don't mind me, just thinking about how in every other graphic novel cover, the d20 is in the air, bouncing away from them, just out of reach, almost mocking them as it determines their fates. but for the suffering game, taako is on his knees, front and center, pinning it to the ground, umbra staff at the ready. has he got a fuckin' idea for you.
folks. there are preview pages. and I'm biting at the bars on my cage
I have normal thoughts about all of this
am goin thinkin about lucretia actually <3
like yeah 100% the relics were not worth what was being done to the planet and her primary motivation with the voidfish/barrier thing was saving the world. she did what she had to do for the greater good.
but i think there was at least a LITTLE bit. a TINY voice inside of her. that was really pissed off big mad that the rest of the group didn’t listen to her. u kno
like if i were in her shoes i would feel as though maybe they brushed my protests off b/c they still saw me as the same timid 20-something i was a hundred years ago and not the woman who survived a year alone on the judge planet, saving them and the starblaster and reality in doing so…
may not be TRUE but i bet that’s how it felt. i think there was a part of her that felt she knew better. that she knew best. and it’s like, well that’s a little hypocritical, isn’t it. but that’s what makes it so good. i want to study her
From August 2022.
Wanted to do more with this piece/concept, but haven’t gotten around to it. Still really like it tho so enjoy, all you sad Blupjeaners (me) <3
At least he read it? 💜 First Taz comic in AGES, I missed my boys, based off this great post 💜commission info in source!💜
i know its cliche to say but lup adventurezone really is the character of all time like. she's an elf, she's a wizard, she's dead, she's a ghost, she's a bounty hunter for the raven queen. her spirit lived in a magic-eating umbrella for a nebulous number of years. she's an astrophysicist. carbo-loading breakfast then blowing up an abandoned dmv was her best day ever. she has a twin brother who's memory was wiped of her existence. she's in love with a white guy named barry bluejeans. she planned a heist on a casino to get back at someone who owed her fifteen dollars. after being released back into the world the first thing she did was dunk on her brother's love life. she speaks mongoose. and she's trans. do you get it.
i think the reason lup is a fan favorite isnt because shes a hot badass lady or whatever i think it’s bc she is full of love.. like everyone loves her and she loves them back.. she’s one of if not the only person taako allows himself to love completely and unashamedly and she loves him back so much that she holds her entire self together with the memories of him for a decade.. barry loved her for years and never gave up on her and she loves him back so much she became something dangerous with him.. magnus is someone who barely interacts with her in canon and he calls her his sister! lucretia is so consumed by the guilt of 1. separating taako from the person he loves more than anything and 2. leaving lup alone for a decade away from the people she loves and lup forgives her because she LOVES her! lup is loved and she is full of love!
tl:dr love is stored in the lup
the way the starblaster is literally powered by bonds.. the way the only reason they make it out of the final hunger fight is by summoning spirits of people that want to help them... the way magnus learns the ultimate lesson from the power bear is to know when to ask for help.. the way merle stayed with the people of fungston to pray with them while their world was ending.. the way that I may not be your pan but you will always be my merle... the way the entire stolen century mechanic was built around saving people so that they can help you later.. the way june forgave jack... the way taako's destiny was based on a food truck chef overwatch player named joaquin who taught him how to make a taco... the way lucretia did what she did because she couldn't bear that the weight of their choice was hurting her family... the fact that completely cutting off the plane from the system wasn't the answer.. the way that you are going to be faced with a terrible decision but remember there is always a third option.. the way that they always joke about not being capable enough, that a competent woman has to come do it for them like... the way that the answer the whole time was to ask for help. to reach out to other people. that there is strength in numbers. that the only thing that works to combat the emptiness of oblivion is love. is each other. do you get it..
This is what Taako remembers, later:
He remembers the attic, small, dusty, claustrophobic. Things stacked up in corners, becoming looming shadows in the low light of the candles. Dust that kicked up from every surface, over books and papers and wood.
He remembers the circle, lines of white chalk that curve around in delicate strokes erased and redrawn many times by hesitant hands. Symbols along the edges; the dragons entwined, male and female, symbolizing the perfect human, drawn upside down to depict God being summoned to earth; the lion with its jaw wide open as if to swallow the sun, the souls returning to the world from where they reside.
