#magcretia

[fizzsparkpop]

does anyone even ship magcretia in 2024 other than me and my bestie. if you do i love you. here’s some (in progress) food

[do-you-ship-this-taz-ship]

do you ship lucretia / magnus burnsides? (taz: balance)

Yes, romantically

Yes, platonically/queerplatonically

Yes, they've hooked up

Neutral

No, I don't ship it

They're divorced

Voting ended onSep 20, 2024

Propaganda: qpr magnus/lucretia is so real to me forever...

Submit a ship through the form or in my askbox!

[henclair]

hey watch how hard i can cry *thinks abt ipre era magcretia and then thinks abt faerun era julia/magnus and then thinks abt post story and song magcretia and then thinks about post death afterlife julia/magnus/lucretia polycule*

[forestwater87]

(first apologies if this is a duplicate; I got a "bad request" notification the first time I tried to send this ask) but anyhow; I saw your tags on my Lucretia post and i am not sure how to reply to tags?? but i want to see your version of that scene! (if you still want to share) I love Lucretia very much and love to see other peoples' takes on her. anyway, I hope you are having a good day!

OH MY GOD YAY!! 

I mean, cool, whatever. I guess I could share a little bit of that fic. That’s fine.

(yayayayayayayay eeeeeeeeeee)

Okay, part of me wanted to blast you with the entire chapter, but that’s 25-ish pages so I’m forcing myself to show restraint here and only include the tail end. There’s a little bit of context missing, because it’s the last section of Chapter 10 of a fic that so far has at least 32 chapters, but I think it all makes sense. It’s basically just “here’s what happened in that cycle when everybody else was a statue person” and it was, you know, not a good time. (There’s some implied Magcretia, sorry not sorry.) 

Plus it’s really good. I know that sounds arrogant, but I’ve spent the last 4-5 years hating every word I’ve ever written, and I’m going to enjoy this confidence for as long as it chooses to stay.

So anyway, I hope you enjoy! 

There are no line breaks on tumblr anymore so this is the part where the actual writing starts:

When the Hunger arrived, it was a relief more than anything.

Lucretia had been in the middle of defending The Starblaster from a group of marauders climbing like ants all over the dented and hastily-repaired sides of the ship, trying to figure out if she could possibly shake them all free without having to resort to the magic she’d deduced made it possible for the court to find her, when the sky turned dark and everything went gray. 

And her first thought was, Oh thank Pan. (She wasn’t a religious person at all, but enough time with Merle had made the casual prayers second nature.) This nightmare was almost over. In less than an hour, she’d have her family back.

She was so close to seeing Magnus again.

“Fisher, get back in your tank!” she shouted, abandoning the shield she’d been summoning and sprinting to the helm — she’d spent so much time this year running for her life that she could race from one end of the ship to the other without becoming winded. None of the marauders had made it onto the deck, but she felt the air above her head crackle with a spell that blazed past, and as she reached the controls she heard the now-familiar amplified voice call, “You are under arrest for multiple counts of evading the authority of the co — what the hell’s going on here?”

Oh, great. All her friends were here. Now all she needed was for the boar and crocodile to make an appearance.

As the officer began to interrogate the marauders (his side of the conversation still blaring loud and clear), Lucretia took advantage of the confusion to throw the ship forward. She’d had enough foresight to keep the way in front of The Starblaster clear for just this purpose, and while a few hundred yards of ash-colored grass were flattened, she was able to get the ship into the air.

She pointed it up, away from the Hunger — up into space, into nothingness, into any universe except this one, somewhere she’d stared at and imagined but now was finally going into . . .

If she could get the damaged, shuddering ship up to speed and break through the atmosphere, that was.

If not, everything ended here.

A tentacle of swirling darkness stabbed into the ground inches away from her ship, forcing her to swerve hard and nearly lose her footing. She threw all her weight on the acceleration as more of the Hunger’s tentacles latched onto the planet, the labored roar of the engines nearly drowning out the screams of panic from the people below.

