driftfleet | 'cause it's better than nothing

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'cause it's better than nothing

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ROOMS BY CHARACTER

N - P

Otono-Tachibana Makie

Q - S

Sandalio "Biffy" de Rabiffano

T - V

W - Z

(last updated: 1/25/19)

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Thor's reminded unaccountably, bizarrely, of Loki's illusions. His brother's habit of multiplying himself to confound enemies is one he's familiar with, but it was never this disturbing. It never looked like a mistake.

When his hand passes through the humming air that makes up Taako's form he pulls it back quickly, not quite okay with shoving his hand into someone's body. Even if it is some jarring illusory mess.

"I don't know," he replies, gaze darting between the two versions of Taako. Which one even spoke? "Are you--?" It's then that one of Taako's forms makes its gesture towards the other objects. Thor snaps his mouth shut, turning on his heel to look at the scattered goods. He'd dropped the star back on the counter after the memory ended and it's right next to the white staff, so...

"You need one of these?" he asks as he grabs the staff.

Picking up the walking stick feels empty and cold, but then it fuzzes and feels familiar and..., well, not safe really, but guarded and protected, before leeching back out to the initial feeling. The sound of wildlife at night - crickets and toads - fades in as the sight of Taako's glitching form disappears. In his place is a young elf, a young Taako maybe 80 or 90 years old but still looking closer to a human's 20 years of age, sitting alone in a clearing near a barely lit fire. He has his back against a tree and his hands move deftly as he starts putting together the silver wire and bells needed for an Alarm spell. He weaves it around the entire clearing, then wraps himself up in his cloak, peering out at the darkness beyond the dying fire. There's a pervasive feeling of tiredness and emptiness here in this clearing.

It's just quiet and lonesome and endless as time speeds up and the elf falls into a light trance for twenty or thirty minutes at a time, jolting awake whenever he's been asleep for too long. He checks the area, reinforces his spell, then curls up again. The sequence repeats itself at high speed: check the spell, doze for half an hour, wake up, do it again over and over never fully sleeping until morning breaks. Taako wakes up for a last time, checks the road, pulls apart his spell components, and then trudges off down the road with a walking stick in hand as the memory blurs.

--

The scene jumps and Taako, much younger now maybe in his 30s or 40s, is working with a caravan of travelers. They're getting ready to pack up and he's helping, putting up cookware and crates, hauling things into the backs of wagons. He's mostly by himself, rarely interacting with the other members of the caravan unless instructions are shouted his way. He runs from one side of the caravan to the other, doing whatever is asked of him, careful not to get in anyone's way. He's got sweat on his forehead and is pulled in every direction by different instructions, but he dutifully does each and every one - not complaining once.

With the caravan is packed, he goes toward the wagons where everyone is climbing into their seats when the leader of the caravan stops him, shaking his head.

"Too many mouths to feed, Taako. We appreciate the help with packing, but unless you got any other skills? You're useless to us. You're not wanted here."

The caravan pulls up roots and leaves him behind with his gear, which he slips onto his back with a sigh. There's a sense that this has happened dozens if not a hundred times before, and he just hasn't have the strength or desire left in him to contest the decision. Resigned, Taako grabs the nearest branch and starts walking in the opposite direction. But as he walks, he pulls a book from his bag and starts reading it - the cover says "Beginning Magic: Tips and Tricks."

--

The memory jumps a second time and Taako is younger than ever, barely maybe 17 or 18 even in human years, and he's working at a traveling circus. He's carting crates around, cooking for the troupe, again doing whatever is asked of him. This time he talks to the people here. He's still a little cautious, but he's obviously made connections here. The performers know him, talk to him, compliment him on the food, pat him on the back as they take their meal and go. He feels pride whenever they talk about his food and he smiles at them sometimes, laughing a little.

He eats alone once the main meal is served though, cleaning up alone, washing the dishes dumped at the tables by himself. He works until late at night because all the different performers and staff eat at different times and it's nearing midnight before he's able to get off his feet, exhausted.

The scene frizzes momentarily and there's a patch of static next to him suddenly, clinging to his side. He turns his head toward it with a small smile and there's a sense of calm that was missing a moment earlier. The static does something that makes him laugh, breaking whatever tension and exhaustion he'd been feeling.

In a snap, the static is gone and it's just Taako again, looking just as tired as before, resting his head on his arms at the table as he sits alone, listening to the sounds of people talking in tents far away. He longs to be there with them and it shows in the way he watches their shadows play against the tent walls. He's always been alone and this is no exception though. It's too hard to trust, too hard to get up and take that last leap to join the performers and see what's so much fun. He's too tired from working all day - breakfast at the break of dawn to dinner finishing at midnight.

