I know, but that- It doesn't mean you just- I dunno, keep shit? From me?

[He cautiously picks the rolling pin back up, considers going back to the dough, and instead turns it around on Magnus, using it like he would the Umbra Staff and jabbing it at his chest to make a point.]

And that includes you, moron. Don't think I haven't noticed you and Krav and literally everyone tiptoeing around me like I'm gonna break. I've saved your ass more times than I can count. Some headaches and my big bad moods aren't going to kill me or you.

[Or Lup. Hopefully. Her being a lich definitely complicated things, but it also made sense. That other red robed idiot was a lich, right? So why not her too. Maybe all the Red Robes were liches. Just a big ol' party of dumb lich wizards.]

[Magnus looks at the rolling pin that's pointed at him and he just feels terrible. He hates keeping stuff from Taako and he's obviously terrible at it. He closes his eyes and breathes a big sigh.]

I-- I know. I'm sorry. But it's not just headaches and bad moods, Taako. I stopped believing what I was being told, I broke into the brig-- I got some guards killed by accident. I freaking lost it.

You don't trust people as easily as I do. And without all the facts, because of that static, it'll just make things harder for you. You were finally starting to get comfortable. I didn't want to ruin that.

... And I didn't want to like accidentally write us out of existence if I told you something here, but it looks like it doesn't actually matter anyway. So there's that.

Edited 2019-03-27 14:38 (UTC)

Well fuck, Mags, it's not like we haven't killed people by accident or even on purpose before! Sure, it sucks, but shit - you could have just told us. Then maybe you wouldn't be losing your dumb mind all alone.

[Because sure, Taako doesn't trust people easily. He hasn't exactly made it easy for Magnus or Merle to really get to know him either. His shit is his own shit and he thought that was just fine with him. But seeing Magnus in that mannequin body in that memory just... He didn't think he'd be as stricken at the thought as he is now.

He lowers the rolling pin and sets it aside for now, its purpose served. He's too worked up to properly make the cookies now anyway. The chance of him messing something up and causing real harm, not just to the baked good to potentially to whoever ate it, is too high.]

But yeah, there's that. Whatever you tell me here? It stays here, I guess. So why not just make our stupid lives easier and get it out in the open, huh? There's no way I can really be comfortable here or anywhere, and if you were ready to bug out and start breaking into places, you should've told me. [At least tell him.] Fuck I probably would've helped you.

[And maybe it would stop him from becoming a wooden dummy.]

It's not like it takes all that much convincing for me to go and break the law.

[Magnus is having a hard time arguing against Taako's logic. Magnus knew at the time that running off alone was a bad idea, but he did it anyway, and he paid for it later on. But the alternative was just too much for Magnus to bet against if he'd been wrong.

And so... he breathes in and out, and his shoulders slump, but he stays.]

Okay. Okay. I'll tell you what I can, but if it's static, that's not my fault. And if you get a big old headache then I reserve the right to invoke I Told You So.

[He runs his hand through his hair.]

I'm not sure how much I can tell you about Lup but I can try.

[The way he deflates is just...weird. He's used to Magnus being the big dumb puppy of the party, the one who rips robot arms off and tries to vore magical objects with abandon. He's loud and throws hands at danger like it's a hobby of his. He's supposed to be the happy one. Taako knew some shit had gone down in Refuge, but he hadn't thought it had affected Magnus to this level.

This wasn't right. It felt wrong. It felt...understandable. They'd had enough downtime here to actually try and process what had happened to them. Magnus was from even further in the future and their next mission almost assuredly went tits up, so who knows what bullshit the fighter had been through.

And what bullshit he'd been keeping to himself, trying to figure it all out on his own.]

Fine. But? I reserve the right to call you a fuckin' idiot for not talking to us for the rest of my natural life.

[He folds his arms across his chest, raising an eyebrow at the man in front of him.]

If it's a deal, go ahead and begin.

You're gonna live longer than me, so I guess that's fair. [Maybe joking about that is a little morbid, but Magnus never thought he'd live past thirty, let alone a hundred thirty. Things sure got complicated.]

So we all know Lup from, like, a long time ago. You know, the time we couldn't see when the cup was going through our memories? That lost time. She wasn't always a lich, pretty sure, but she became one in order to fight-- [He can't talk about the Hunger...] -- to protect us.

