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CODE   🔋 12:01 AM

TAAKO

USERNAME
@fromTV

OCCUPTION
Pâtissier

MESSAGE
"You've got Taako. I'm too busy to take your call right now, leave a message."

TEXT

CALL

VIDEO

	Friendr
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	» Age: old enough to know better » Seeking: 💲💲💲 » Preferences: none of your business » Interests: cash money » Bio: greatest chef in Faerûn, greatest transmutation wizard, follow me on insta @fromTV for the real shit
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	Taako
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Comments

[pundemic]

[Give her a minute while she undoes six locks and a few tripwires. There's some banging from inside her apartment and then she opens the door slightly out of breath and blowing her hair out of her face.

She is definitely holding a gun out of view of the hallway but once she sees it's him and only him she relaxes and gestures him inside.]

Hey. Sorry. Home security's a bitch.

[Her apartment is sort of teenager-messy, as in the opposite of neat, but it isn't dirty. And of course it smells entirely of gingersnaps, which are sitting out still warm on the counter.]

[spellslots]

[It is a testament to his love of gingersnap cookies (or maybe just his fondness for Ellie) that Taako is patient through the de-securitying of the door, although when it opens he does give her a dramatic huff.

When he steps inside, he gives the place a quick glance around, but he rolled a fucking 3 on his perception check so he's not about to discover any great secrets.]

Aren't you a little young to be so paranoid?

[He was paranoid at a younger age, but he likes to hope his shitty experiences aren't universal.]

[pundemic]

[She laughs. It sounds genuine, sure, but it feels fucking bleak.]

Yeah, about rats. Have you seen the size of those suckers here? They're like horses.

[It's a deflection. That's her superpower, she deflects. Ellie is really good at sidestepping around her issues, making it seem like they don't exist, like it's just something you'd see in a carnival mirror, twisted out of proportion beyond all human recognition.]

[spellslots]

[Welcome to the club, kid. Taako's got a degree in deflecting shit, but he's also selfish enough not to call her on it, in case that leads to some kind of conversation about emotions. Gross.]

I bet it wouldn't hurt to learn some of that shit, gotta keep those rats outta my stuff without burning spell slots.

[pundemic]

[Yeah nobody needs those. Ever.]

This like your elephant thing again? Only a certain amount of magic a day? What's the point in being a wizard if you can't just blast shit all the time?

[She is so tactful. But she is tactful with a plate of cookies. Tactical gingersnaps. She pushes the plate across the counter for Taako to take one. They're decent enough. A bit crisp around the corners, but the flavour is about what a gingersnap should be. She hasn't cooked much in her life that wasn't just 'throw this into a pot and hope for the best' but she's so paranoid about waste she followed the instructions with an almost militant precision.]

[spellslots]

I mean, it's an energy thing, if I asked you to do laps around this building there's no way you're gonna do it indefinitely.

[As much as it seems like he just pulls magic out of his ass, there is some effort and concentration required.

But more importantly, cookies! Taako plucks one off the plate and regards it with a discerning eye, before taking a delicate little bite. He's pulling a full like "Masterchef judge" right now, because he is nothing if not a drama queen.

After a moment:]

Not bad, not bad. Should've got 'em out of the oven maybe five minutes sooner, but the flavors are all there. Ya did good.

[Not that he thinks she needs his approval, but you know.]

[pundemic]

[That actually makes a surprising amount of sense, so she accepts it with a nod. And also takes a cookie for herself. She watches him while he Critiques the taste and actually just rolls her eyes when he delivers his review.]

I didn't bring them over here so you could talk shit about my cooking, you know. [She knows that's such a mild criticism she doesn't actually care, she's just teasing him with Due Sarcasm.] I just wanted to say thank you. That elephant thing was really cool. And you could have been an ass about it, but you weren't. So... thanks.

smol text, smol baby bird

[spellslots]

You'll never get better if no one tells you what you did wrong.

[The tone is just as teasing as Ellie's sarcasm, though that is actually the reason he gave the critique, he wasn't just doing it to be a dick.

As evidence by the fact he takes another cookie as soon as the first one is finished.]

And I'm an ass about a lot of things, don't get me wrong, but cool magic shit is not one of them.

can he turn into birds tho

[pundemic]

[She puffs out an exasperated sigh. Truly, the soul of all teenagers lives in Ellie.]

Fine. Five minutes less. I'll mark it on my calendar, geeze.

