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Entry tags:

action;

Who: Taako
Broadcast: None
Action: First Breath, Planetside
When: 9/28

First Breath

1. Kitchen
[The Marsiva had become boring after the first day of having absolutely nothing to do. He'd spent the time trying to understand what was going on, and then decided napping was probably the best thing since he was stuck anyway. Which is why he was in the middle of a trance-like nap when the Atroma jingle went off and he exploded onto the First Breath's kitchen with confetti and questionable looking chocolate pudding cups.

Taako blinked, then dusted the confetti off his clothes and wizard's hat. The first thing he saw was the sad state of this kitchen, and Taako put his hands on his hips with a sigh.]

Is this seriously what they want me to work with?

2. Cargo: Salvage
[After settling into the crew, Taako immediately went out salvaging. Something about that seemed to be the right thing to do, so he is dragging bits of metal sheeting, wires, robot parts, and sacks full of gears and pieces into the cargo hold. The planet is basically made for looting, so he's doing his level best to loot the shit out of it. He also has a Mage Hand - an invisible force - carrying several lush looking throw pillows trimmed in various colored fringe and blankets.

When he comes onto the ship, when he sees someone in here, he immediately motions to them.]

You, person whose name I totally remember, go grab the rest of this, hm? I'm not exactly the brawn type.

Planetside

1. Shopping
[You cannot expect Taako to go to a world of literal shopping and not come back with all the craziest shit. But sadly, he does not have a lot of money since he is recently arrived and was not part of this cargo haul that apparently got some people money and others not so much. Which means Taako has to do what Taako does best and improvise.

And he's doing a goddamn God Tier job at it. He's getting new outfits pieced together from clothing crates lost to the dumps, he's getting new throw pillows, blankets, random knick-knacks, and he's trying to find some goddamn weapons just because how bitchin' would it be to roll around the galaxy with a pair of machine guns strapped to his back? Totally, that's how much.

But he still has no money, so he'll slide over to the closest person in the same store as him and smile.]

Hey there, thug, you wanna help me with something?

2. Arena - Locked to Lup
[He could fight here, but why go through the effort? It's so much easier to wait until he sees a good bet and then toss as much of the Charmed credit he's earned so far straight into it. If he loses? Oh well. If he wins? Hell yeah.

So the second he sees Lup enter the arena, he knows exactly what to do. He bets every single credit he's earned so far on her winning. He highly doubts anyone here could conquer her level of spellcasting and the utter destruction he has a feeling she's capable of doing. Most people here relied on melee combat and, well, wizards are made for smashing from afar. This is also a good way to check what she's capable of and she did not disappoint.

Once the battle is over, he waits down by the fighters' exit, leaning up against the wall with a pocket full of credits.]

Nice job, Destructo.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[She goes ahead and leads the way, heading in the direction of town where the stores are more prominent. As she walks she gestures at herself with a bit of magic flair to use Disguise Self, not changing her appearance but making her clothes more presentable, the blood, scuffs, and cuts vanishing from sight. This'll do until she can have a proper bath.]

Well, I don't want to spoil the surprise... it's nothing nefarious, I promise. Call it a therapy project.

[As they march through town, Taako changes his appearance just enough that any shopkeepers looking out wouldn't recognize him. He's been running amok here and the last thing he needs it to have someone chase him out of town when he's about to see something interesting. Heisting is so much fun - he was really sad he, Magnus and Merle didn't do it more often.]

Yeah, yeah, no prob.

[They get to the store and the doors open, showing the large warehouse floor. There are people bustling all over the place, sifting through piles of bulk jeans in a million sizes, large racks of appliances that may or may not have been new, robot parts stacked three shelves high - and their mission today: umbrellas. Lined up along one section of the wall is a vertical rack of umbrellas in several colors and patterns, some cute, some uglier than sin.]

[Lup takes a moment to take stock of the- well, stock, snagging one of the little transporter carts for goods as she walks the line. Like everything else here they're a grand mismatch of salvaged bits, and some of them are probably already broken. There's actually one that looks eerily similar to the Umbra Staff, but a closer inspection shows that it's not the least bit magical, and the pattern is different. Still, the familiar twinge at first glance is enough to make her deposit it onto the cart, the first choice.