He's almost asleep right there at the table when the owner of the circus steps up. He's an older man with a wide mustache and a sad look on his face. Taako perks up when the man appears, his ears ticking forward and then drooping back the moment he sees his face.

"It's not that we don't appreciate your help..." the man says, wringing his hands around a pair of gloves. "It's been great having you around, but...."

"I can do other stuff. I'll learn something else?" Taako stands up from the table, his ears flat against his head. "If you give me a chance, I can learn something else - like, I dunno, like magic? You could use magic, right?"

The man shakes his head. "I'm sorry. The next place we're going? It's pretty far and we weren't able to make enough in this town to take on more people."

"So I guess all the work we--" There's a burst of static and the scene resets a step. "So I guess all the work I did just isn't useful anymore, huh?" Taako's voice turns bitter and the man frowns.

"We just can't afford it. I'm sorry, Taako. I'm sure another caravan will come along soon enough, but tomorrow, we have to go separate ways."

The man leaves and Taako drops to the seat again, defeated, head in his hands. This is where the memory freezes, draining away to leave Thor back in the wagon. At least now the distorted images of Taako are gone, but with it so is Taako. Instead, the door at the back of the wagon is open and there's sounds of magic being flung about outside.

Some of this rings familiar to Thor, not so much in how it feels but the setting of it. He had often been on the road himself while on campaign, pitching tents and sitting around a campfire. Thor had never been alone in doing so, though. He had always been with Loki, or with Sif and the Warriors Three, or all of them. As a younger prince he rarely went out on his own on bigger journeys. In his later years that had changed. The two years he spent scoping out information on the Infinity Stones, those had been lonely, bouncing from planet to planet seeking any kind of hint.

But this... this was a lifetime of not finding your place. It's a backwards trip yet easily comprehensible. Taako trying again and again to make himself useful only to be turned away every time seems almost pointlessly cruel. Especially for those who made use of his help without telling him it was going to be for nothing in the end.

The static - Thor wonders about that. About what, or who, is being blocked out. He thinks he knows. That just makes this all the worse to witness.

When the kitchen reappears he lets out a breath he hadn't realised he'd been holding, and puts the stick back down. Only Taako's gone entirely now, something that alarms Thor until he hears the noise from outside. He makes immediately for the open door, calling the elf's name as he goes. Is he out here?

Hopefully Thor hadn't broken him somehow, a real possibility considering the weird distortion earlier.

When Thor emerges from the wagon, he's in the amphitheater he saw through the wagon's open window. Taako is, thankfully, unharmed, and simply flicking off magic spells at random in the middle of the empty space. Prestidigitation throws harmless sparks in the air, followed by a fireball that hits a chair but doesn't set it on fire. His arms move erratically in a predetermined pattern and three bolts of acid shaped like arrows appear and shoot out at a different chair, piercing the wood but again, doing no damage.

The elf looks over when he hears his name and stops his casting, spinning the wand easily in his fingers.

"Hey, wassup there, kemosabe? You come to watch Taako be awesome?"

"Uh," Thor says eloquently, glancing around the amphitheatre with some amount of suspicion. "Sure? You're looking better."

He steps down from the wagon and makes his way over, taking in the utter lack of damage being made to those chairs. Either they're especially high-grade chairs or there's less to the magic than what it appears.

And then he asks, in an effort to be more casual: "Do I need a ticket to watch?"

This is a theatre after all.

"I'm always lookin' my best, hot stuff." Taako flips his hair over his shoulder, sending sparks flowing out of the end of the braid. It seems whatever happened in the wagon hasn't affected him, handily put out of mind somehow or another. He's all smiles and gestures and natural affection - up until Thor asks about a ticket.

For a moment, Taako freezes, a flash of fear racing across his features until he tamps it down like he's squashing a cigarette under his heel.

"N-nope! No tickets required. It's not a real show, just me practicing being an awesome wizard. Nothing else."

It had been meant as a bit of a tease, so Thor's surprised to see Taako take it so badly. Thor half-raises his hands in apology before making his way to the front.

"Oh, right, of course." All the seats look the same, so Thor picks one at random and sits in it. He smiles back at Taako, no harm done, even if he's busily wondering just what is going on here. "Go ahead then!"

Go ahead - it should be easy. Taako's got his usual air of confidence back, the wand ready in his hands. He has unlimited spell slots for some reason, so it's not like having the magic at the ready is an issue. He knows his spells like the back of his hand. He's got components for days in the pouches that hang at his side. This is easy. It should be easy.

