One year After Story and Song (ASS)…

Taako was looking… demented. His pupils had almost obliterated his irises. His face was flushed and, mere moments before, he had been turning the place upside-down as if searching for something desperately needed.

“Sir?”

Taako took one look at him and smiled as if he had found the solution to every problem in the world, all wrapped up in one weddy pre-teen boy package. “Baby,” he cooed.

“I’m baby?”

Taako pounced.

*

Five years ASS…

He’d come down to see what the fuss was. Taako had cooked more than a spread. This wasn’t an anxiety bake-off. This was Taako going through every ingredient at his disposal and every recipe in his noggin.

“Are you… okay? Sir?”

Taako turned. “Baby!”

Sigh. “I’m baby,” he grumped. This sort of thing was only supposed to happen once a decade, damnit…

*

Nine years ASS…

He woke with Taako sprawled across him and purring voluminously. How long he had been under the influence of Luume was anyone’s guess.

“Baby…” Taako singsonged.

Yawn. “I’m baby,” he sighed.

* 

Nineteen years ASS…

“Sir, I’d like you to meet Miss Agatha Tre–”

Whump.

“Baby!”

Angus, ass knocked flat on the floor, sighed and looked pleadingly around to where Agatha was lurking and hiding. “I’m baby,” he growled.

*

Twenty years ASS…

This time, he grabbed Agatha with a cheerful, “Baby baby!” and whisked her off to the cote.

“Agatha! Go limp!” It was a mere handful of moments after that that that he had to wonder, “What the actual shit?” 

But in a minute, Taako was back. “Baby!”

Ah. Now things were back to what passed for normal. “I’m baby…”

*

Twenty-four years ASS…

This was the first time he hadn’t called Angus ‘baby’ since… since forever. He was more interested in baby time. On one hand, it did give Angus the freedom to call the doctor and help resolve a mere few of the issues.

On the other hand… he kind of missed being the baby.

[TAZ Prompts Remaining: 5]

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[AN: It normally isn’t, but I can make an exception with pressures on Taako’s brainspace]

He’d killed a town. Again. At least the survivors of Glamour Springs had been able to bury the dead and pick up the pieces. This was way, way worse. A whole down. Wiped off the map. That which wasn’t black glass or a ring of slag was ash.

He could wheedle his way out of it. He knew he could. He was a pro. If they’d killed that Kurtz kid (a literal child, he couldn’t know what he was doing). Or if they’d just ignored the scavenging raiders (and left a literal child to deal with slavery or worse. He’d been there…) and gone on with hunting down and stopping Cyrus…

He’d killed a town. Again.

All those families. All those lives. All those people.

They couldn’t even be buried.

Then, for an encore, the people who could have helped dragged his sorry ass up to the moon with two other chucklefucks. They could have helped, if only they could literally communicate what the fuck was going on. If he’d known…

If he could tell the difference between Elderberries and Deadly Nightshade on sight…

If he hadn’t cried out and gained the attention of that one archer…

If he wasn’t born with witch eyes…

It was so far down to the ground. He didn’t have the spell slots to run away. But there was still worse news in this shit sandwich.

He’d forgotten entire fucking war. An ages-long, seemingly endless war. Friends. Family. Dying in it, and he’d forgotten.

If there was any worse time to get a visit from Uncle Irma, it was now.

But Taako didn’t know that. All he knew, as the fever rose and his mental capacity shot down, was that he had to protect his family.

*

Taako was looking super-squirelly, searching through the four, tiny bunks as if he were searching for some lost ancestral trinket that was worth more than his soul.

Merle, finding him in the middle of his rummaging, said, “You okay, there, son?” and thereby learned that there was a very rare fourth aspect of luume’irma. Instead of the usual fight, fuck, or feed, Taako had gone to fortify. Which meant he was driven to protect and guard his family.

“Danger,” Taako said, and scooped up Merle faster than the Dwarven Cleric could blink.

The next thing he could make sense of, he was in some soft, cavernous space made out of mattresses. Someone had laid in supplies and there was one exit to a privy and the other–

“No! Danger!” Taako physically shoved Merle back inside. He had a dazed and confused Davenport under one arm and was frantically out of breath.

