#taznc

which means!!! however!! that it is time for the TAZ November Celebration to ride again! but i don't know about you, but things have been crazy for me. so we're going to keep it easy breezy this month while having some fun, and we're gonna enjoy the B.I.T.S.

BOOST, INDULGE, TREASURE, SURVIVE here's the drill! you will have a BITS board! copy this one. then, every day, or alternately set time you spend fully focused, and then have a break before doing something else, you can give yourself a pin in the section you were working towards!

Boost: support another creator by commenting, making a recommendation post about, or doing something else to show another person some love for their excellent work! Indulge: indulge in creativity with something you really, really enjoy. don't worry about a thing, just lose yourself in the joy that got you into fandom creation in the first place. maybe go back to a very favorite trope, or a contrived but delicious au, make a gift for someone you love to pieces, or only do the parts you like, but enjoy it!

Treasure: Spend time appreciating a work you already love. reread a fic that delights you, or reblog all of the art you can find of your favorite character, or something else that makes you feel like a dragon sitting on a pile of favorites. you can even just go back to your favorite episodes of the podcast! Survive: sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do. this time there are points for that! Every November i've done for this, something insane has happened, and it's always hard to take time to take care of yourself and not do the fun thing. but no more! if you take an evening to do nothing but eat cheese balls in your bathrobe (or something less fun and more vital to your continuing to live good) because that's where you're at mentally or otherwise, give yourself a pin for surviving! FAQ: q: How many pins can I get? a: As many as you like/can fit/care to! q: What do I use for "pins"? a: any transparent image will work, or you can use something like the editing markup on your phone and add emojis, or draw something... if you need some pngs, check out @treasuregamble! q: how will you know to reblog our posts? a: tag this blog please! @taznovembercelebration q: why this and not just rewards for making things every day of november? a: because it's time to spread the love without terrorizing ourselves in the name of competition! q: do we have to get all the BITS or can i focus all on one area? a: try to get at least one set of BITS if you're going to participate, but it's fully up to you. i'm not your dad! q: can i really have more than one pin in a day? a: yes, but you have to take a proper break between switching gears. If you spend 8 hours in a fugue state writing a fic where a mermaid and a marine biologist go on a roadtrip to defeat a king and sleep in the same bed on the way, it only counts for one pin if you don't take a real break. cause i do care about your well being.

more questions? ask here

Noodyl is a friend of mine 🎶but also an incredible writer! Here are a few fics of theirs you should go check out!

Best Served Cold

Istus's ice cream shop has some new shitty frozen yogurt competition from some new shitty frozen souls, but Edward and Lydia get what's coming to them! Absolutely sweet.

Disco Fish Kravitz has a surprise gift, mostly. Taako will have opinions. I laughed so hard I almost barfed.

Astrology for Horse Jugglers

Taako and Kravitz entertain themselves at a party with bullshit, lies, and confidence. I think about this one twice a week.

Praise: funny, joyful, passionate, made with love. Enthusiastic and indulgent to the core. Noodyl knows what's up. Go check out these or many more of Noodyl's incredible works on ao3, or follow Noodyl @noodyl-blasstal on tumblr to get all the fresh hot flavors!

(And not that I did it for points, I'll brag about you any day, but with that I have two BITS! @taznovembercelebration! I hope lots of people join in the party!)

After the swarm of managers and PR experts and hair-and-makeup people that has surrounded Lup for the past hour finally dissipates, Taako pulls up a chair next to her and reaches for her hand.

She takes a break from eyeballing herself in the mirror to give her brother a small, nervous smile. “I’m kinda scared, T,” she tells him, as though he hadn’t figured that out an hour ago.

“You got it,” he assures her. “It’s just a little chat. Fifteen minutes, tops. You’re a great talker and already know what you’re gonna say. Worst that’ll happen, you stumble over your words a little. So what, who gives a damn? You got it.”

Lup doesn’t say anything in response, just squeezes her brother’s hand.

They held hands when they were scared. They always had, ever since they were small. It was always easier to face frustrated directors or daunting public appearances together. It had always seemed to them that no one else understood how overwhelming this line of work could be for a couple of small children.

Days like today, the bright lights and the mic tests and the frenzy of various professionals fussing over hair, makeup, clothes, tone of voice, enunciation… none of it was new to Lup, to either of them. But they hadn’t done a talk show appearance in a long while— not since before Lup’s transition, more specifically. And she’d never done one without Taako.

She’ll be asked some big questions, they know. And it’s fine. She’s prepared with big answers. From the moment she came out, the PR people have been drafting plans to make her transition into some feel-good interest piece for the public to coo about. Taako thinks it’s too big of a burden for a teenager to bear. Be a role model, never say anything negative without some positive takeaway to balance it out. It’s too much responsibility for a kid, he thinks. Why can’t they just let her be a kid?

