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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.

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