“Davenport?” said Davenport.

“Danger,” Taako repeated. “Danger.” He repeatedly set the two of them down, repeating, “Danger,” and, “Safe,” until they finally both sit put.

“Davenport,” sulked Davenport.

“Yeah, that kid’s deep in luume. Better to just sit down, shut up, and put up until he wears himself out.”

“Davenport,” he mumbled, still sulking.

Magnus had to be dragged in, half an hour later. He had made the mistake of attempting to fight an Elf deep in luume, and had been knocked the fuck out and tied the fuck up. Taako physically picked up Merle and mashed him into Magnus. “Safe,” Taako insisted. “Live.”

Merle cast Cure Wounds and Taako seemed happy. He left in the blink of an eye.

Magnus moaned as he came to. “What. The. Fuck.”

“Never mess with a manic Elf, kid,” growled Merle. “Now sit tight, play nice, and exhibit some patience. I’m not made outta spell slots, you know.”

Next into Taako’s collection was Madam Director herself. Stunned, but not unconscious. Meerle spent another spell slot on recovering enough of her hit points for passing normalcy to resume itself.

“Well,” she announced on her return to the waking world, “this is a clusterfuck of epic proportions.”

“I don’t know what got into him,” said Magnus. “He managed to overpower me and drag me into… this place.”

“The bedding depot,” said Madam Director. “It seems to be a magnet for Elves in Luume. They like building their own dens.”

“This has happened before?” said Magnus.

“Amongst our Elven population. Some PSA’s go around periodically about procedure… You missed the last one. I must update our administration protocols.” She crawled to a space by the entrance and waited.

Half an hour later, Taako entered again. Frantic. Out of breath. Hyper-aware and freaking out. He counted them all. “One. Two. Three. Four. One. Two. One… two… three… four…” he pawed at they air twice. “Need…”

“I know what you need,” said Madam Director. “Come here, I can help…”

“Not safe. Danger… Danger…”

“Just come here. I’ll help you.”

He did, but stopped to pause at every other handful of seconds. “One… two… three… four…” paw, paw. He moved a little closer to Madam Director. “One… two… three…”

Madam Director pounced. Seizing Taako’s head with both hands. Her fingers found his ‘off switch’.

“Danger…”

“Ssh… Hush, now,” Madam Director whispered. “It’s all right, now. I’ve got you. Ssh-ssh-ssh-ssh…”

“Danger…” mumbled Taako, slowly slipping under. “One… two.. three… four…” Paw, paw at the air. “One…”

“I’ve got you. I’ve got you…”

Mismatched eyes rolled back. Luxurious eyelids closed. He trembled from head to toe. His breath shuddered. Then he slumped, purring softly, with his head still in Madam Director’s hands.

“There, now,” she cooed. “None of you try to get back out of here, he’s still aware of us. The slightest disturbance in his environment and there’s no predicting what he’ll do.”

“So…” said Magnus. “We just sit here until he’s done?”

“Davenport,” nodded Davenport. He offered a packet of chips.

[TAZ Prompts Remaining: 5]

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She had thought that she had stronger willpower. That she was immune to spells like Friends. Apparently, mourning can bring those defenses crashing down.

She didn’t know about that until Brian had the staff within reach.

“Zhat’s it, my dear. Chust a liddle closer… and I vill have all ze power in ze relics!”

“And then I go home?” It was the one desire more powerful than the whisperings of the staff itself. The need to get back to her little girl.

“Vhat? No. Zhen you die. Zhis is Brian’s time to shine, darling.”

The sure-fire end of Friends is when the caster causes damage to the victim. That particular statement was at least five psychic damage. Sno shook out of the spell, backing up away from this… this fiend.

She had the staff. She could…

She could protect everyone…

No. This thing had different wants to hers. Right now, she wanted to see this fiend suffer. As a cop, she had numerous spells that could delay, capture, or otherwise render harmless a purp. There was one that was desperate circumstances only, and this fucking counted.

She cast Circle of Death.

Frankly, Brian was lucky that she didn’t cast Tsunami.

The ravens of the Reapers swarmed the area and Sno heard other people talking for the first time.

