disabled and queer and fighting hard to be here ☼ haven, vae/vaer, they/them, he/him ☼ talk to me about anything! ☼ mobile tags link: hghrules.tumblr.com/tags
The halls of the Starblaster were quiet. Mid-afternoon had whisked Davenport and Magnus off the ship to go discuss plans with the civilization nearby. Taako had seen the ocean they parked next to and insisted that he needed to be “reacquainted with the waves”. Merle had somehow convinced Taako to let him tag along and if the bond engine paused for a second, the consistent hum fading away, you would be able to hear them over in the crashing waves.
Barry had just woken up from a nap. It was a good nap, too, on the couch of the common area, stretched lazily where the sun hit the cushions. But now that he was awake, the silence of the ship was kind of anxiety-inducing. So he did what he had learned all these years to do and went to find his partners.
And it didn’t take very long.
Lup’s door was cracked open ever so slightly. Barry could only hear the shifting and tiny whispers because of how quiet it was. He raised his hand, considering knocking, and then lowered it to the doorknob without doing so. It was fine. He’d be fine.
Maybe he should have knocked because the scene he walked in one- Lucretia and Lup tangled together in the sheets, pressing their mouths hungrily to each other like there was nothing else in the world that would keep them alive- was certainly meant to be private.
Lucretia jerked back the second the door opened, turning around to face him with an open mouth and swollen lips. Lup pushed upself up from where Lucretia had been over her and grinned.
“Was wonderin’ when you’d wake up, Care-Bar,” Lup said. “Me n’ Lucy were just havin’ some fun, don’t mind us.”
“Oh,” Barry said dumbly. “Well, uh, don’t let me stop ya.”
“Come ‘ere,” Lup said, reaching a hand towards him. She cast a glance at Lucretia. “If that’s okay?”
“I’d like nothing better,” Lucretia said, seemingly recovered enough to speak.
Barry shuffled into the room, closing the door properly behind him and setting himself on the bed between them. Lup’s arms immediately went around his chest, pressing a kiss to his shoulder. Barry leaned into her embrace. Lucretia- definitely recovered from her shock of being discovered- moved to sit herself between his legs and pressed a kiss to his lips.
If kissing Lup was like warming in the sun, then kissing Lucretia was like basking in the moonlight. She was careful, and calculated, and knew what he liked. A hand came up to cup his cheek and the other held his arm for stabilization. She pressed herself towards Barry. He felt Lup smile against his neck.
For a second, he leaned back, barely far enough for Lucretia’s lips to speak.
“I’m sorry,” he said gently. “Are you sure-?”
And Lucretia cut him off with another kiss, harder, fingernails sinking into his jaw just a tad. Lup pressed against him from behind, placing gentle kisses against his neck.
“She’s got an agenda today, Bar,” Lup laughed quietly into his ear. “Better just stick with the script, huh?”
i lvoe this ahhhhh!! esp lucretia’s comparison to moonlight vs lup, it’s so goodddd
[ID: A comic drawn in black lines against a white background. Barry, a middle aged, human man, is standing in front of Lup, an elven woman with curly hair and freckles. She is seated on the arm of a chair and he is standing before her, wearing a slightly singed cape and holding her hands. He looks down at her as he says, “Right, so Lup, I would kneel and all, but a couple years ago I broke my knee and my doctor said I should avoid doing strenuous activities like that. Did I ever tell you that story? I was rock climbing, or well not rock climbing like the actual sport, but there were rocks and climbing involved. I was in my back yard. I should show you the spot sometime, anyway. I would kneel, but I got a bad knee, so I’m gonna stand instead. I guess you can kneel if you want, but anyway wanna get married?” Lup smiles and nods, tears welling in her eyes. She jumps up and pulls him into a hug, yelling. “Of course! Yes, yes absolutely!” An audience of other elves applaud awkwardly. There are exclamations of “uh” and wow,” and “eh?” One particular elven woman in a shall and many jewelry says, “Oh, Congratulations.” Another elven woman with short, curly hair and big earrings asks, “How long have you two been dating?” Lup and Barry both exclaim delightedly, “Three weeks!” There are sparkles around their faces. Taako’s hands immediately fly up to his mouth to poorly muffle the sound of his pained laugher. His shoulders are shaking and there were tears starting to form in the corner of his eyes. Kravitz asks, with some concern, “Are you alright dear?” End ID]
Based off of The Worst Candlenights Ever by @kravkalackin, which was one of the first fics I read when I got into TAZ and still kills me every time, this scene in particular. Also the first panel is type because I couldn’t get all the words to fit with my handwriting. Happy Candlenights!
oh my god this is my comfort fic and seeing it illustrated is so good aksjs
“How the fuck did this go so sideways?” Lup muttered, pulling Barry and Taako into the balcony outside the ballroom. She pressed herself to the railing, looking about halfway ready to jump off at a moment’s notice. Barry stumbled after her, hands going to grip the railing, nervously looking over his shoulder and back into the ballroom.