And then she reaches up and pushes the rack in the direction of the cart so the entire collection falls on top of it in a messy heap.

It is, as she'd thought, an unreasonable number.]

That'll do!

[The first choice is reasonable. It reminds him of the Umbra Staff in a lot of ways, the shape, the color - just not the pattern. He almost feels like he should take it, but it goes directly into the cart and Taako rocks back on his heels, content to see what mischief Lup has conjur--

Holy shit, she just dumped the entire rack in.

The cacophonous racket of an entire collection clattering into the cart is enough to draw attention and Taako glances around, waving people's attention off. Nothing to see here, nope.]

Sure you didn't miss any?

Nope!

[Her reply is cheerful as she sets the now-empty rack back on its legs and circles around the cart to pick up any straggler umbrellas that may have fallen off. There were a few, but she gets the pile sorted until every one is accounted for.]

So, I've got some money, but not enough to afford all of this plus expanding my incredibly empty wardrobe from zilch to Lup-size. So my thought was that this? Is what we call a bulk-order discount. It's only on special for very, very charming people. And you're very charming, Taako.

Oh hell yeah, I was already working on that. I mean, we could just turn it all invisible and walk out, but where's the fun in that, am I right?

[But just in case? He's going to keep that slight change to his appearance going as he picks out a cashier and motions Lup toward it.]

Got our mark. You sure you don't want anything else while we're here? If I'm gonna burn a spell, we might as well get all we can.

Have you seen the clothing here? Because I scouted it out earlier and it would be better for everyone on this planet if I let loose a giant Fireball to take out the entire department. It's an assault on our very existence.

[Hmm, though, he brings up a good point.]

Let's do a walk around, and grab whatever you feel like taking. I've got a few things in mind.

[By the time she's done the cart is well stacked with... mostly umbrellas, still, but a handful of little things that a ship kitchen without a cook might need to bake efficiently. And of course anything Taako finds as well.]

Oh it's horrifying, but I bet you could make some good denim bags out of those pants. Or sacks.

[He eyes the pants and sighs. Denim.] Probably just sacks.

[They head around and he grabs some scrap metal he can use for his ship, some pillows because the ones on the ship are bogus, some kitchen things, a few ugly as hell towels that have flame patterns or badly embroidered unicorns on them, and a set of tupperware because you never know when those will come in handy. Then he starts toward the cashier, the towels draped over his shoulder like the world's ugliest cape.

When they reach the till, the cashier asks for their membership card and Taako works his magic. The Charm spell hits the cashier like a hammer and they become dazed, blinking owlishly until Taako smiles, sweet as a spider over honey.]

So~ We're in a bit of a hurry. Do you mind if we just go on through and you give us a receipt for all this?

[The cashier bubbles about how happy she'd be to help such nice elves like them and Taako smiles a little more, motioning Lup on through. The receipt is printed up and Taako slips it from the cashier's fingers.]

Oh, you're just a peach. Have a great day~!

[The mention of denim almost makes her smile falter, but she holds it together and they drag the cart right on through to the exit, thanks to Taako's spell. It goes about as perfectly as it could have, and by the time they're out the door and in the shuttle's parking lot, her shoulders droop with genuine relief. This is so, so stupid and self-indulgent, and definitely not worth getting arrested on an alien planet for.

But she really, really wants to do this.]

Okay, take five. Let's split the stuff up- umbrellas and everything else. There's an empty lot behind this one that's baaasically abandoned, so I'm gonna do some flashy magic there, and I don't want your stuff caught up in that.

[She crouches down next to the cart to grab her extra stuff, setting it aside in a bag.]

You can come with me if you want to, Taako, but it might just raise more questions than answers for you, and you might not like it. Whatever you decide... thanks, for this.

[He does as she says and pulls his items apart from hers. There isn't a lot, but the sheer number of umbrellas she has would make the entire contents of his original magical inventory look tiny in comparison. He grabs his stuff and shrinks then all using Reduce so their easier to carry, then looks at her.]