He raises his hands and starts the spell - a swirl of magic rising from his feet as he goes through the last bit of the incantation. It's easy. It's super easy. He's done this how many times before? It's a higher level spell, but not that complex.

The swirl turns dark and he points to a place on the stage, the magic flowing out of him and into a square, turning the area black. Dark tendrils of magic start to pull their way out, eldritch things like tentacles, emerging from another plane of existence. It's so simple. He's got this.

And then he catches sight of Thor watching him amid all the other empty seats. He sees the emptiness around him and the spell breaks, errant energy zipping off into the crowd. Black bolts of lightning scorch the ground, barely missing Thor as they carve a path through the empty chairs.

Taako drops his wand, horrified, and takes a step back.

Thor's not usually bothered by strikes of lightning. It would be a huge impediment for a God of Thunder to have. Only - something is clearly not right here, the inverted shade of lightning being the least of it. He jolts upright in his seat as one arc of lightning rips past just inches to his left, twisting to watch its path. Glancing back at Taako it's obvious that this wasn't intentional. He would be wearing a smirk if it was, or laughing about it.

That look he has? It's the furthest thing from okay.

"Taako?" Thor gets to his feet, uneasy once more. Does nothing in this place work as expected? He's getting the feeling that they don't. "Was that meant to happen?

"Don't!" he snaps when Thor stands and backpedals as quick as he can. The power dissipates as it finishes its arc, the tendrils melting way into smoke. Taako seems caught between wanting to run and needing to stay, his eyes darting from Thor to the wand to the wagon in a panic.

"It- It's fine. It's fine! Just-" Thor isn't hurt. He doesn't look hurt? He's fine, right? He didn't hurt him. He shouldn't have been doing this, not here, not in this place of all places. "Just-- don't."

He doesn't pick up the wand, but instead turns on his heels and heads back for the wagon, slamming the door behind him hard enough that it bounces back open.

"Wait!" Thor calls after Taako, but it's too late, he's already banging through the wagon door. Gods, maybe Thor should figure out a way to leave. He seems to be causing a lot of problems in this place.

He needs to follow him, only he glances back towards the wand first. That isn't something that should be left lying around. Still, Thor approaches it as one would a snake - or as a normal person would approach a snake, at least. He nudges the wand with his boot first. It'd be just his luck if this triggered something.

Thankfully, the wand doesn't seem to do anything when Thor nudges it with his boot. It rolls harmlessly away across the ground, not even a spark coming from it.

But at the top of the stairs leading out of the amphitheater a doorway opens, made of pure light. It swings open in the same way the wagon door does, offering an escape from this world.

Thor scoops up the wand and then pauses as he sees the door appear. That looks more like an exit than anything else does in here. It's enticing, the idea of getting out before causing more problems. Thor stares at it for a moment, then back at the wagon. Back to the door of light.

...like hell he's running off without a word.

Turning on his heel Thor walks back towards the wagon and bangs on the door. He knows it's open, but he's not barging in right now.

"Hey, Taako! Are you well in there?"

There's silence for a long time after Thor knocks, almost quiet enough that it seems like Taako isn't even there. Then, just before he turns to leave or open the door, Taako lets out a shuddering sigh from inside.

"Mmhm, just peachy. Shit went haywire, no biggie. You can uh," he pauses again here for awhile, the last syllable hanging in the air. "You can uh, leave. If that's what you want. No big. Just, uh, don't-- It's not a big deal so just forget about all this. It was a bad show. Not particularly on brand for Taako."

Thor had been about to yank open the door when Taako speaks at last, his hand hovering above the doorknob. It drifts back down to his side as he listens, a frown on his face. 'Not on brand' is an understatement but perhaps it's not as surprising as it would have been back before the ice tree. Before the failed magic spell.

He leans his shoulder against the doorframe and talks into the gap.

"Do you want me to leave?" he asks. If recent times have taught him anything, it's that failing to ask the right question will just end up further botching the conversation. Loki had asked Thor to leave hundreds of times and he only occasionally responded the right way. Right now, Thor doesn't get the impression Taako really wants him to go.

"Because I don't care about the show, really."

The answer to that is immediate, but silent. Of course he doesn't want people to leave. He never wants people to leave, but it's what he expects them to do. Everyone leaves eventually, especially when you're an elf and you're long-lived. Most people just won't live long enough to be a part of your life for any significant portion of it. And when you live a life like Taako has, the likelihood of people sticking around is even slimmer. He's used to it, sure, but that doesn't mean he likes it.