[She nibbles at her cookie. They are a little dry, maybe some milk would help. Not that she'll assume he has any, or even ask. She's not used to that kind of plenty yet.]

Well, you know. Magic. Serious business.

yup!

[spellslots]

[He gives her a thumbs up as if taking the comment at total face value, because he's a little shit like that.]

Especially my magic, I'm a very talented wizard, after all.

[He's so full of it, but he won't make her listen to him rattle on about himself:]

So how come you got a place all to yourself and I'm stuck with a bunch of fucking clowns?

[He doesn't actually know his new roommates that well, he's just complaining for the sake of it.]

[pundemic]

Oh, it's not...

[She frowns, and breaks apart her cookie in her hands before tossing the crumbs back like some sort of gingersnap shot.]

-- I think it's more that I just don't have any roommates yet. There's spaces for them, it's just. Empty.

[She tries not to think that means there's something wrong with her, honestly. Maybe they know she's infected. She still has no idea if she's contagious or not. If she could transfer it by biting someone or bleeding on them.]

[spellslots]

Count yourself lucky, we got a couple empty beds but there's still way too many fucking people packed into those rooms.

[He doesn't actually mind that much, he's lived in dorms and crowded places before. He just likes to complain.]

[pundemic]

So... move out? Like, does somebody come in every night and chain you to the bed? Go find somewhere else, dude.

[This is obviously the Simplest Matter in all the known land, like. Why is it an issue. Is this an elf thing.]

[spellslots]

[I mean, he might be into that. But that's not the point Ellie is getting to.]

I've done the whole 'broke as shit and starving' thing, bubbale, I'm not doing it again. [He shrugs lazily, as if this is just, a thing.] But you know, once I get a job or whatever.

[pundemic]

[Gross, don't tell her that, dude.]

Okay, this has been bothering me literally forever. [not literally, Ellie, that's not what that word means.] - but what the fuck's a bubbale?

[spellslots]

Oh, it's like-- [Wait shit he doesn't actually know.] My aunt used to call me it, when I was little.

[It's just something he picked up, a term of endearment the same way he says "pumpkin" or "kiddo", but the meaning is lost.]

[pundemic]

[She doesn't exactly protest, but.]

I'm fifteen, you know.

[Just old enough that she doesn't really protest being called little anymore on defiant principle, but. You know. Still too old to be called it in the first place.]

[spellslots]

For sure, for sure, but my aunt probably would've kept calling me that once I got older.

[Would've, but she's dead and he didn't even remember how.]

[pundemic]

[She knows what the past-tense means. She's heard it too many times, about too many things. She sort of fidgets with the plate of cookies and then decides to get a glass of water.]

What about your parents?

[spellslots]

You after the tragic backstory, huh?

[It comes out like a joke because it is, because that's the best way to deal with stuff like this, rather than get caught up in it.]

They're dead. Shit happens.

[For most of his life, all he remembered was being alone, never quite sure what happened to his family. Now he knows, it was the war, but that doesn't make it easier.]

[pundemic]

[It's not really a 'tragic' backstory where she's from. It's just... a backstory. Everybody's story. Dead parents, dead kids, dead siblings and friends. No one she's ever met has made it through unscathed. It's why she never brings up Riley. What's the point? People get it without having to be told, and no one has any sympathy to spare.

But not every world is like that. She takes a breath.]

Sorry-- about them. And for asking, that's, you know. It's none of my business.

[Clark likes to talk about his mom and she'd thought maybe... maybe Taako had that too, and she could sort of... live vicariously through them both.]

[spellslots]

[He waves away the apology with a mouthful of cookie, speaking once he's finished.]

Don't sweat it, I woulda just lied if I didn't wanna tell you.

[This seems perfectly logical to him.]

Anyway, taught me an important fucking lesson. The only person you can rely on is yourself.

[The next time he trusted someone they killed forty people and ruined his life so, fuck that.]

[pundemic]

[oh no her mother hen senses are tingling. taako is this really how u want this to go down? having a tiny, fifteen year old baby you into next week?

Ellie chews on her bottom lip, and pours herself that glass.]

Lonely way to live, if you ask me.

[spellslots]

[It sounds like something Magnus would say, and his expression almost softens for a second before he shrugs again.]

It's just the truth unless you wanna end up dead in a ditch somewhere.

[pundemic]

[Gently,]

It's not the whole truth. At least... I don't think it is. Not everybody you ever meet is going to let you down.