Y'know, normally I'd be on the adios at this long, but color me intrigued.

[Maybe it would just raise more questions, and maybe it would be weird, but he just helped her steal all those things and he feels like he's at least a little bit entitled to see what happens to them. ]

Lead on, dawg. Let's see what you've got.

...Okay.

[Fair warning given; she's not going to try and send him away when she already owes him. She'll just... have to try and think of something after. Or be brave and tell him the truth.

Or be an asshole and tell him nothing.

Once her own stuff is sorted and shrunk as well, she drags the cart along behind them until they reach the very end of the second lot. Shuttle traffic above is pretty light, since there's nothing to do here, and further back is a bunch of junk piles that have been mostly sorted and is literally just garbage waiting to be burned until the next supply drop. It's the perfect spot for this.

She moves the cart forward, dumping the entire umbrella pile onto the ground, and then kicks it until it rolls as far as she can move it, out of the danger zone. There's no fancy arrangement with the pile- they fall where they fall, and she makes no move to straighten it up. They're all about to go flying, anyway. Her expression is stone faced as she moves back to stand between Taako and the umbrellas.]

Last chance to bail. You're gonna want to stay behind me for a while.

[And then she waits for a few seconds, so he can decide- so he can leave, if he wants. He's free to leave any time, of course, but she knows this is definitely going to get some unwanted attention.

She waits, and then she lifts her spoony focus and launches a fireball at the umbrella pile. They explode immediately, fabric and plastic burning, metal beginning to twist. It's satisfying, but it's not enough, so she does it again. And again. Fireballs, lightning blasts, cones of freezing energy- she burns most of her remaining spell slots on obliterating the damn things. The mix of hot and cold energy causes bursts of steam to form around them, clouding the worst of the chaos from any outside observers. There are noises in the background, far distant - explosions are bound to get the attention of the populace here - but she's done her research. Authorities take a while to respond, most times, in this region. She's got time.

When she's all but empty of spell slots she lowers her spoon, her hand trembling, doing nothing for a long moment. And then she marches forward to grab the longest remaining metal shard, lifting it over her head, and she screams, bringing it down on the handles and poles that are all that remain of the umbrellas, all fabric having turned to dust long before. She smashes the metal together again, and again, and again, reveling in the way they scrape and crunch, bending inwards, breaking apart.

It's not the Umbra Staff. The Umbra Staff's not here. The Umbra Staff can't take here away from him, from all of them, again. Not here. It's not here.

But seeing them rip and tear and explode and break apart is fulfilling a wish she'd carried in her heart for ten fucking years, and to get the chance to do this feels so, so good.

With one last yell, wretched, tired, and frustrated, she throws the metal post she'd been using as a makeshift club as far away from herself as possible, into one of the trash piles, standing there with her arm outstretched, breathing heavily. It feels as if the world around her has slowed down; she doesn't know if Taako's still there, but she's afraid to turn around. She doesn't want to check. She doesn't want to do anything right now.

With a weary exhale she drops down to her knees in front of the mess that she's made. She's done.]

[He certainly wasn't planning on standing in front of her while she did flashy magic. Taako wasn't actually stupid. But he nods and takes a step back, hands linked behind his back as he watches her scatter the umbrellas around the empty lot. The first set-up is boring, so he stares up at the sky, watching the garbage that is always falling out of the sky somewhere rain down upon the planet. What a shithole planet - but a useful one. And at least the inhabitants are happy with it. Who is he to ju--

Holy shit?!

The first explosion draws his attention back down and he jumps a bit, ready to get clear of any area damage. But it's all solely focused on the umbrellas which Lup is systematically erasing from existence with the fury and rage only someone truly wronged can muster. He watches until she's spent, explosions and steam bursting into the air as she switches back and forth between fire and ice. Then, when he thinks she's done?