So when Thor asks if he wants him to leave, he has to bite his tongue to stop from saying anything. Even in this world where he's more honest and less guarded with his memories right on display, it's not in his nature to ask for help. There's a long pause before he shakes his head where Thor can't see it.

"I could have killed you?" He's killed people before. Errant magic is a dangerous deadly thing. Even if it wasn't his fault, it wasn't his magic that did it, those people... The people who should be in those seats right now? They were still all gone. "Why would you even want to stick around, right? The door's open, so go on through."

"You didn't though," Thor replies. Simple enough. He shrugs to himself then, and adds confidently: "Also you can't kill me with lightning, that's impossible."

Granted, Thor doesn't know what the properties of black lightning might be, but he's reasonably sure it wouldn't hurt him that much. Even if it had different properties. If recent history has proven anything it's that nothing really kills him.

Thor lets out a grunt when Taako says he can go again. He heaves a big sigh, straightening up from the wall. "Well, since you said so," he says.

...before he opens the wagon door and just barges in.

He'd explain that it wasn't "lightning" that went flying at Thor and that magic drawn like that and let loose without restraint is dangerous to anyone, even gods, but he doesn't really have it in him to do that. It's a lot of technical explanation and more information that Taako has the energy to give. It involves arcane explanations that he doubts Thor would understand or care to learn. Magic wasn't his thing, after all. He was the more smash them in the face and go type. Like Magnus.

"Yeah, see yo--" He can't finish the sentence before Thor is suddenly barging in, and Taako jumps pressing himself against the far counter of the kitchen like he's looking for an escape. His ears are pinned back against his head and he grabs the closest thing to him - a jar of beans - and lobs it without thinking right at the door. "Shit! What're you doing?!"

It's a good thing Thor has battle-reflexes born of hundreds of years of experience, because a lesser man might have gotten clocked in the face by those beans. And wouldn't that be a mortifying way to end a dream.

Instead he sets foot in the wagon, sees something hurled towards him and pivots sharply, slamming up against the door as the jar goes sailing past his nose and out into the amphitheatre. He's still looking that way when they both here the distant crash of glass breaking.

Turning back to look at Taako, Thor is offended. "What the hell was that for!"

"Shit!" He actually has the good sense to look horrified for a moment, almost letting out a quick apology. The 'S' gets past his lips and then he clams up again. Thor looks mad and isn't that a good way to get him to leave? Prove himself right?

"W-well, you shouldn't have just barged in here!" He goes for another jar and hefts it into his hand, holding it aloft and trying to look intimidating even if melee isn't exactly his forte. It probably isn't working with the way his hands are shaking and his ears are pinned back flat against his head, but it's the thought that counts....?

Oh, that's how this is going to be? Thor steps away from the door into the middle of the space, looking from the jar in Taako's trembling hands to his distressed face. There's something ludicrous about having jars winged at him as though it would do anything more than wreck the jars - and possibly his face, but he would get better.

Thor crosses his arms and stares Taako down. "Probably not, but here I am anyway," he replies, still with some annoyance. "If you actually throw that at me we're going to have words."

As though they aren't having words already.

"Like we aren't already," he snaps back automatically, echoing the thought in Thor's head. But Taako slams the jar down onto the counter and crosses his arms over his chest, trying to build a wall between him and the god through sheer force of will. It keeps himself from shaking, from remembering the errant magic that ripped through the arena, and that's the best he can hope for right now. Distraction is his only method of coping.

"So? What do you want? You had a way out." He jerks his head toward the open window and the still shining doorway out of this hellhole of his mind. "There's nothing else here."

"You are," Thor says, with all the force blunt truth can muster. "And I'm not going to leave right after you run away."

If nothing else, Thor is concerned. Taako isn't okay right now. He can bluster and throw jars all he wants but it's written all over his face.

"Uh that's the point of running away?" He sulks further, withdrawing into himself as he looks away. He tries to look out the window, but the black scars of magic are still plainly visible. He looks inside and he sees the garlic on the counter, the berries still sitting on the plate. Taako turns his face toward the opposite wall, concentrating on the pots and pans hanging there.

"It's fine. I'm fine. I just didn't want to stand around while you made that weird face all 'concerned' or whatever."

Good call on turning away, because Thor's making that very same face again. He heaves a sigh through his nose, leaning against the counter. He picks up another empty jar just to pretend to scrutinise it. Taako still hasn't outright told him to leave, so he won't just yet.

"I don't think my face is the problem," he says, musing aloud. "Since it rarely is. What happened out there, Taako?"

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