Taako, for his part, has no interest in being an inspiration to others. If this many people were following him around lecturing him on how to present his orientation in a way that the public finds palatable, he would hurl, or explode, or hit someone, or all three. Lup is infinitely more patient than he.

His stream of consciousness is interrupted when some backstage crew member pokes her head into the room. “Lup? We’re just about ready for you, dear.”

She nods and slides out of her chair. Noticing the pallor in her face, he stands and hugs her gently around her shoulders, careful not to screw up her perfectly pressed outfit. “You got it,” he repeats. “I’m gonna go out there and watch on the monitors, so I’ll be right there. But you’re gonna kill it”

“’Kay. I’m gonna kill it. Thanks, ‘Ko.” She gets on her tiptoes and presses a gentle peck to the top of his head, getting sticky lip gloss in his hair.

“Yuck. That’s enough.” He shrugs away from her. “Gross.”

She smiles. “See ya soon,” she promises, and jogs after the crew member.

As he watches her hurry off, Taako thinks to himself that Lup might just be the strongest person he knows.

---

Lucretia rushes after Taako as he storms off the sound stage. “The fuck was that?”

“I dunno, what the fuck was it?” he retaliates, without turning around to face his manager. “Because to me, it sounded like a whole lotta real personal fuckin’ questions that I ain’t gonna answer.”

“Perhaps it was, and I had made it perfectly clear beforehand that such questions must not be asked, and I will be having more than a few words with the show about it.” She’s trying her best to keep up with Taako, but she can’t quite match his long-legged stride, and he can hear her breathlessness when she speaks. “But honestly, Taako, what can you expect when you can’t even be bothered to show up for the pre-interview?”

Fury, already bubbling dangerously close to Taako’s surface, starts to flood his conscious thought. “’Kay, that’s fine. Blame it all on Taako. Hear that, world? It’s all Taako’s fault.” Through whatever sliver of rationality remains in his mind, Taako’s aware he sounds like a madman. But in the moment, all he sees is white-hot rage, too blinding for him to care how embarrassed he might feel in an hour or so.

Then Lup steps into his path, and he’s forced to slow his roll before he collides into her. He makes a frustrated “Graaah!” as he tries to maneuver around her, but she grabs his arm.

“What has gotten into you?” She’s making those awful sad eyes at him again. Lately, it feels like that’s the only way she looks at him anymore.

He can’t fucking stand it. Her… pity. It makes him squirm. “Nothing. God. Move, lemme go.”

“I won’t! Please, don’t do this, Koko. Don’t stomp off. Talk to me, let me help you. I miss you.”

It feels like it happens in slow motion, him pushing her away. Really, it’s like his mind and body are separate entities. He should stay, he knows. He should talk to his sister. She’s the only one who has always had his back. It’s not her fault he grew into the person he did, not her fault they’ve never known a moment of privacy. The media vultures, they’ve torn into her, too.

But the rage, the rage overwrites all else. And the way she looks at him like she doesn’t know him anymore, the childish nickname, the fact that somehow she turned out so much better than he did, the implication that he needs help, that there’s something wrong with him, as if he didn’t already fucking know that… it infuriates him.

It’s not a hard push, just enough to free his arm and clear a path. He wouldn’t physically hurt her, couldn’t, couldn’t live with himself.

But the emotional damage is clear. Already, tears are forming in the bottom of her wide, horrified eyes.

It’s not too late, not yet. He could apologize. They could talk. She could hold his hand, the way they used to do when they were little, and maybe she could make it better.

“I don’t need your goddamn help. Stay outta my way,” he says instead, and books it toward the building’s exit, into the cold of the night, away from his sister’s sad eyes, in search of some place where the consequences of his actions can’t reach him

(I must amend my mistake for a major detail I added in this story now that we have updated information lol)

Kravitz hates having to leave in the middle of dinner to go to a work related emergency. It doesn't happen too often, but it happens often enough that it irks him greatly. Couldn't necromancers and undead beings hold off on doing their nefarious work from seven to eight pm everyday? Or even just every other day? He's sure Lup and Barry would love the consistent break too if they could just make that happen.

Unfortunately, he knows necromancy won't stop for anyone.

Tonight is another night that he gets called out to help with a job, but Taako promised he would keep the rest of his half eaten food warm in a stasis spell. At least he has that to look forward to as he cuts his way through a horde of zombies a powerful lich summoned from the graveyard he was squatting in, so Lup and Barry can concentrate on taking down the lich himself.

By the time they've dispatched everyone in the graveyard, Kravitz is exhausted. He'd already had a really long day, but at least now it should finally be over. Lup and Barry thank him for coming out to help them and send their regards to Taako before he waves to them goodbye and steps through a rift back home.