“Hey, babe. Can’t even get one day off, can we?”

“Now is not the time, Taako…”

Sno blinked her tunnel vision of rage away. Tres Horny Bois and Team Sweet Flips were there. So was Director Lucretia.

“I’ll take that, now, thank you.”

“Sure,” Sno handed it over without a second thought. “They were lying, weren’t they? About that thing being able to send me back home?”

“Unfortunately, yes,” said Lucretia. “This staff… can’t do that. We’re still working on a solution to your needs, I promise.”

Back where she started, then. In a strange world without a friend and without a hope. Sno broke down on the spot. “I just wanna go home…”

[TAZ Prompts Remaining: 6]

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Her name was Jakaranda and she was a necromancer and a Tiefling. What she had been trying to call a spirit back into the mortal realm for was a moot point. She had forgotten a key element of the ritual - the vessel in which the soul was meant to reside. It could be anything. A golem of clay, bone, wood or flesh. I corpse fresh in the grave. A doll for the spirit to haunt. Anything at all, as long as parts of it could move and it was vaguely human-shaped.

Her name was Jakaranda, and she gave Magic Brian a door from the Astral Plane. An opportunity that he didn’t hesitate to grasp at with both currently ephemeral hands. Without a vessel, there was only one thing to possess.

Her name was Jakaranda. It’s Brian, now.

He looked at the lavender skin and the pink hair and the very tall horns care of the bathroom mirror. “Not exactly my first choize, darlink, but I guess ve can’t be ze choosers vhen ve are ze beggars, ja?”

The fading remnants of Jakaranda, trapped in the back of her brain, said, No, no, no, I didn’t want this…

“Too late,” said Brian. “Ve can’t alvays get vhat ve vant. But I… am gettink revenge…”

He could remember. Even in a living body. Interesting. The remnants of Jakaranda heard static when he said things like ‘Bureau of Balance’, but he could hear a subtle little hiss under the words that came through just fine.

Excellent. He went through Jakaranda’s wardrobe and threw together something nice and devastating. Next up, cruising some popular cities for some members of the Bureau who were so new that they wouldn’t remember him. Or, failing that, some of the consults. Yes. Being allowed around the base without a tracer bracer would be most beneficial.

*

It was almost a joke. An Elf, a Dragonborn, and an Orc walk into a bookshop/cafe…

Two of the three were wearing Bureau bracers, but the Beach Elf wasn’t. She looked like she was suffering an immense loss, and perhaps an equally high stress. She looked ready to snap, an impression not helped by her whip-thin physique.

Target acquired.

Brian had a few variations on the standard Bureau tailing technique, so that even a Bureau member wouldn’t catch on that he was following after the Beach Elf. She spent random moments crying. She’d lost someone. Recently.

Brian arranged to be in the aisle next to where she was sniffling and picked any old book so he could peek through. “Oh,” he said, “Are you okay?”

“I’ll be fine,” she lied.

“You look very upset, zough. Are you in trouble? Are zose ozzer two menacing you? I can help.”

“No, they’re fine. They’re helping me, I… I’m not from around here and I’m just trying to get home. My little girl needs me.” Tears sprang forth again.

Brian had an ‘in’. He reached through the gap in the bookshelf and said, “It’s goink to be okay. I vant to help.” A touch to her cheek, and the magic words. “I just vant to be Friends.” He cast Friends on her, and she, unsuspecting, went under the spells influence.

“Of course we’re friends,” she said. “My name’s Sno. What’s yours?”

“Call me Jakaranda,” Brian cooed. “Tell me about gettink home…”

She really wasn’t from around here. She’d come from an entirely different reality where some adults here were still children, and Madame Director was a tiny three-and-a-half-year-old child named Lucretia.

Just imagining Madame Director as a tiny child almost blew his borrowed brain.

Nevertheless… “The other Lucretia, she has somesink interesting, ja? Somesing… special…”

“Of course. She has a really magic staff. It’s magic as hell.”

“If you could borrow it,” wheedled Brian, “and bring it to me… I could help you. I could send you home.”

“I want to go home.”

