[His gaze slides towards where their shoulders touch, letting his hand drop from his face. Despite everything, he still doesn't always know how to act when someone's treating him gently, being kind when they don't need to be even when it's his family. But Taako closes his eyes for a second, shrugs with a little snort of a sigh.]

Is it really better if they turn up? I mean look, Magnus would probably turn half dog like immediately and be jazzed as hell, and seeing as plant people are walking around I feel like we got Merle pegged as hell. But like...

[He's idly sort of trying to pick at the scales on his legs, claws not always able to find individual scale but occasionally hooking under before he gives up. It hurts when he pulls, and he knows it's pointless.]

The shit we do to survive, y'know? And here I was dumb enough to think it was over.