#perniciouswizard

[dingusandgoofus]

Taako was on a bit of a budget these days, and it made getting things for his cooking show (which was still fucking great, and fuck you, Sazed) a little difficult.  But cooking on a budget was just another challenge -- nothing he couldn't handle.  In fact, this was where he had gotten his start.

The biggest problem was that it was October and he didn't have a car, which meant walking.  He could have taken the bus, but the route was so out of the way that it was faster to just walk.  He had a heavy jacket on, accented with two different scarves and his favorite boots.

His boots were nearly ruined forever, though, when the person walking a few meters in front of him failed to clean up after his dog.  Ugh.

“Hey, thug!” Taako called after the culprit.  “Big guy!  Yeah, you! You better be taking that mutt to a vet because it just shat out half its weight right here on the fuckin' sidewalk.”  He indicated helpfully with his hand that wasn't carrying the grocery bag.  “Yeah, homie, that's on you.  Taako nearly stepped right in this shit heap right here.”

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[ungarmax]

lupcretia, barbecue

» send me a character or pairing + a word/phrase and I’ll write a six sentence fic about it

“Whoops,” says Lup.

Lucretia knows she shouldprobably look up; she heard Lup complaining that things weren'theating up fast enough, she had been aware of Lup's wand in her hand,and she had heard the fwooshof what could only be a pillar of fire.  She shouldlook up to assess the damages, but she doesn't really wantto.

“Uh,babe, do we have a fire extinguisher?” Lup asks.

“Righthere.”

Lucretianever attends Lup's barbeques unprepared.

[dingusandgoofus]

Even a decade after finally settling down and moving into an actual house, Taako still did not like the long hours of silence when he was home and Kravitz wasn't.  He kept himself busy with making celebrity appearances and keeping his school running (although Ren did a good amount of that), so that whenever Kravitz was out for a while, so was he.

At the moment, though, he was at home by himself.  Kravitz should have been back by now, but sometimes jobs went longer than he thought.  He wasn't late enough for Taako to worry.  Not yet.

He was tired from running around most of the day, but making a nice dinner was a good way for him to unwind.  It'd been a few days since he saw Kravitz, so that would also be a nice surprise for him when he got home.  It wasn't Kravitz' absolute favorite meal, because you couldn't make that too often or it would become mundane.  But it was definitely on his top five list.

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[dingusandgoofus]

Lup knew she couldn't change anything from her normal routine the day before she left.

It was hard, because she didn't know how long she was going to be gone, and the fact that she wouldn't be able to say goodbye to any of her family.  So she didn't make Barry's favorite dish for dinner, and she didn't take an extra turn on dishes so that Lucretia didn't have to do them, and she didn't go out of her way to tell Taako how much his silly dancing cheered her up.

She didn't do any of those things.  She just kissed Lucretia goodnight, and she braided Taako's hair for him, and she stole Barry's notebook and told him she wouldn't give it back until he had slept a little, just like she did almost every night.  And then she lay awake until she could hear Taako's breathing even out and waited another half hour to make sure he was asleep.  She didn't dare touch him -- he was a very light sleeper, after all -- as she climbed out of bed and gathered her things.

For Lucretia, she wrote a quick note:  “Back soon,” and signed it with a kiss.

Because she would.  It didn't matter that she hadn't done any of those things, because it wouldn't take long.  She had a lead on the gauntlet, and she had an idea of what to do with it so that it wouldn't hurt anyone else until they figured out how to stop this from happening.

Red cloak around her shoulders and a small pack on her shoulder, she headed for the exit.

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[dingusandgoofus]

Taako had a checklist of things to do, now that the Hunger had been defeated.

Fourteen hour nap?  Check.  Hugged Angus McDonald, boy detective?  Double check.  Spend the next 300 years super glued to Lup?  Well, he had started on that, anyway.  Only 299.998 years to go.  He would check that one anyway.

Completely and utterly avoid any and all contact with either Magnus or Kravitz? You fuckin' bet.

Things were kind of shitty when you finally allowed yourself to settle in and get yourself a nice boyfriend who was actually not a complete loser and put up with your shit anyway, and you were actually sort of happy for once and not incredibly lonely...and then you suddenly remembered that you already had a boyfriend who was great and wonderful and also put up with your shit, and he forgot about the boyfriend thing too and had gotten married, except now she was gone, and...well.  It was confusing, and Bad.  The options were Boyfriend A or Boyfriend B, and he didn't want to make that choice.

So Taako decided to do what Taako did best:  turn his back toward the entire situation and pretend it wasn't actually a thing that was happening.