“Zhen you vant to help me. Find a vay to bring me ze staff…”

[TAZ Prompts Remaining: 5]

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Alter-Sno was staring off the edge of the Moon again. It was her posture, more than her permanently-down ears or the look on her face that made Madam Director Lucretia journey over to her and say, “Please don’t jump?”

Alter-Sno took three measured steps away from the edge. “No. I wasn’t thinking about it. I was just… the me who belongs in this world is down there somewhere. Isn’t she?”

“It’s not advisable that you try to find her,” said Lucretia. “We don’t know what energies would be released with the encounter between the two of you.”

“Of course we don’t,” sighed Alter-Sno. “That’s the perfect topper to my fucked-up week. Of course there’s no progress in getting me back or reversing whatever fucked-up thing that globe did. Of fucking course you have no idea if time is passing back where I came from… I promised y– her that I’d never abandon her.”

Lucretia could hear the words that Alter-Sno had not said. The pieces slotted together. “You… promised your universe’s version… of me?”

“She’s almost four years old and… the summer fever got her parents. It was months before we found her.”

Oh. Yes. City life and staying out of everyone’s business, and being too busy to care about their neighbours… There were other factors that could lead to children living with the corpses of their parents, but that was the one most common. “I understand you’re worried about her. We’re doing our best, I promise.”

“She’d only just started talking,” said Alter-Sno. “I let her down. I broke my promise…”

“We don’t know that, yet,” said Lucretia. “Come away from the edge… there’s a tea-house here that does some acceptable shortbreads…”

Alter-Sno didn’t come for the shortbreads. “They do dandelion tea?”

For an Elf, that was pretty much equivalent to asking for a sedative. Something to knock her the fuck out so that she wouldn’t have to suffer being awake. “Only under medical supervision. You do want to keep your promise, don’t you?”

Sigh. “Yeah. It’s just… I worry about her.”

Lucretia may have made a mistake when she said, “Tell me about her.” On the other hand, Alter-Sno came back into the realm of the living when she was talking about her adopted daughter.

Unlike most Elf-Human adoptions, this one didn’t involve Luume’s interference. It involved a scared and selectively mute child only trusting Alter-Sno as the toughest person she knew, and therefore the safest one.

Like Lucretia, her tiny counterpart enjoyed reading and other quiet activities. Like Lucretia, her alternate had a reluctance to speak born of being almost criminally shy. Unlike Lucretia, there was family willing to work to help her overcome that shyness. A version of Taako who had his sister - this knowledge was classified and kept away from the rest of the base in general and Taako in particular - and was therefore much warmer towards the rest of the world. A version of Lup who could gently wheedle any close-mouthed child out of their shell.

In another world, Lucretia had careful and gentle relatives who were already shaping her confidence and capability. In another world, Lucretia had a caring family who worked around her quirks and found ways to help her communicate when she wasn’t in the mood to speak. Instead of a mother who wept and a father who yelled when she chose to be quiet and retreat, Lucretia had a family who was willing to whisper and would fetch flashcards so she could still tell them what was wrong.

Lucretia was almost jealous of a four-year-old child in another reality. It was a very strange thing to hear that one had a better life in a different dimension. Not that she wished her own parents dead, but… hearing about this could almost make her do so.

Then Alter-Sno started showing her the baby photos.

Her alternate transformed, from swipe to swipe, from the shy and retreating baby self Lucretia was familiar with, to an increasingly happy and confident little girl. Including being able to do public speaking at her school, if the photo of her at a podium (standing on a step-stool) was any indicator.

It had taken her years, one year in particular, the efforts of her crew, and this wild-ass plan of hers to acquire the gravitas and inherent power that she had today. This junior version of herself was going to have it all much sooner and without all the suffering.

Lucretia wished her well.

[TAZ Prompts Remaining: 5]

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Papa was all dressed up fancy. So was Dad. Angus couldn’t explain why this worried him, but the worry lay trembling under his heart nevertheless.

“It’s just tonight,” Papa was saying as he braided his hair. “There was quite the brawl to babysit you while your Dad and I are out.”

“Can’t I come?”

Papa sighed. “Baby… You know we love you. It’s just… We need to re-enforce our bonds with each other. A night where neither of us can pay all of our attention to each other.”