He remembers fear and excitement and anticipation, all rolled up into one feeling exploding out of his heart, a feeling too big for his body. It's a feeling of satisfaction; he's brilliant and he knows it, they're brilliant, and anyone who says otherwise is selling something.
He remembers light, white at first, blinding as it rises up from the edges of the circle where his hands rest, around the materials they had gathered for the transmutation, and he remembers knowing they've cracked the code. He remembers light, the way it had suddenly dimmed into a deep purple, casting dark shadows over his face and hers, and that had been his first indication that something had gone wrong.
He remembers the way his body is unmade, he remembers standing and then falling as his left leg unwraps like a ribbon falling away from him, all the way up past his knee. Then there is blood and blood and blood, and he remembers crying out as the pain hits him like a freight train. He sees the truth and he won't remember it right away later, but it has his leg now.
He remembers Lup, hand outstretched and screaming as she too falls away, spiraling, unmade, into nothing, nothing, nothing.
He remembers being alone.
He remembers knowing the answer now of how to get her back, of the old set of armor under the deep red cloak. He draws the circle in his own blood, still pooling underneath his untidily wrapped stump of a leg, and there is no hesitation in his hands this time. There is no tremor in his finger as he traces the circle on the cloak, almost invisible in color; no fear as he faces the truth a second time. It takes his hand that time, his arm, up to his shoulder (right hand, no more drawing circles for him, he thinks, but he doesn't mind as long as he has his sister back).
He remembers the cloak lifting off the suit of armor like a specter, a single pinpoint of glowing white light where the face would be. He remembers his sister's voice calling his name as he bleeds out on the floor.
He doesn't remember much after that.
*Magic Brian voice* I’m so proud of zem!!!
Decided to put all the very good adventure boys together. :,,,,,,) I had to squeeze these out before the finale. I’m not ready for the Balance arc to end—it’s been a very rocky year and a half for me, but the show has been such a fun and safe mindspace to been in, and listening to it definitely made things easier to cope with. But the boys do deserve a happy ending, so I’ll just hang onto that for now.
[ Commission Info ]
Answers presented alphabetically. If you feel equally strong about multiple answers, you can choose randomly, or choose as if you're voting to guarantee at least that character will be trans in a good fic that you'll like.
Lucretia brings down her barrier...
📓!!! -ise
ok i've one hundred percent posted about this before but: three years before the events of taz balance, there are a series of murders across the sword coast, each one bloodier and more gruesome than the last.
the local militia believe a serial killer may be on the loose, but they can't prove it, as the only points of connection between them are that each death seems to have been a part of some kind of spellcasting ritual, and the mysterious figure spotted at each crime scene around the time the murders are discovered.
enter angus mcdonald, age eight and one half.
using the razor-sharp deductive reasoning of the world's greatest boy detective, angus figures out where the next murder is going to take place... just a little too late. the murder's already happened, and it's pretty fuckin' nasty. the killer's gone. the trail's gone cold. it's dead(!) quiet.
so quiet, in fact, that angus startles when he hears a sound like a coat unzipping. have the militia arrived already??? that was fast.
he hides and watches from the shadows as a very sharp blade hooks itself into the fabric of spacetime and tears a rift in the air. a man steps through the rift. he is wearing a very dapper suit and what look like very expensive shoes, ruined now that he's stepped in a puddle of blood. the man grimaces.
he fits the description of the mysterious figure perfectly. here's angus's prime suspect, in the flesh! they always return to the scene of the crime!
angus levels his crossbow. he steps out of the shadows. all he has to do is keep this guy here long enough for back-up to arrive. he says, "step away from the body, sir. i have a few questions for you, so i’d like it if you would please come with me."
anyways yeah it's kravitz and kravitz is ALSO tracking this serial killer (surprise it's necromancy) so they team up. they solve the murder. several years later on the moon base angus interrupts a taakitz date and he and kravitz spider-man point at each other
kravitz: that's my kid protégé? angus, what are you doing here? taako: um excuse you, if he's anyone's kid, which he's not, he's MINE? angus: aw, sirs!
taako walked right into that one