As The Starblaster rocketed over a shining city with strange statues and up into the sky, a whisper made Lucretia look around — before realizing it had come from inside her own head.

We’ve been looking for you.

She frowned, clutching at the helm even tighter. Was this some sort of new thing the Hunger could do, or one last awful trick played by this hostile planet?

Another whisper, louder and lower-pitched: You’ve been evading judgement for some time now.

A massive column of the Hunger collided with the planet directly in front of her. It was so close, she had no choice but to try and blow through it, even though that meant taking the biggest risk she had all year. But The Starblaster’s momentum was impossible to halt, and the mile-wide column was impossible to go around, so she gritted her teeth, hunched over the controls, and slammed on the accelerator.

The second she crossed into the Hunger, everything went silent and black.

Everything, that was, except for the whispers: 

Lucretia, you have always let others take action and responsibility while you sit back and watch. You tell yourself this is worthwhile, but you know it is a lie. And yet when it is smartest and safest to proceed with caution, you take the most reckless path, because you refuse to admit you might be wrong. Your past sins are sloth, envy, and pride. How do you plead?

How did she plead? She didn’t plead for much of anything, except to survive long enough to fly them into the next cycle. The Hunger buffeted at the ship, wrapping smaller tentacles around its sleek metal body and trying to keep it from plowing forward; it might kill her — kill them all — but not knowing what else to do, she used Mage Hand to open the nearest window without leaving the helm and cast Fire Shield around the ship. It was weak and flickering compared to the spells of protection Merle could create, but the Hunger fell back with deafening shrieks of pain as flames licked the air around The Starblaster. 

The awful whispers weren’t letting up, though, digging cold fingers deep into her mind and sending a chill shudder down through her very soul.

Your present sins are no less grave. You kill without remorse. You have allowed yourself to become vindictive and spiteful. You have not abandoned your past failings, but have added new ones since our initial audit. We see fit to add to your current list of transgressions the crime of wrath. How do you plead?

Suddenly there was a break in the shimmering darkness, a bolt of ash-gray sky widening like a tear in heavy fabric — and then she was through, outside of the Hunger and so far above the doomed planet that she couldn’t see the ground below. She let out a scream of triumph, the noise tearing like sandpaper along her exhausted and dry throat, and angled the ship until it was almost vertical. The Starblaster shot forward as though with one last burst of strength, shuddering as its engines were pushed to the absolute limit . . .

The ship suddenly jolted to a halt, mechanisms whirring like a swarm of angry bees.

Lucretia turned to the still-open window and saw the entire view had been replaced with blackness, oily-iridescent tentacles spilling into the ship as others wrapped around it. She threw all of her weight on the acceleration, but it didn’t move; then, after a single grinding moment, The Starblaster began to fly backward, pulled back toward the core of the Hunger. 

She could hear its gnashing teeth.

“NO!” The word exploded out of her, coming from somewhere far below conscious thought. She abandoned the helm just long enough to run to the window, ignoring the tentacles that curled around her ankles as she pointed her wand at the offshoot of the Hunger that had its hold on her, aiming for where the base met the rest of the massive column, and shot off a burst of lightning. There was another hideous wail and the tentacles around the ship shuddered and pulled away, just a slight loosening of their incredible grip.

Her entire body shaking with terror and fury, she pointed her wand at the same spot and cast Finger of Death. 

The screaming was like a sonic blast — a thousand million voices filled with rage and pain and fear — knocking her onto her back and sending her skidding across the bridge. She scrambled to her feet, stumbling over her robe and lurching to the helm. The sound of the engines returning to full blast was like the roar of a furious animal loosed from its cage, and the last of the Hunger fell back as the ship threw itself up into space. It felt like the air was shouting with every conceivable emotion.

As the panic subsided and her head cleared, she realized it wasn’t the air screaming; it was those whisperers.

So much rage. So much wrath.

No remorse.

No different than the monster she tries to flee.

They were growing louder with every word, overlapping and running together until she struggled to pick out individual phrases —

She betrays the people she supposedly loves most

She destroys a family — destroys the memory of the family

Robs them of themselves

Who has the right?

