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[He just shrugs.]

I guess. Here, fine, fine...

[He'll take a spoon that hasn't been in his mouth and start putting some portions out on a nearby cookie sheet.]

You feelin' any better then, kid? This work? Because gotta tell you, this method of turning off the internet and eating instead has solved like, nearly every problem I've ever had.

Mmnnh...well, I can't turn it off, but...

[Butttttttt as she helps portion out some cookies, she manages a smile.]

But yeah. I think so.

...thanks Taako.

Oh, right, we gotta get you a tinfoil hat or somethin', uhhh. Put a lil' note on that one.

[That's a problem for Future People who also might be Taako but who knows. In the meantime, he's just gonna ruffle her hair.]

Good. Fuck those guys harshin' ya mood, eat a cookie, take a nap, 'ss all good.

[There is a thoughtful chew of cookie dough.]

....I should probably try napping....

[She should too, she didn't even grouch about that hair ruffle!]

Yeah, yeah, go on kiddo, eat your cookies and then we'll get ya set up on the couch.

[They're gonna be okay. It's all good, at least for now, when there's cookies and couches and maybe some tinfoil hats.]

[Mute nodding is the answer- cookies and naps it is. Goodnight internet drama, it's time for the couch.]

[Look, it isn't at all unusual that the moment the winter weather dissipates under stormy spring showers that Taako and Lup both take off to do their own thing, after months of being holed up together under one roof. So it's completely normal that Lup's been off more often than not, catching up with friends and restocking supplies and overall enjoying the fact the snow has finally melted.

But it's maybe after she's been preoccupied for the last week or so that she finds her brother somewhere lazing around the farmhouse and flops indelicately across his back.]

Hey, how's tricks?

[As much as Taako got mildly used to doing whatever while Lup was gone, he'd much prefer to hang out with her to doing... most anything else, really. So of course when Lup is around and he's around he's just gonna chill with her, especially when the penninsula has just gotten over it's latest round of bullshit. So she flops over and he doesn't even flinch, just rolls a little to the side to plop a hand on her head.]

Tricky and cool, as always. Wwwwwwhatcha need from chaboy?

Uh -

[She gives a tug on his ear in return.]

That's rude. Assuming I need something. Why can't I just come tackle my little brother to the ground and stick my fingers in his ears just for fun?

[But of course he can tell. He's always been able to.]

Okay, so maybe there was something...

[In a black envelope, with scratchy handwriting in white out pen is a note: FOR TAAKO'S EYES ONLY.

When it is opened, there will be an invitation to a surprise birthday party for Ingo on May 22nd, with the location to the train house in it at 9PM. There is also a note about being able to bring friends if you want, contact Emmet if it will be more than 2 people!]

[Also, 'SURPRISE PARTY' is underlined a few times, and a drawing of a Litwick is in the corner.]

Because you always need something.

[He blows a raspberry in her direction, but lets her continue to mess with him.]

Is this about your new girlfriend, because like, I see your dumb ass on the network. It's gross as fuck like you always are.

Ugh!

[Just to add to the drama of it all, she rolls off of his back, flopping to the ground with an exaggerated groan.]

You're so annoying. You know, just because you can make up shit, doesn't mean you should. The only thing gross is your blatant misogyny.

[But even from the ground, Lup reaches up to tug idly at the sleeve of his shirt, needing that touch, that constant connection. Nothing soothes her nerves quite like being near her twin does.

And maybe the next part comes out just a touch quieter for Lup:] We are, by the way. Girlfriends.

[He laughs, as loudly and fully as he wants, rolling over to follow her direction and flopping sideways over her stomach to make a big snake 'x'.]

Haha, gay.

[At least she'll never expect him to use his words properly. What is he, a person? His tone does shift a bit softer though, a little more tender just for her.]

Do you like her though? Cuz it sounds like this is more than a fling we'd goss about at brunch.

Duh doy.

[The tenderness is what Lup needs, the sweetness reserved only for her, that has Lup's fingers tangling gently into his hair and twisting curls into it.]