Angus knew about this. Sometimes, parents needed one night where they didn’t have to be parents. “And I’m not going back to the orphanage.”

“Hell, no, Ango. Naw. You got your Uncle and Aunty Bluejeans coming down, then there’s the Fangbattle Aunts and Uncle Magnus.”

Uncle Magnus almost always bought Mitzy with him. That sounded like it could be fun.

“All of them at once?”

“It was better than holding a raffle for the privilege of your company.” Papa pinned up his hair. “Dad and I have our Stones, and if you need us, we’re only a call away. You’re going to be okay. I promise.”

It was easy to believe when they were home. Less so when they weren’t around. He had three Aunts and two Uncles watching over him and Mitzy to play with and that was enough to keep him distracted for a good two hours.

The third hour, when he and his Aunts and Uncles were cooking together, was when it hit him like a bully twice his weight class. Aunty Lup had her eyes the wrong way around. Everything was wrong. Everything was going wrong.

*

The call came before the mains, and they picked up instantly.

“Ango needs us?” came out of their mouths in stereo.

Taako dropped some gemstones on the table and Krav tore them a portal all the way back to their home.

Dinner didn’t matter. The night out was less important than their kid. Taako rolled badly on passing through the Astral plane on the way, but that didn’t matter either. He rolled and recovered before Krav could even offer a hand.

“Daddy! Papa!”

They landed on him in a hug, Taako already purring.

“It’s okay,” soothed Krav. “You’e okay.”

“I didn’t wanna wreck your night. I’m sorry.”

“Hey, you needed us, kiddo. We can have a night out anytime.”

Lup, hovering nearby, said, “He called me ‘Papa’ like twice and then freaked out. I’m not upset about the confusion, sweetie, I promise. You’re okay.”

“I thought… I thought… I thought you were never coming back an’ I kept seeing you outta the corner of my eye an’ it was only Aunty Lup an’…”

He and Krav covered him in kisses. “It’s okay. We’re here, now,” they said, wrapping their little boy up in their arms.

They never saw their show, and their dinner was what the family had cooked up that night. They watched one amongst many of their collection of their moving scrolls.

The important part was that Ango had his family. That he knew they would be coming back. That he could be braver next time.

[TAZ Prompts Remaining: 5]

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Still Tumbl'd, Still TAZ - Chapter 84 - InterNutter - The Adventure Zone (Podcast) [Archive of Our Own]

In this chapter, the baby twins meet little lucretia.

Something… missing. Something wanting. Something gone. Something he had to search for. Something he had to find. Need. Needing hurt. Want. Wanting hurt worse.

Scent. Track. Find. Find baby. His baby. Taako crept closer. Baby sleeping. Quiet. Baby needs sleep. Sniff…

Baby sick!

Taako crept right up to his baby. Sniffing and carefully feeling. Much bad. Hot baby. Exhausted baby. Bad bed.

The thing people forget about the simplified form of the three classes of Luume - fight, fuck, or feed - is that ‘feed’ includes every form of nurture…

Taako lifted Angus - his baby - off the Humanman bed and, stripping most of the boy’s clothes off as he went, carried his baby (a young man, now, but that didn’t matter to Elven instincts) to a cote with a nice through-breeze in the summer.

Careful lips to his boy’s forehead. Still too hot. Need cold magic. Need good food baby will eat.

Ray of frost chilled off the ceiling and sent coolness drifting down on his baby, and Taako purred to hear the sigh of relief from his boy.

Not done yet. Good food. Soft food. Soup! Plenty good things. Ginger. Garlic. Chicken. Vegetables. Herbs. Lots and lots of herbs. Good food makes for better baby.

Poor baby.

Baby needed him.

Taako took a healthy portion into the cote, to a nook charmed to stay warm where at least one cat usually nested. Taako hissed at the one there to drive it off and make room for the soup. From there, smaller bowls of it would be used to tempt baby into eating.

“…sir, please, I’m not hungry.”

Taako didn’t have many words. Not at the moment. “Baby eat,” he cooed. “Strong baby. Good food. Strong food.”

“Sir?” Angus blearily peered into Taako’s eyes, then slumped back and sighed, “Oh no. Not this again…”

“Baby eat?” It was a very small bowl. No trouble for baby. Mostly liquid. Nothing too hard to chew.