The King had caught wind that someone had stolen the Light. Inside, he could see guards shifting through party-goers and their belongings. Taako leaned against the railing, hands shoved deep in his pockets. There was a faint glow coming from his left one- anyone with half a brain could tell he had the Light in there.
“Jump?” Lup offered. Barry peered over the side to see how far the fall would be. They were three stories up. Gods. Fuck.
“I’ve got Feather Fall, yeah,” Taako said, and the guards were coming closer to them.
“Get on with it then,” Lup said. Barry saw Taako shimmer for a second. He pulled himself up and cast them a grin- Barry felt his chest squeeze with anxiety as Taako hopped off the edge. His body jerked with the instinct to pull Taako back to safety, but he was already plummeting. Lup’s hand found his, gripping tightly as Taako’s descent slowed at the last moment. He reached the ground and waved up at them. Barry heard Lup’s sigh of relief.
“You next,” she said, nudging him, smiling. “It’s not as far as it looks. Probably.”
Barry looked up at her, heart thudding in his chest. He opened his mouth to say something- anything, because none of this had gone according to plan and he was kind of panicking.
And the balcony door opened.
There was a split second where Barry could see the panic in Lup’s eyes. And then her lips were on his.
To be honest, Barry couldn’t hear whatever the fuck the guards had started to say. There was this thing with kissing Lup. This thing where the background faded to faint static and he couldn’t focus on anything other than her. He stood for a second, body stuttering to catch up to the moment, before moving his hands to Lup’s waist. He felt Lup pull him closer, heard something the guards were saying, and-
Lup pulled back, looking over his shoulder towards the guards.
“Do you mind?” she asked. “Can a girl get any privacy around here?”
Barry grinned, listening to the guards stuttering up some excuse. He leaned his head against Lup’s shoulder, trying to hide his smile. His heart was still thundering away in his chest, but Lup spat some nonsense excuse at the guard and a little of the anxiety was replaced with giddiness.
oh my god this is one of my f avorite tropes and you pulled it off so well!! barrys so precious ;-; also i really really love the way he describes kissing lup, as it fading to static of all things. i see you >:)
The sky was dripping inky black, with just flecks of brighter colors mixed into the hue. Everything was gray. The grass, the trees, even the consistent orange sky had turned away into the darkness. There were columns of black slinking down from the sky, spreading out through the endless fields and searching tirelessly, unforgivingly.
It was hard to miss the stark red cloaks of the only two people left in this existence.
“They’re safe,” Barry said, barely even breaking his stride to talk. He slung a spell towards the nearest dark mass and sent what he hoped was a reassuring smile in Lup’s direction. “The ship’s out, they have the Light, we did it-”
“We fuckin’ did it!” Lup said and an explosion sounded from somewhere to his left. Lup’s hands were smoldering with the remains of the spell. She stomped on an oozing pile of black tar and he could hear the grin in her voice when she said, “fuck you, John! We saved this one!”
“We saved this one,” Barry repeated, quieter. His hands faltered at his side. For the first time since the battle had started, he turned towards Lup. Her face was covered with ash and blood.
She looked so beautiful.
“I’m out of spell slots,” he said, barely heard over the roar of the Hunger. Lup put an arm around him and used her other hand to send out a few more spouts of flame. A column in the distance broke apart and Lup paused, lowering her hand.
“Huh,” she said. “Me too.”
They had faced the end of the world a million times together. They might do it a million more. Lup’s hands were hot as she came to cup his face, her fingertips still lingering with smoke. He leaned into it, smiling, and she pressed a kiss to his lips gently before pulling away.
He looked into her eyes- not an ounce of fear, not one smidgen of regret. Barry was sure his looked mirrored hers.