No one has the right

The sound was becoming unbearable, deafening. Her ears felt like they were leaking; she lifted her hand to one and her fingers came back covered in blood.

It didn’t make sense — it wasn’t an external sound — it wasn’t an external force, but something ripping her apart from within.

It was the sound of going mad. 

At that point she was barely able to understand anything 

leaves him to die in agony in a hell she helped create

takes advantage of the innocent who make the mistake of believing in her

such a sweet boy, and all you do is lie to him

do you think you can make these decisions for the world?

the heartbreak you will cause

the betrayal

pride — such unfathomable pride

the deaths you will cause

the lives you will ruin

the blood that stains your hands

coldhearted — cowardly

wrath — envy — sloth

pride

PRIDE

Our judgement is decided.

You have been found wanting.

Something hardened in her chest, calcifying her lungs and making it impossible to breathe. Lucretia doubled over, her hands scrabbling to keep the ship moving, as her flesh turned hard, brittle, the feeling like casting Stone Skin but somehow it’d gotten inside . . .

She couldn’t move her tongue. She couldn’t breathe. Blackness crowded the edge of her vision — not like she was blacking out, but like her eyes just suddenly weren’t there anymore

everything went wobbly, the universe becoming untethered just for a moment

And when it stabilized, she realized she could move again, see again. She took a deep, tremulous breath and turned back from the helm, sliding to the floor in a heap.

It was less than a second, before the I.P.R.E. crew fully materialized, but she didn’t see it happen. As soon as the surreal, smoky outlines of her friends wavered into being, she dropped her head in her hands, a sob she’d been holding back for months finally escaping her throat.

She did it.

Magnus’s hands closed around her upper arms and he gently tugged her into an embrace. She could feel the cool steel of the bridge under her knees, heard the voices of all her friends speaking all at once. She was dimly aware she was talking, mumbling nonsense to herself as she waited for the world to stop spinning.

The last thing she was aware of before slipping into unconsciousness was Magnus’s breath on her forehead and his warm fingers combing through her hair.

[journalofimprobablethings]

A notebook, small, its blue cover decorated with silver swirls that catch the light when it moves. The writing that fills the pages is sparse, only a few sentences in each entry, written in neat capitals: the kind of writing you might see on schematics or blueprints. The letters are pressed deep into the thin paper, the ridges and ghosts of the words tangible on the other side of the page. 

Some of the entries are splotched with tears, and the letters written there are blurred together in little circles. One of the pages has a large ink stain across it, with an arrow pointing to it and a tiny note that reads "sorry."

The notebook has been filled, incrementally, over the course of the year. Now the year is almost up, and the notebook sits, complete, on Magnus's nightstand, waiting to be read.

-

Lucretia,

Barry gave me this notebook to write to you while you're gone. He and Lup have one they keep in their room; it's not the same, but he said sometimes it helps, to write down all the things you wish you could say. He called it a lifeboat, and I'm going to hope it keeps me afloat. A year is such a long time to miss you, Luce. 

Here we go. 

How are you?

This is obviously a question for Future You, reading this, because Present You is

Fuck. I'm so bad at this.

I don't really know what to write here. How do you write so much all the time?

I miss you.

Magnus

-

I started using your lotion on my hands. I hope you don't mind. It's nice, to have a smell that reminds me of you. Also, my hands are the softest they have ever been, so I am going to keep stealing this stuff after you're back, sorry.

-

I saw the wildest bird today. It was huge, with a long neck and tail feathers twice as long as it was tall. It was all blue, except for the tail which had some iridescent purple and green in there. All your favorite colors. I wish I was any good at drawing, so I could show you what it looks like. You would have loved it.

-

Davenport lent me some of his old tapes to listen to when the silence gets to be too much. He’s got interesting taste in music, but you know what, I think I am coming around to sea shanties. There’s something about them that just hits some kind of chord. So many of them are about longing--for a person, for home. I can relate to that.