So far, it had worked.  That probably had to do with the fact that the world had barely managed to survive this, and there was a whole hell of a lot of recovery work to be doing.  Everybody was busy.  Too busy to deal with this bullshit relationship garbage.  Taako was quite happy to languish in boyfriend related angst and whine at his sister, who was sympathetic toward his plight but also thought he was being a big baby.

The members of the IPRE had been not straying terribly far from one another since they had gotten their memories back, and right now was no exception.  Davenport and Merle were chatting with one another just in the next room, and Magnus was somewhere nearby (his voice carried quite well, and Taako could hear but not see him), probably with Lucretia.  Lup and Barry had been getting absolutely disgustingly doe-eyed at each other, and Taako did understand (albeit reluctantly) that his sister needed some time with her lover, away from him.

And Taako got stuck cleaning up after breakfast.  But that was all right. The quiet was nice too.  Later on, they would all go out and lend their aid to the relief effort, but a lazy morning was at the top of the order of the day.

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[dingusandgoofus]

Lup was late.  

She always called when she was going to be late, because she knew Taako would flip his goddamn shit if she didn't, and that was exactly what Taako was doing right then.  He had tried her Stone of Farspeech at least sixteen times.  Sometimes she didn't get reception out in the Astral Plane.  But she always called back.

He tried Barry too, and Kravitz.  Nothing, nothing, and more nothing. Even if the Raven Queen was holding court, it shouldn't have lasted this long.

Taako was at the end of his rope, that old familiar dread welling up inside of his skin at the thought of losing his sister again.  It wasn't that he was less worried about Barry and Kravitz, but he had already lost Lup once, and he wasn't sure he'd survive it again.

He made a point not to talk to Lucretia if he didn't have to, in spite of the fact that she literally lived next door and he had to see her from time to time.  But drastic times called for drastic measures.

Lup was five hours late, and Taako crossed through his yard, hopped the fence, and went to pound on her door.  The lights were on inside, so he knew Lucretia was probably there.

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[dingusandgoofus]

New cycles always came with a learning curve, and Taako was learning that the hard way this time around.

The planet was mostly covered in water, with only small islands sprinkled across the landscape, and the one that they had set down on was big and mostly empty.  The air had been warm and the waves had been amazing, so of course Taako was going to see if he still had the muscle memory needed for surfing.

Apparently, this was a place where the weather could change very quickly.

That was how Taako found himself shivering on an unfamiliar rocky beach with a broken surfboard and literally nothing else.  The wind had whipped up a storm, and leaving the cave he had found was only going to sap his warmth even faster.  The best option he had was to use a scorching ray to warm up some rocks to keep him from freezing until the storm blew over, but he was running out of spell slots.  Maybe the rain would let up soon.

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[dingusandgoofus]

It took a little while for the existential dread to come, probably because it had been such a sweet date, but come it did.  Taako ended up draped over Lup and Barry’s sofa dramatically, bemoaning the things sex made him say.  Lup was completely baffled by Taako’s reluctance to commit, but then Taako pointed out that it had taken her fifty years to actually go on a date with Barry.

The problem was, Taako couldn’t really define what it was that scared him so much about committing to this.  There was perfectly good logic to counter everything he could come up with, but it didn’t change his mind or make him feel any better.

But he had, in fact, committed to this, and he remembered how happy Kravitz had been when he had brought it up.  He knew he couldn’t back out of it now.  And it wasn’t as though he hadn’t meant what he had said.  It wasn’t as though his feelings for Kravitz were any different.  Being alone was far worse than getting hurt, and the two fears didn’t compliment each other.  He would just have to deal with shitty anxiety.  It would be better with Kravitz around.  Right?

And so, he pulled himself forward like a big boy and dealt with it.  They talked to Magnus and looked at floor plans, and Kravitz picked something because Taako honestly have any opinion.  And then the structure started going up, right outside his window in Lup’s cottage, and he started sleeping in the bathtub so he didn’t have to look at it.

And then, finally, the house was finished being built.  It was beautiful and everything Taako had come to expect from Magnus, although he hadn’t really done very much of the exterior work himself.  There wasn’t a lot of furniture just yet, but Magnus had made them a few things.  

By this time, Lup had gotten herself a new body and the Raven Queen was letting her get used to be corporeal before starting she and Barry on their Reaper training, and Taako was…relieved, but also unhappy about that too.

Taako hadn’t been inside since it was finished, and he was pretending it was because he wanted to see it at the same time as Kravitz, but that was a huge lie.  But it didn’t matter because today was the day, and Kravitz had promised he’d be over as soon as he could.  So Taako put on his cutest clothes and pinned up his hair in an elaborate braid and perfected his glamor to make him feel less like running the other direction as fast as he could.

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