She met his lips again, this time more raw and passionate. There was a dozen lifetimes’ worth of comfort on her lips and she tasted like centuries worth of resistance. Barry pulled her closer, unable to let go, terribly sure that he’d be near tears if Lup leaned away. Her hands were all over him- his hair, cupping his face, moving down to tug at his shirt and press herself into him closer, impossibly closer-
The chaos around them faded. Barry felt Lup turn to air in his arms and he panicked- if only for a second- before feeling himself get pulled apart into dozens of different strings and threads and memories and bonds.
They reformed on the Starblaster, fresh as the day they left, and he couldn’t help the grin that crossed his face.
They were getting close. So, so close.
i. i love them oh my god.
“ Barry felt Lup turn to air in his arms and he panicked- if only for a second- before feeling himself get pulled apart into dozens of different strings and threads and memories and bonds. “ uh, HI???? IM LOSING MY SHIT OVER THIS??? THIS IS SO GOOD.
congratulations to my 500 followers giveaway winner @terezis, who asked for “alien taako accidentally kidnaps kravitz”
and thanks to everyone who participated!!!
“Where the hell are you going at this hour?” Kravitz’s roommate Sloane asks, looking up from the egregious snuggling she’s got going on with her girlfriend. On Kravitz’s couch, no less.
“Didn’t you see that light? I have to go investigate! It could be- It could be any number of things! A meteor, a spatial anomaly, maybe even a-”
“Helicopter?” Sloane’s voice is dryer than the toast he had for dinner. Kravitz doesn’t let it dampen his mood.
“It could be something truly mysterious, and I can’t abide letting well enough alone.”
“You never can,” she sighs. “Well, be safe out there. Don’t forget your keys.”
“Mhm,” Kravitz says, jamming his feet into mismatched shoes. “Don’t wait up for me.”
“Super won’t, so don’t die or get kidnapped or whatever.”
“I’ll be perfectly fine!”
And Kravitz, who has no sense of predilection or self-preservation, thunders down the stairs and out into the streets with his fifty dollar flashlight and a passionately misplaced sense of adventure.
He startles a few street cats, coos at a racoon, trips over trash, and just past the apartment complex, he spots it again. That powerful blue glow. It’s in the wrong direction for some kind of event or party–it’s closer to the farms at the edge of town than it is anything that ought to be blue in the middle of the night. And then, as Kravitz gets closer, he hears a hum, a soft, thrumming, nearly musical hum, and he sees it, he fucking sees it-
A spaceship.
He cackles in unbridled validated glee and then slaps his hands over his mouth, dropping his fancy flashlight with all the lumens money can buy, reflecting on its way to the ground in three pairs of glowing gold eyes and a mouthful of sharp, sharp teeth.
Something like a cross between static electricity and cement-hard water from doing a belly flop hits him, and he doesn’t see it anymore.
He wakes up in a space so white that it’s blue, searing his eyes with the brightness. His whole body is sore, but in a heavy way that almost feels nice. He blinks slowly, his eyelids sticking like windshield wipers on an old car during the first snow of the season, and something–someone? humanoid appears in his hazy vision. They have four arms and a long, golden brown tail, gilded with a smattering of freckles that reflect in the light like the bottom of a river untouched for centuries, and then, those six frightening, beautiful eyes, staring right into Kravitz’s soul, blinking asymmetrically, and twice. A nictitating membrane. Bafflingly cool. Kravitz tries to sit up and his head protests dramatically, and the figure swears–in English.
“Fuck, fuck, fuck, what am I going to- how am I going to explain this- shit, shit, shit- Don’t do that, lay down, stupid adorable creature…” Two of those four hands gently press on his chest and he lays back down, mouth hanging open.
“Who are you?” he asks, even though he could have opened with any number of questions, perhaps namely what do you want with me?
“Oh, fuck, is my translator working? That’s a bonus. Oh, ancient skies, what a fucking mess…I can’t believe I- I’m going to be in so much trouble-”
“Because I saw you?”
“Well- yes, and also because I stunned you, and brought you aboard, which, believe it or not, has exacerbated- that’s a weird word, why is your language like this?–It’s made shit so much worse, because I’m dumb as hell and twice as fired. If not executed.”
“Can I look around?”
“Babe, your listening comprehension isn’t great, is it? I’m gonna be in so much trouble for you even catching a glimpse of this- motherfucker, I should have stuck to cows, cows are classic, can’t go wrong with cows-” The alien, because, that’s- this person has to be an alien, there’s no other way, the set is too expensive and complete, the technology glittering at the edge of his vision is too complex, the makeup team would have to be intense?? The alien wrings two of their hands, and then the other two, fidgeting nervously. They pick grass off of Kravitz in a way that’s almost affectionate, and Kravitz has a hard time compiling all the facts, here.