Sigh. He accepted the cup and sipped. Carefully. He winced when he swallowed.

Taako pressed his lips to his baby’s brow. “Too hot,” he complained. He found water, found a cloth, and washed down his child. “Poor baby… Sick baby…”

“I just want to sleep, sir.”

Taako uged the contents of the bowl on his baby. Stayed close, but not close enough to crowd or overheat him. He purred a soothing rhythm as he watched and waited for his baby to stir on his own. From there, he would offer another bowl of soup.

In between times, he would wash his baby and purr and maintain the chilled ceiling. Once or twice on the half hour, Taako would press his lips to Angus’ brow to check on his fever.

A fever that broke sometime before Kravitz returned from his work.

Taako purred a little louder the instant he saw his chosen mate.

“Hello, Dove,” his mate murmured. “What’s happened?”

“Sick baby,” Taako cooed. “Won’t eat.”

“I’ll help. You rest, love.” Kravitz ran his chilly hands over Taako’s face, then rested one on Angus’ still-warm brow.

“Th’nk you sirs,” Angus mumbled.

[TAZ Prompts Remaining: 5]

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They were having a parents’ day in the park. Merle had custody of his kids for the weekend and La’ming… La’ming was learning to be a decent parent by studying others.

Most of the others here at the play park were nannies who didn’t speak the best of Common and used playtime as an excuse to gossip.

Merle… Merle wasn’t much better, but at least he knew something about parenting. Something - even a bad something - was better than nothing. FOr example - Merle sunbathed while Mookie threw himself around the climbing gym like a dervish and Mavis took turns on the swings or the monkeybars. His parenting involved occasional interjections involving the word "don’t”.

“Don’t wrassle kids below your weight class, Mookie…”

La’ming, using his example, kept an eye on the twins and was ready to bolt straight for them if there was the slightest hint of trouble. She also had all the approved snack foods so they’d have plenty to eat.

Food security was still a big thing for them.

Right now, though, the twins were building a sandcastle with one of the smaller, younger children. One would invariably defend the pile of sand from Mookie and other kids who liked to stomp on sandcastles.

That was when she’d need to step in and mediate. Get all involved parties to talk it out instead of fighting it out. Assuming they didn’t talk it out without prompting.

“First kids always make for an anxious parent,” said Merle, apparently from his coma. “You’re always worried about being a failure. Trust me. Kids aren’t that delicate.”

Yes they are, she thought. “I abandoned my first kid with my parents when I was Seventy-two. These are the first kids I’ve actively tried looking after. That I haven’t given up on.”

“Seventy-two? Isn’t that like… way too young to have a kid?”

“Yeah. Like a Humanman sixteen or something.”

“No blame on that one, then,” said Merle.

“Tell that to my daughter. My parents are assholes.”

There was an extended silence between the two of them. Not absolute silence, since they were seated by a playground, but they were quiet. The kids continued shrieking and yelling at each other as they expended all their energies in assorted games.

“Sorry about that,” said Merle. “I assumed…”

“Many do. I don’t talk about it a lot.”

“She doing okay, now?”

“Yeah. We’re almost on speaking terms.” She twitched as Lulu fell off a swing, but relaxed as she rolled and recovered her feet. She’d intended to do that, the little daredevil. “I know how bad it can get. What I need is… how to not get there. You know?”

He chuckled. “Yeah. I know that one. Their mom and I never got along, and… The last straw was Mookie crying because we were whispering at each other. Can’t wake the baby, y’know? So we fought in whispers so the kids…” he sighed. “Didn’t work. So after we got him settled again, I asked, Would you be happier if I left? And she said ‘yes’ and we tried to handle the divorce like grown-ass people. I send her what I can spare and I live in this little room in the loft to save money and… The kids are the most important part. You do what’s best for them.”

At Seventy-two, that had been leaving her baby with the only people she could rely upon to care for her. Now that she was two hundred and thirty… it meant doing everything in her power to make sure something like that never happened again.

“I can make sure they have what they need,” she said. “I got that covered.”

“See? You’re already doing better than like half of the other assholes out there.”