I'm not you, I don't have a different bee-eff for every day of the week. [But uncharacteristically for Lup, the words have no bite. She's too soft and gooey to be teasing too hard right now.] I really like her. And it's, like, really good. That's alright, isn't it?

Why wouldn't it be?

[He doesn't quite look at her, not the full sort of eye-contact stare people might when they're serious, but that's not them. Instead his head just sort of points her direction, looks at the whole of her instead of a specific piece.]

'Ss about what you like, babe. I mean, as long as she's not lame but if you went lamer than Barold for this dip I'm gonna have questions about where you're, uhhh, finding these weirdos.

[A pause, to let the bullshit settle, and then--]

What did it, this time? Like, what's... what's the thing, for her. Y'know.

Like Skeletor isn't just as fucking weird, c'mon.

[She worked with the guy, Taako, you can't hide that shitty accent from her.

But naturally, he asks and Lup answers freely. She doesn't need to be careful or thoughtful with her words with him, she can just talk and he'll understand everything she's left unsaid. Taako always does.]

I caught her on a bad day. [Understatement of the century, but Lup doesn't need to say that. They've experienced Ryslig long enough to know what that means.] She was trapped in this hallucination and just - She needed someone and I was there. And after we talked. A lot. She told me about her sister and their background and we talked for hours about how magic in her world worked - it was just really nice, Taako.

At least he's hot.

[But y'know, he doesn't give further horseshit on that front... for now. Instead, he listens, rolls his thoughts in his head in a much more charitable way than he'd give anyone else.]

Jeez, that sounds like it'd be fuckin' catnip to you. No wonder.

[She still knows how to be vulnerable with people. He purposefully hasn't.]

Lemme guess, she looks like a drowned rat but crazy and you're just aaaaall over that biz.

[Hey, given everything that Taako had to navigate the memories of an entire life without Lup, she could never blame him for that lack of vulnerability with others. Even with all that Lup did go through, she went through it with the memories of her brother and their friends still intact. Being made to forget all of that, to suddenly be subject to the awfulness of the world without any of the comforts of family, she can't even begin to imagine how deeply traumatizing that would be.

She sees flashes of it with Taako, more than he'd ever let on with anyone, but even she knows that so much of it he keeps hidden from even her.

Without warning, her touch goes gentle against Taako's cheek, before she's twisting up to press a kiss there, just because.]

You're such an ass. [...] But yeah, like a fucking hot drowned rat.

[It's a practice of unlearning and learning in small ways, and sometimes the weight of it is just too much. The decisions he made, the cruelty he gave, so much of it feels wrong and like he'll never be right. For all the bullshit they give about elf years, 10 is a long time for anyone when you're living it. 10 is a lifetime ago.

But he smiles at her touch, laughs just enough to shake his shoulders.]

Gods you're predictable. But fine. I'll meet her and judge her maybe not as harshly as everyone else. For you.

[For what it's worth, Lup sees the steps he's made, is proud of every single connection he allows himself in this place. He may never be as gregarious and trusting as Lup, but he isn't the same elf who first showed at the Bureau all these years ago either.

Taako doesn't even need to see Lup's face to know she's beaming up at him.]

You're the best. [said without any of the tease or sarcasm that she'd normally speak those words under] I don't know how I'd do any of this without you.

[It's so much easier to be gentle when it's just the two of them, no prying eyes or annoying ears, and she lets herself relax. It makes his shoulders loosen, his smile edge up, a sigh escape his lips that feels real instead of exhausted.]

Babe I know it.

[And then a little laugh, actually playful, actually at himself.]

You know it was bad when you weren't here. I don't give a shit if we're stuck in Foggie's bullshit coaster, 'ss long as it's us. If you're there... it's fine. Y'know?

[his little laugh draws a snort out of her, Lup's fingers tangling in his hair from where she's flopped all over the floor.]

Hey, you don't have to remind me. Don't forget whose ass dropped into this place first. You kept me waiting for a long ass time, 'Ko. [Idly, her fingers leave messy braids in his hair.] It got so much better the second you arrived.