She screams and starts beating the damn things to death. Lup smashes like a Hulk until there's nothing left to smash and Taako watches her, afraid to move in case he, in all his glittery glory, gets mistaken for an umbrella too. He waits until she's done, on her knees, exhausted, and then he waits a little bit more. When he's certain she's finished and not about to go Wild Wild West on his ass too, he clears his throat and nervously adjusts his shirt. He had said he wanted to see what she was doing and this definitely was... a thing she did.]

Soooo....next birthday, skip the umbrella as a gift, I take it?

[Her shoulders stiffen in surprise at the sound of his voice; she had genuinely expected him to bail on her, and after that messy display she wouldn't have blamed him at all. To him she's still just a mysterious stranger who happens to share his face, and the robes of his supposed enemy. Not someone you're obligated to hang around with by any means. It's... nice. She's glad he's still here, glad she didn't ruin things between them with her ragey demonstration. Things are still so delicate.

Her posture relaxes again, gradually, and she leans back on her heels, lowering a hand to flick a little piece of metal away from herself.]

Probably a good idea. Not that I can even tell you my birthday to begin with.

[Voidfish would probably eat that, too. Surprise, his birthday is also hers! Cue the static.

She'd hoped that this would make her feel better, and to be fair, it does a bit. Some of the tension is ebbing away from her heart, leaving her drained but somewhat satisfied. She'd needed a way to vent her frustrations, and this had given her the opportunity, but she can't verbally bitch about it to anyone, so that's still shitty.

Sitting around sulking isn't going to get her anywhere, though, and the authorities are probably going to make their way here sooner or later, so reluctantly she pushes herself back to her feet, dusting some of the ash off her clothes.]

Thanks for staying.

[Taako is still internally screaming obscenities at that display of power, but outwardly he's trying to play it cool. He watches her dust herself off and shrugs, arms crossed over his chest. If he'd run, she would have known that she scares him and that would make the long-game of them being stuck on this Fleet with the same face very difficult indeed. So he stayed and he watched and he noted what kind of spells she could levy and he filed that info away in the "Remember this so you don't die, moron" section of his brain.]

Eh. I'll pick a random day then.

[He grows quiet for a moment, stepping back as she gets back to her feet.]

...But yeah, no problem. I mean, I did sort of say I wanted to see what was up.

[I kind of brought this on myself.]

But you okay there, Lup? You kind of went Rage Against the Machine there.

[Is she okay? Well, she's not going to burst into tears and she doesn't feel like buying another round of umbrellas to fireball them too, so yeah, probably. She'll have to deal with the fallout of this and everything else that's happened eventually. Not right now, not with him around. There's no one to share this grief with.

Tell him, you coward, a voice whispers in the corner of her mind.

Not yet, she tells it stubbornly, because she wants some goddamn clothes and they're not finished having a rad day together.]

Yeah, it's okay. Y'ever get the urge to just break shit so you don't have to look at it anymore? It's cathartic. Like I said, therapy. Sometimes stuff is better when it's on blast.

[Which would probably be mildly psychotic coming from anybody else, but she knows who she is, and she knows her brother, too. She's seen the thrill in his eyes when he lets loose a really good spell. Even if she's scared the shit out of him a little bit, he'll understand.

She turns to face him properly with a smile, arms stretching up over her head, the sound of sirens in the distance.]

Got an Invisibility spell to spare? We should probably bail before shit here goes south, and I still need new threads.

Well yeah, definitely. Sometimes some shit's just gotta burn.

[He's going to burn those ugly ass jumpsuits as soon as he has a chance, for example. He just isn't going to do it quite like this. A bonfire maybe, a nice roast? But a full on spell-slinging disaster zone? Nah.

Well.

If he really hated something? Yeah.

As for the invisibility? Yeah, he's got that too, but that means getting close enough to touch her. She seems to be a lot more relaxed now though, so he eyes her for a second and then offers a hand.]

Just so you know, I'm going to deny ever being here if you get caught.

[She notes the hesitation - yeah, she deserves that - so her grip is gentle when she reaches out to press her hand against his.]

You can throw me under the bus if you want. They won't be able to catch me.

[It's a promise and a threat. Fuck the police and all that.]