“I already love them to bits.”

“Now you’re up to seventy percent,” said Merle. “Most parents I get in the Bodega? They treat kids like a chore. Something they gotta do and something they gotta put up with like they’re obligated. Not a lot of love.”

Mookie took a tumble off the high bars, landing sort-of okay, but scraping his leg on something under the sand. He stood up and blood started snaking down his leg.

“Duty calls.” Merle got up and cheered Mookie for not breaking his fool neck, and ran a minor healing spell over the injury. “No battle scars for you, champ. But let’s find that sharp thing so nobody else gets hurt.”

Mookie started digging like a dog and making vroom noises while Merle was a little more sedate and cautious. It was a sharp rock, not a piece of glass or a needle, thank the gods.

La’ming toured over to where Koko was helping another kid with their sandcastle. She said, “There’s sometimes sharp things in the sand, so you make sure the littles use their tools so they can play safe.”

Koko said, “You can stop fussing, mom. We’re fine.”

She almost floated all the way back to the bench. Mom. He’d called her Mom.

[TAZ Prompts Remaining: 3]

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Elven reformation projects are a great deal more effective when there are actual, decent Elves involved. At minimum, survivors of worse reformation projects are vital.

Which was just one of the reasons why Lup and Taako were running a Teaching Kitchen just off from the Le’Vine Reformatory. The Elf in charge, named Schadoq, had said that it was an excellent training opportunity. He said a lot of things. Things like “protecting virtue” and “moral backbone”.

It put Taako’s hackles up, but, after an inspection of the facility, he hadn’t found anything untoward.

The inmates were quiet and reserved. Lup expected that. They had been quiet and reserved after they’d got out of Saint Vingo’s… for all of six months. The key was to be quiet and kind and gentle until the kids got bold enough for some lip. That was how you could tell they trusted you.

They each had a bracelet that -on an arcana check- was a health and welfare tracker that took note of all their biosigns and reported to some office somewhere.

It seemed above board. It seemed nice enough.

Until the day that one of the kids, Roshi, started panicking as his bracelet started beeping. “No, no, nonononono… It’s too soon! Don’t put me in the dark!”

“What the shit?” said the Twins together.

Taako put his work down, wiped his hands, and gathered the kid up. He was only seventy-five. “Hey, hey, homes. Take it easy. What’s the fuss?”

“That’s the Luume-alert,” said an older kid. Closer to Ninety. “They take us away to somewhere we can’t hurt ourselves. So we can stay pure. It’s hell.”

Taako fought to purr for this stranger-child. Reaching for the kid’s ‘Off Switch’. “It’s okay, it’s okay,” he crooned. “We’re outside of the spells, here. You’re okay. I got’cha…”

Lup subtly got out her Orb of Recall and said, “So Kaar… this place they send you to when you’re in Luume. What’s it like?” she tried to stay casual, but memories of Citron and the horrors of Saint Vingo’s kept bubbling into the back of her mind. It was really hard not to let her anger out.

She wasn’t angry at these kids. She was angry at the situation they were in.

“It’s nothing,” said Kaar as Taako showed Syr how to use the massage points to soothe another Elf into a happy torpor during their Luume.

“It’s okay. We won’t narc,” said Taako.

“No. It’s literally nothing,” said Kaar. “There’s no light, no heat, no cold, no feeling. No sound, nothing. It’s pure nothing. And we stay in there until the Lull hits.”

They knew it immediately. Citron’s Malevolent Sensory Deprivation. She had used it in Saint Vingo’s to punish. Now it looked like Schadoq was using it to ‘save’ these kids from their own biological necessities.

Taako was on his Stone. “Hey, Luce, did you know that scumfuck Schadoq was using a Vingo’s spell on kids in Luume? No? Let’s send some teams down like the vengeance of the gods…”

“Koko?” said Lup. “How about we teach these kids some creative use of level-appropriate spells…?”

It had been quite some time since someone last trashed a place like Saint Vingo’s. It would be quite some more time before anyone else would get the opportunity.

Vengeance was a dish best served cold, that was true. It also went well with generous sides of flames and tentacles.

[TAZ Prompts Remaining: 4]

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