There were liches behind Wonderland, but she isn't who we fought. She's good. And you'd totally know that if you drank the baby juice, but that's not an option so you'll just have to take my word for it.

[If putting up with mortality jokes bothered Taako, he never would have bothered giving a shit about anyone other than elves. Thankfully, elves could be some real stuck-up jackasses, so here he was, befriending a big dumb human with a penchant for rushing headlong into whatever might kill him the fastest. Taako simply snorts in response and lets Magnus go on with his explanation.

Which is weird. Not only does Taako know Lup apparently, but so does Magnus. Does that mean Kravitz knows her from a long time ago too? Couldn't be, right? But then again, here was Magnus whom Taako had only known for a few months - maybe half a year? - saying he knew Lup and that they all shared memories from that decade back that was completely eaten by static.

And the fuck is Wonderland? That new mission that the Director was hinting at? There are so many questions to be asked, a lot of answers which he probably can't hear, but one? One is very important and Taako's face screws up in mild disgust at the thought of it.]

Baby juice? What the fuck do you mean by "baby juice?" I'm not juicing Ango.

Edited 2019-04-05 00:34 (UTC)

[Magnus actually guffaws at that because gods, the things they have put that kid through. And will continue to put that kid through. Juicing him like a fucking orange wasn't on Magnus' list but, shit, now that's something he has to imagine.] We're not juicing Mango. I mean Ango. Ango.

[He runs his hand over his face to try to get back to the conversation.]

The reason why you hear static and I don't? Fisher's not alone. [Did he ever talk about the voidfish's name? Whatever, he has one now.] -- Did that get eaten too?

Okay, if you call him Mango? That definitely means you've thought of it. [He's going to follow this stupid line of thought because it'll distract him from the fact that "*static*'s not alone" just came out of Magnus's mouth.] How dare you even consider juicing him.

He's like 7. He's not even ripe yet.

[Context clues and the reprieve of a dumb goof are enough to let Taako wrap his mind around what Magnus must have said, and he turns away, grabbing a pie tin from the cabinets. It's as he suspected. Somehow or another, the Director or someone else has a second Voidfish. They fed Lup's memory, her entire being into it, and erased her from history like the Bureau had done to Magic Brian and Boyland and Captain Captain Bane and Phandalin. He'd been fine with all of that because it hadn't been him and they'd been dead. But this? Her? Lup?

Lup was a lich. She wasn't dead and she wasn't-- She wasn't just anyone. She was important to Taako and that made her erasure inexcusable. He'd thought he'd been alone his entire life and it'd made him hard and calloused and even malicious at times when it suited him because he had to do what it took to take care of himself. But if she'd been there the entire time, how different was he supposed to be?

Taako sets the pie tin on the counter and sighs.]

Name's gone, but I figured it out, yeah. So? Who has it? The voidfish's baby and you remembering all this? Is this because you're dead? Because I'll fucking kill you if you're dead.

You said it first!

[The banter is old and familiar and dancing around static is awkward and unnerving so he'll take it. Taako's bitching is preferable anytime.]

Whoa, I'm not dead! Promise! Some... stuff happened in Wonderland and I ended up getting thrown out of my body like the long jump at the Olympics, but I got a new one. Our dubious friend with the deals was apparently cloning me the whole damn time. I'm not-- I don't want to know why. I'm not going to ask. There are things I just don't wanna know.

The reason I remember anything is because I'm from your future, which sounds cooler than it really is. Barry shoved some voidfish juice down my throat so we could all remember the past. So we could see what we were fighting. Kinda important.

[He isn't sure how to talk about Lucretia's role in this. It would be better if she could explain herself but...]

[Wonderland - that word again. And jeezy creezy, Taako shudders at the thought of Garfield creating a whole new Magnus for any other purpose than the one he just mentioned. But the weirdo couldn't have known that was going to happen, right? There's no way some weirdo deals warlock is even half that powerful. He didn't even make scones.

And Barry?]

Barry who? Is this some other weirdo we pick up because I am up to my limit on weirdoes after hearing Garfield was-- is? Making a Magnus-clone for his own -- no, you're right. I don't want to think about it. Let's focus on whoever the hell Barry is.