“What’s your name?”
“Taako,” Taako says, absolutely miserable. “But you shouldn’t know that. I should put you back–or kill you–but I don’t know if I can, I mean, look at you! Four little limbs and two little eyes! And you’re so curious and…cute.”
“You’re not so bad yourself.” Kravitz can’t help it. He’s always wanted to kiss an alien, and, presented with the road to that opportunity, he finds himself taking it with no hesitation. “What can I do to get you to not kill me today?”
“I could wipe your memory, I guess…”
“Not ideal.”
“Not ideal, no, it does sort of tangle all your business up there a little.” Taako frowns, which is a very strange thing to see a person with six eyes do. His lips are purple and they look…incredibly kissable, even drawn up in a frustrated little bow. Kravitz had probably better focused on not getting lobotomized, but he’s as gay as he is a nerd, so he always would have been fucked in a situation like this.
“Maybe, uh, maybe,” he says, casting about for a solution, any solution. “Um, what, why are you here? What’s going on with the, the cows?“
“Well, we’re studying your planet, obviously?” Taako walks away from Kravitz, pacing anxiously, and Kravitz takes the chance to sit up. It makes his mouth go dry and his head even more cottony, but he blinks blearily at Taako and smiles a little. “We’re trying to learn how things work, how your society works, you know, see if you guys can handle the real shit, see if- You’ve got these incredible bonds, and I mean, my home sort of has those, but it’s not the same, and- it would be real powerful if we could bring that kind of thing home.”
“Guess you’re not finding those bonds in cows, huh?” Kravitz has his out, and it’s a good one. He can’t stop grinning. He hopes Taako doesn’t think it’s a threat display. “Well, if I promise not to tell anyone about you, and you promise not to tell anyone about me, I could tell you some hot Earth facts, anything you want to know?"
Taako bites his lip, folding both pairs of arms and pausing his pacing, and he looks at Kravitz, incredibly tempted.
"Anything?"
"Anything. And if I don’t know it, I’ll look it up.” Kravitz holds up his phone, and the reflection of it glints in Taako’s huge, hungry eyes. He grabs it and turns it on.
“Oh this is good, this is very, very good. But-"
"But you wanted to know about bonds, right?"
"Right. And I promise I’m not trying to pry, but you keep thinking about kissing? And I want to know what that is."
Kravitz swallow hard, knocked on his ass twofold. Taako can read his thoughts? Taako wants to kiss him???
"I can show you how, if you want,” Kravitz says, embarrassed but also thrilled beyond all recognition. “Unless you think you’re, you know, poisonous to me, or something-”
“It’s probably fine?”
“It’s probably fine!!"
Taako walks over to him, tail flicking anxiously behind him. He’s beautiful. Kravitz has finally met an alien, and he’s beautiful.
"We just- with our mouths?"
"Exactly, just. Do what feels right."
"Okay, I can, I can do that. And nobody is going to know, nobody will find out, it’s fine-"
Kravitz kisses him and Taako kisses back, sloppy and awkward and wonderful and Kravitz grabs the lapels of his uniform and pulls him closer and Taako makes a happy little trill and all six of his eyes flutter closed.
They pull back to breathe, Taako panting a little, and he looks at Kravitz and nods.
"I’m not going to kill you. Or. Scramble you, or whatever."
"Nice,” Kravitz says, grinning like an absolute idiot. “Can I tell you all the cool things I know about Earth?"
"Maybe one more kiss. Or five. Can I have ten? Ten seems like a good number. Fuck, this is way better than cows!”
the trouble is humans are literally structured to find “a wizard did it” a more plausible explanation than things just happening by accident for no reason.
In a similar theme, a friend had a scene with the PCs trapped in a room with no doors or windows. There’s a countdown running, and a lever in the middle of the room. If you pull the lever, the countdown resets. If you let the countdown reach zero…. a door appears.
[image text: Puzzle idea: The players see a door; written on it is the following riddle: “What has 4 letters, sometimes has 9, but never has 5?” This riddle is not in fact a riddle (what = 4 letters, sometimes = 9 letters, never = 5 letters). It is only there to distract the PCs from a keyhole revealed upon inspection of the door handle, which is opened with a key the PCs previously acquired.]
the trouble is humans are literally structured to find “a wizard did it” a more plausible explanation than things just happening by accident for no reason.