Kravitz steps through the front door and immediately heads back to the dining table where his food is waiting for him. "Lup and Barry say 'hi'," Kravitz says as he passes the kitchen. Then he does a double take and walks back to the entrance of the kitchen. "Taako, what are you doing?"

Taako looks back at him from his place in front of the sink and laughs. "What does it look like I'm doing, babe?"

He turns around again as Kravitz walks toward him, and places another dish from the sink into the drying rack. "It looks like you're just piling dirty dishes in the drying rack that's meant for clean dishes to be put away."

Taako snorts. "Do these dishes look dirty to you?" He asks, gesturing to the drying rack.

Kravitz gives them a once over. "No, but if you haven't actually washed them, then they'd still have whatever bacteria, germs, and whatever other particles and food stuff on them."

Taako sighs. "They're not dirty, Krav. Look." Kravitz watches as Taako picks up a pot with sauce in it and waves his hand over it. Instantly, the sauce disappears, and the pot looks clean. "It's called magic, and cha' boy is chock full of it."

Kravitz shakes his head and crosses his arms as Taako places it in the drying rack. "You can't just clean them with magic."

Taako glances up at him. "Uh, yes I can. See? They're clean."

Kravitz sighs. "That's not actually cleaning them! Does prestidigitation kill off the microbes and sanatize the dishes?"

Taako shrugs before picking up a plate. "I don't know. Probably? I mean, it does clean anything smaller than a cubic foot, and they look clean."

"But cleaning away what's visible is not the same thing as actually cleaning it," Kravitz says pointedly.

Taako elbows him in the ribs playfully. "Why do you care, Bones? You're already dead, so it's not like you have to worry about illness and disease."

"But you do. And just because I don't have to worry about getting sick doesn't mean I'm okay with eating off of dirty dishes."

"Okay, but they're not dirty!" Taako says, slight irritation seeping into his voice now. "See, look!" He waves his hand over the plate, and the remaining food particles vanish. "I've gotten all the important bits off at the very least, so they're fine!"

"It's not properly cleaned! You can get sick!" Kravitz says exasperatedly. "And you've been doing this with everything lately."

Taako places the plate in the drying rack before turning to give him his full attention and crossing his arms. "Doing what?"

"Using magic. Magic can't be your solution to everything." Kravitz says.

"And why not?" Taako asks, heatedly.

"Because it can't do everything for you, and it's ridiculous how many things you've used magic for that you can use your own two hands to do. Like getting up from the couch to grab your cup from the counter instead of using mage hand, or or... I don't know, taking a shower?" Kravitz runs his hand through his hair in exasperation.

Taako pokes him in the chest accusingly. "One, magic like that is helpful for when I don't feel like doing things, vis à vis mage handing my cup or doing the dishes-"

"Which aren't getting cleaned proper-"

"Two," Taako continues, "I don't use magic to clean myself. I'm not an animal; I do take showers! How do you think I get my hair this soft and smooth?"

"Okay, but that doesn't change the fact that you use magic for literally everything else! I'd bet that you can't go a whole day without using magic!"

Taako gets a glint in his eyes, and he smirks. "Is that a challenge, Kravitz?"

"You know what? Yeah, it is." Kravitz says, smirking back.

"Well I'll do you one better," Taako says. "I won't use magic for a whole week."

"That would be literally impossible for you," Kravitz scoffs.

"No it wouldn't! I could go a whole year without using magic if I really wanted to."

Kravitz raises an eyebrow. "Could you? Could you really?"

Taako straightens up and taps him on the nose. "Yes, I can, and in fact I will."

Kravitz full on laughs at that. "You are not going to be able to not use magic for a whole year!"

"Want to actually bet on that?" Taako asks.

"You know what? Fuck it, why not. Whoever wins has to give the other a back rub." Kravitz says, thinking about how desperately he wants one right now and how he usually does on really intense work days.

Taako smiles as he turns around to turn on the water and grab a sponge. "When you give me that back rub, Bones, it's gotta be the best one I've ever had."

Kravitz rolls his eyes and kisses him on the cheek. "I give it 12 hours before you crack."

Chapters: 1/4

Relationships: Barry Bluejeans/Lup

Characters: Barry Bluejeans, Lup

Additional Tags: Voidfished Blupjeans, Fake Dating, fake dating while amnesiac and actually already married!, Only One Bed, Mutual Pining, competitive baking competitions, this one's got it all folks, TAZ November Celebration

Barry Bluejeans is not a chef. Barry Bluejeans is not dating Lup. Barry Bluejeans has, inexplicably, agreed to be Lup's partner in a very popular, very public baking competition for couples.