[The disturbance in the night sky had already been terrifying and foreboding. An ill omen. A portent of things to come. It's been reminding her of the awful blue death, the eternal hunter, the Beast. Number Seven. It's been incredibly distracting, worrying about horrors from above. She is not prepared for earthly tragedy.

And yet.

Veritas Morgue & Mortuary receives a call. Some harried public official. Requesting a corpse removal. Normal. It is specified to be a monster corpse, which is stranger, especially when there is no current emergency situation. Still, within routine. Larger transport recommended due to species, specified as "snake," and there's the fur spiking up along the back of her neck.

Ill omen.

She cuts him off, asks for scale colors. Red, orange, sorta yellow-green, he thinks. There it is. The drop.

Inhale, speak, clipped and factual. Yes, it will be handled. Yes, today. More sharply: do not touch, move, or otherwise disturb the body or scene. Yes, she is aware it is inconvenient. No, not even to the sidewalk. Rope it off and leave it. She is on the way. His continued argument draws a lower tone from her, a snarl at the edges of her voice, as she informs him that if he or anyone else tampers with anything, she will be coming for his family first, so he had better treat guarding this body as his new life's purpose for the next twenty minutes - before she slams the phone back into its cradle.

This is not the manner in which Veritas morgue staff are meant to be speaking to humans. Ianthe knows better than to be this reactive. There may be a complaint. All of this remains idly in mind, useless like so much of her knowledge is now. Other facts: she needs a camera, a gurney, a transport van. Her notebook. Her laptop.

When she arrives, coiled stiffly in the passenger seat while their most discrete intern drives, it's to a very strange scene. There is blood everywhere. Signs of a struggle. But the body itself - the body is beautiful. As she always was. Clean, peaceful. When she leans to inspect more closely, she can smell it, whiskers twitching - the familiar work-scent of embalming fluid, the chemical fixatives they use to halt decay without the aid of necromancy. It was like that when I got here, insists the deeply-terrified man. Ianthe dismisses him. This is not the work of an average citizen. Whose work remains to be seen. Her mind is already racing along on that track, even as she stands stiff and still, moving only to allow the intern to take better pictures. She'll have to learn this one's name. They're being remarkably polite.

God, she has so much to do now.

While they finish, she sits in the back of the transport van and settles the laptop down. Taps out a message to the first person who ought to know, who must already feel it, surely--]

taako. this is ianthe.

lup was found dead this morning. my workplace was called to collect the body.

[She includes the address, and a photo of the shopfronts without the corpse itself in frame. There is, unfortunately, some blood spatter. There's only so much she can do.]

she will be in the care of veritas morgue & mortuary.

i can offer storage until we are closer to the fog, if you do not prefer immediate delivery to your home.

Yeah, yeah, blame Foggie on that one. She ordered a bad ripoff Taako. Had to go back for the real deal, and lemme tell you, getting me is a real feat. Took some time with my agent n' all that.

[He jokes, they both do, but those times are behind them if he has anything to say about it. He's here. She's here. That's all they need.]

Alright, lemme know when you want me to meet your new nerd. Better be fun in case she sucks though.

[The text seems entirely, completely unreal. It wasn't real, it can't be. For all the horrible things that have happened to them in this place, how they can track happenings like clockwork now, this is so far out of left field it might as well be in the parking lot. He has a thousand questions and none of them are the following text.]

shut the fuck up

[Cool okay. She'll get another text in about 30 seconds to a minute.]

where are you
did you move her
where did you find her

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ties this off like awwww

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Dropped off at the Farmblaster's with Lup's

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morning of aug. 6th.

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WELCOME TO YOUR PRIVATE CHANNEL, TAAKO. FOR SECURE COMMUNICATION, USE 420.87.169.02 * coolertwin has joined 420.87.169.02 <coolertwin> wait <coolertwin> waaaaait <coolertwin> waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaait <coolertwin>** made ya look lol