[Because the only one he even has any recollection of? Got smushed by a fire dwarf.]

You know who Barry is! Barry freakin' Bluejeans!

[Magnus looks happier about this than he has any right to be, but Barry and him were buds. Even if he can be a douche sometimes.]

He's a lich too, and he helped us get out of Wonderland and get the last relic. He's like Lup-- we knew him too, from the time we didn't remember.

[Barry Bluejeans? The nerd who got himself killed in Phandalin?

And who is apparently a fucking lich, too. Jeezy creezy, how did he go from knowing zero liches to apparently knowing two?]

Okay first? How the hell was I supposed to know it was Barold Bluejeans? The last time I saw him he'd gotten flattened by a flame dwarf?

[And fuck this is just too weird.]

But great, sure, why not two liches? It's not like our lives are complicated enough that having two of them around can make them any worse.

Because it's Barry. It's not like Phandalin was full of Barrys like Rockport was full of Tom Bodetts.

[He has a point though-- Taako wouldn't have known, none of them did.]

They're not just any liches, Taako. They're family! Maybe what they did was quote-unquote forbidden or whatever, but who gives a damn if they're protecting everyone?

We all lost something and it wasn't just those years that were taken from us. [It feels bad to point this out to Taako, who in Magnus' opinion lost more than anyone else.] The difference is that they got to choose this time.

Edited 2019-04-28 19:37 (UTC)

[Where once he was starting to calm down, at the Magnus' exclamation that they're 'family,' Taako's ears pin back against his head and he hisses, jabbing a finger at him.]

I don't have family, Magnus, liches or otherwise.

[Not one he remembers. Not one that counted. He's been alone his entire life as far as he remembers and that's the whole problem.

It's only as far as he remembers and it's obvious that he doesn't remember a whole fucking lot anymore. The huge gaps in his memory, the dissonance between him and literally everyone he knows, the whole existence of Lup, it's all one big glaring sign that points to him missing a lot. To someone having stolen a lot from him.

Someone has stolen everything from him and there's only one person who has a voidfish.

He pulls his finger back and takes a breath, trying to steady himself. It's too easy to get angry right now, and since he can't focus that anger at anyone who actually deserves it, Magnus has to take the brunt and that's not entirely fair.]

But whatever, fine. They're both liches, Barry isn't flattened into glass, cool cool cool. So? Who took our memories then and how did you find this second voidfish to drink its baby juice?

[That is absolutely the problem, and his expression visibly simmers. He feels so, so bad for Taako right now. He wishes his friend could just take him at face value, but Taako is convinced he's clawed his way to where he is alone, suffering the whole way, the whole time. Some of that is true. Some of that... isn't.]

Maybe not. [His voice is calm, quiet, even. It's not a tone he uses often.] Maybe not, but you have me and Merle, and we're not leaving you for anything.

[He clears his throat after that and gives Taako some space. He's similarly restless, arms folded, as he leans against the nearest counter.]

Let me back up on that, 'cause I don't actually know how you guys found the second voidfish. I told Fisher-- uh, I told the Voidfish I'd find its baby, and then I had to fight my way out of the Fantasy Costco in my real body, and then I tracked you guys down to one of the other buildings. Lucretia was standing there talking to you about the history we forgot and Barry slipped me some juice, and then we started to remember.

Lucretia had it, that's what I know. It was part of her plan to... try to 'fix' what we'd done.

[He lets out a big breath all at once. He knows Taako isn't going to be happy to have that confirmed, but he wasn't happy back then either.]

This is the part where I'm not sure how much you'll remember. If I explain this really badly, you won't get anything out of it but static. And if I explain it in a way that makes you want to remember, then you'll hurt yourself like I did. It's just-- it's shitty. This whole situation is shitty, and I won't deny Lucretia basically put us there and what she did was fucking awful-- but she's not the enemy.

She's not the reason the world was ending.

Edited 2019-05-19 23:30 (UTC)

[Not leaving except for the part where Magnus eventually turns into a godsdamn mannequin and dies apparently. How they're going to "make him better" after that is beyond him, but if it involves Garfield and Fantasy Costco? Taako isn't sure he really wants to know.

Besides, there's something far more important that Magnus has just revealed.

"Lucretia had it."