More like you'd be throwing the bus at them, but cool.

[He concentrates and the spell is done in a moment. She's gone invisible and Taako breathes out slowly, pulling his hand back. The sirens seem to be getting louder and he looks over his shoulder.

He does owe her for that pocket-full of credits that he may or may not use today. Eh, fuck it.]

Hey, meet me in town at that one store with the ugly as shit pair of beige pants in the window. You know the one.

[And then he Blinks out of this plane and starts trudging off away from the disaster that was Lup's anger management therapy.]

[She absolutely knows the one, and she's delighted that he's still game for round 2, so her only response is a laugh in the wind, and a handful of footfalls in the dirt as she runs off in that direction. Traveling together while invisible would be a nightmare to try and organize, and she figures he's earned some alone time away from her crazy self for a while.

The adrenaline will help her blow off some lingering steam, so she runs the whole way there, dashing between lumbering pedestrians, parkouring over the fences and street decor that crosses her path. She arrives in record time well before he does, but there's very little that she can do until he arrives - and she's burned most of her spell slots, so Dispel is out - so she scrawls "LUP WAS HERE, BITCHES" on the wall of the shop and sits down beneath it to wait for him.]

[If he could remember it, he'd remember that Lup was always the more audacious of the two of them. He could be wild when he wanted to be (which was almost always), but he was also the practical strategist of the two. So while she takes off, he hangs back and waits for the authorities to arrive.

He watches them swarm the area, picking apart the wreckage for clues to the cause of his destruction, but there isn't much for them to figure out. He follows them as they go to talk any locals that might have been witnesses, but there it's a dead end too. Then he goes back to his original spot once the police have finished up and started to move on, and comes back to this plane.

No one really asks him any questions as he saunters away, swinging his bag of goods over his shoulder because no one is around to see him.

By the time he meets up with Lup, he sees she's scrawled a message up on the wall and chuckles.]

They don't have a clue so you're probably safe, Destructo.

[She stands up as he approaches, dusting off her butt; now that he's here he can drop the concentration, so she suddenly appears in the middle of the street. It's busy enough that no one seems to notice or care, at least.]

Hell yeah, I love consequence-free explosions. Why'd you want to meet at this trash parlour?

[It makes for a good landmark, but she'd have pegged him for finding other shops around town far more memorable. Maybe there's something close by that she hadn't noticed?]

Because the guy in there is a total dick and I want to take him for whatever he's got.

[He doesn't even particularly want any of the clothes. He just wants to fuck with this guy as much as he can and then steal a few things.]

They have some nicer stuff in the back, but that asshole wouldn't let me in that section.

[There's the brother she knows and loves. She grins and claps her hands together, turning to peer in the window at the goods. It all looks pretty hideous at first glance, but they could always resell whatever isn't worth keeping. Some sucker's bound to take it off their hands. And now that he's mentioned it, she can see a path leading towards a back area, glints of colour popping out from the sea of ugly brown, but it's obscured from view.]

Well, we both know what that means- time for another ruckus. Got a plan for this one?

We have the same face, we might as well put it to good use.

[He scoots over and looks in the window, too. He can still see Mr. McDouche Goatee sitting behind the counter with his stupid haughty face. His store is goddamn ugly and yet he's a total ass about anyone coming in and buying anything worthwhile. He actually had the money to get into the back room now, but it's the principle of the thing. He isn't giving this bastard any money if he can help it.]

I know you don't have any spell slots left, so let's do this old school. You go in and ask about something he has to go to the back to get. When he comes back, we'll switch places and go round and round until that guy breaks. I'll toss an illusion up over you, so whenever you're not in view, grab shit and put it on. I'll do the same.

If you can get into that back area? Fucking steal everything.

Oh honey, you better believe that's exactly what I had planned.

[She holds up a finger.]

I have one very fun 4th level spell I've been saving for this, and it's already active. Went scrapping all day yesterday to scrounge up the components for it, but oooh, is it ever good. Get me into the back room, and I won't even leave him a sock.

[Thank god for Barry for teaching her this one, because it's so not her style, usually.]

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