-

Merle left for Parlay today. It's so dumb, I always think that maybe this time he'll come back. But his smoky self vanished after a few hours, same as always. I promised him before he left that I'd water his plants. I hope I'm not going to regret that.

-

Your pen collection is the most intimidating thing I've ever seen in my life. I just want a simple ballpoint. Is that so much to ask??

-

I may or may not have broken one of your fountain pens. I do not understand how they work. Please don't hate me.

-

Happy birthday, Luce. You're the hottest octogenarian I know (how's that for a Lucretia word?). I can't wait to see your face when you read this part.

I miss you.

-

Taako banned me from the kitchen again. I don't see how it's my fault this time, Barry's the one who wanted smoothies in the first place and I would have thought the lid of the blender would stay on by itself. Blueberry smoothie is a bitch to clean off the ceiling, I'll tell you that.

-

We found the Light. Celia and her crew were a little salty when we said we have to keep it, even after we explained (again) about the whole plane-of-darkness-coming-to-eat-the-world thing. So they're not really talking to us anymore. I don't really miss it, but I think Dav is sad. He loved Celia's tea.

-

Lup and Barry have gone feral without you to remind them to take care of themselves. I don't think they've left the lab in three days. How do you do it? Taako just shrugs and says that nerds will be nerds. Dav had to order them out the other day to eat with the rest of us, and even then they only came out for an hour. At this rate they'll have become one with their lab equipment by the end of the year.

-

Lucretia,

Some days missing you hurts so much I can't breathe. It's been months but it still feels like it just happened yesterday. I still have nightmares about that day.

I'm sorry I didn't save you, Luce. I'm sorry I failed you. I'll make it up to you. I promise.

-

Did you know that if you put sodium in water, it will explode? Apparently this is a well-known science fact. Nobody told me the explosion would be quite so big, though.

-

Today I sat outside with Dav and we drank a bottle of some fancy wine he had stored up and watched the sunset. It was warm and the fireflies started to come out as the light was fading. If you had been there you would have wanted to paint it, it was that beautiful. When you're back we'll have to find a time to steal some wine and do a replay. Maybe Dav can come, too. He's a pretty cool dude.

-

We made it, Luce. Tomorrow is the last day of the cycle. Hope the Hunger doesn't eat us before we regenerate. But for real, I can't wait. I get to see you tomorrow. I get to hold you and kiss you tomorrow. I'm so excited I could cry.

I love you. See you soon.

-

This is an excerpt (with a few minor changes) from my fic 'without you' which you can read in full on Ao3 (link in the source of this post)!

[dippy-draws-bitch]

taz dump! ✨

[blurredwizard]

x

[rhinocio]

it’s all about the optics

[Image ID: Four digital sketches of Magnus and Lucretia from The Adventure Zone: Balance podcast, done in shades of pink and grey. Lucretia is a young, slender dark-skinned woman with short, tightly-curled white hair and a long nose. She is wearing a pink sweater and grey sweatpants. Magnus is a young and muscular light-skinned man with short, fluffy red hair and sideburns. He is wearing a white tee shirt and dark boxer shorts. 

The first three sketches make up a comic. In the first image, Magnus is leaning against a countertop with his head tilted back and a cocky grin on his face, asking, “Like what you see?” In the second image, Lucretia is looking at him with her arms folded and an unimpressed look on her face, saying, “I WOULD, but you’re standing in front of my TEA.” The last image shows Magnus awkwardly walking away with his hands pressed together, saying, “Ooookay, SORRY, can’t account for taste I guess.” He appears embarrassed, is blushing, and has “omg” written repeatedly beside his head in a thought bubble. Behind him, Lucretia is staring at the countertop with wide eyes, holding her tea mug tightly and likewise blushing. The thought bubble over her head says, “What the FUCK Lucretia why are you LIKE this,” and a long “hnnnnnnng” is written behind her.

In the lower left is an image unrelated to the comic. In it, Magnus and Lucretia are depicted from the shoulders up, looking at each other and appearing startled; Lucretia looks alarmed. Both characters are blushing.]