It's like a knife that's been poised over his gut just slammed itself to the hilt into him.

I won't deny Lucretia basically put us there and what she did was fucking awful-- but she's not the enemy.

The Director. The woman he'd actually, against all his instincts, chosen to trust. To follow. To listen to. To believe in.

He'd suspected for awhile now, but having it confirmed is like having his world shattered around him. Lucretia knew about Lup, knew about Taako, knew about whatever it was that he and Mags and Merle had gone through enough to write it down and feed it to a second Voidfish. She'd know him when he walked up, had pretended to get to know him, had pretended to--

Taako grits his teeth, fingers gripping the edge of the counter. He'd been a fucking idiot to trust her and believe that her mission, her Bureau, was a way for him to atone for all the shit he'd done in Glamour Springs. He was a moron to think that it could call that place home.

She's not the reason the world was ending, Magnus says and Taako narrows his eyes, scoffing.]

Yeah, sure. Not the reason why the whole world is ending; just the reason why apparently mine did.

[She's the reason why he can't remember what Magnus and Kravitz and Lup apparently all know. She's the reason why he thinks he doesn't have a family. She's the reason why he didn't know how Lup was. She's the reason they're having this stupid conversation in the first place. The reason he feels utterly alone when he's got so many people around him who know him on a level that he doesn't know them.]

I don't need to know anything else.

[Magnus watches all of this unfold in front of him and he just feels bad. He feels so damn bad. He doesn't know what to do, but he knows that Taako needs his personal space when he gets like that-- breathing through his teeth, clenching his jaw, dusky fingers tightening about the nearest surface like he wants to strangle something.

Taako's isolating himself like he always does, and--

-- and Magnus does something stupid, probably. He crosses the distance between them quickly and tries to swallow his smaller friend up in a big warm hug, aiming to hold Taako's head against his shoulder. When he was sobbing, absolutely inconsolable, someone else's big warm arms held Magnus like this. Mags smells like wood and leather and sword polish, and that's not as good as freshly-baking cookies, but it's better than the taste of bitter betrayal.

And all he says is:]

I know.

[There's a brief spate of silence, Taako trying to control his breathing before he does something he regrets. It's been a long time since he felt this angry, this hurt, and he doesn't know how to deal with it. It's easier to shove it all aside and be a petty bitch, but Magnus doesn't deserve to be her proxy for that. No one deserves it except the woman who stole everything from him, but she's not here. If she ever shows up? Taako doesn't know what he'll do--

He isn't paying attention to Magnus until he feels arms surround him. At first, he freezes, unsure of what exactly is even happening to him. Taako doesn't get hugs. He rarely lets anyone touch him with such intimacy with the exception of Kravitz, and so he's left not knowing what to do for the second time in as many minutes. There's a moment - the shortest, smallest of moments - when he starts to relax, wanting comfort from someone who understands how much he's lost and how hurt he is. The smell of a woodshop is weirdly familiar and calming and he almost, almost lets himself indulge in this. Magnus is warm and solid and here, and they've been through a lot in the past year.

But then the moment ends and Taako scrambles, pushing at Magnus's chest and arms like a trapped feral cat without claws. He twists and ducks, doing whatever he can to get away, knowing that he's probably messing up his hair something awful, but he can at least use that as a distraction later. Right now? He needs to get away. This is too much for him. He can't accept this yet.]

Ugh, get off me - you're stiflingly hot and smell like a coat rack at a hoedown!

[He feels that. He feels that, Taako! And for a second, a brief second, his heart warms-- and then Taako's squirreling around, writhing like a cat who doesn't want to get in the carrier, and Magnus decides it's better to let him go. He thinks his point has gotten through this time.]

It'd probably be weird if I started smelling like flowers and cookies-- [like you, he means] -- but I wouldn't mind.

Nope, I have that market cornered and I'll slap you with a trademark infringement if you even think about muscling in on my brand.

[He's free and Taako takes a few generous steps away, smoothing out his clothes and his hair. He...has a lot to think about honestly. A lot that hurts in places that he thought were long since over being hurt. He needs to think and be alone, but...he also needs to be somewhere. He needs to be with someone he isn't allowed to remember yet.]

So, y'know, fair warning on that one. Consider yourself served.

driftfleet inbox.

text; after the marsiva attack

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