Barry is trying very hard not to freak out about this. Or make a culinary mistake so bad that even Lup can't salvage it. Or, y'know, accidentally expose his extremely real crush. 

(a blupjeans fake dating fic... voidfished edition!)

*

humbly subtitled Zoox’s First Day Out, for @taznovembercelebration

In the beginning, Zoox opened his eyes. And the world was gold and syrupy, and suffocating. In the first scant moments of Brinarr birth, Zoox thrashed within the golden liquid that had animated his coral form, propelled by twitch nerve panic and jets of bubbles shooting from his feet. The surface of the birthing pool pulled and split apart as he rose up, breaching the surface and catching the side. The world now was white and cold, and sterile. He clutched the side of the pool, feeling out for the first time the extent of his body. Legs, body, and coral arms. No eyes, no mouth, and an odd stirring of power within him. Like the currents of the ocean itself swirling.

Above him, a figure appears and reaches down to help him out. The hand that grabs him is coral, as he is, and it pulls him up with surety and experience. Zoox, bewildered, grounds himself against it, and looks at who is holding him.

Zoox doesn’t know how tall is tall, but he knows this figure is taller. He doesn’t know what wisdom is, but he knows this figure is wiser. He doesn’t feel the need for a mother or father, but is pulled to trust this figure implicitly. It is a moment of pure, wondrous safety.

Zoox feels coral on his coral and hands on his hands. He looks up into the face of the figure, and though it cannot smile, it speaks as though it is. It says,

“Welcome to the Ethersea.”

Later, when Zoox has drained himself of the remaining golden fluid and introduced himself properly to Tesselation — when he’s started actually calling himself Zoox — he sits silently in front of a bay window in the side of the Coral Spire Lab. Outside, he can see schools of fish following the same swirling pattern of the ocean he feels within himself. Nearly silently, a door opens behind him. Tesselation stands in the doorway and watches him.

“Zoox, how are you feeling?”

“Hmm? Oh, good, Tessie. Say, you don’t mind if I call you Tessie, do you?”

Tesselation’s coral rubs against itself in thought. Zoox hears it.

“I would rather you call me Tesselation, thank you very much.”

“Alright, then.”

“Zoox, do you feel ready to enter the city yet?”

“Do I feel ready? I feel excited! I haven’t been alive for very long, Tessie — sorry, Tesselation, but I feel like I have already seen some incredible things. That golden pool was incredible — what was that? And these fish outside the window, swimming around like some … pattern thingy. Even you, Tesselation! You fill me with wonder. It makes me think about all the other wonders out there to see and experience. Wonders I won’t get to see if I don’t go out into the city. So yes, I think I’m ready.”

Tesselation’s voice takes on that quality again — as if their six souls are smiling in lieu of their mouth.

“Excellent, Zoox. If I may say before you go; you bring me hope for the Brinarr. Recently, it’s become harder to safely usher the souls of our dead into the coral bodies we have waiting for them. But seeing one such as you emerge from the tanks … someone so bright and cheery and full of life? It brings me joy. I hope you will come back to visit us soon.”

The currents in Zoox smiled back.

Taz november celebration day 1: fake dating, domestic (i wrote this in like 30 minutes on the train so she's short. No proof reading we die like men.)

Taako drags his feet as he walks into the kitchen, his sleep-addled brain focused only on the smell of coffee wafting through the apartment. Kravitz is already there, far too awake for 7am. He smiles his beautiful handsome smile that makes Taako feel things and says, "good morning, dear."

Taako grumbles in response, which makes Kravitz laugh.

"Coffee?"

Taako nods, rubbing at his eyes, trying to wake himself up even just a smidgen more. Then there's a warm mug in his hands and the feeling for lips pressing to his forehead. They move to the couch and Taako leans against Kravitz as he nurses his coffee. It's not until it's almost gone and his brain fog goes away that a few things click into place.

Taako blinks, staring into his mug. He sits up and puts it down on the coffee table then turns to Kravitz. "What are we doing?"

Kravitz's eyebrows furrow. "What do you mean?"

"I *mean* your mom left last night. Why are you still doing..." he gestures between the two of them, "*this?*"

It's not that Taako wants it to stop, per se, it's just that... the deal was Taako would pretend to be Kravitz's boyfriend for the week his mom was visiting, and Kravitz would get off of his ass about breaking into the lab with the boys that one time. The week is over, Kravitz should want him out of his apartment now. Why is he still making him coffee and kissing him on the forehead and calling him *dear* and fucking... *cuddling him?*

Kravitz also seems to be at a bit of a loss. "Taako, I- I just- habit?"

"Yeah, well, you're gonna have to kick that habit," Taako mutters, standing and making his way back to the bedroom. He should just get dressed and go home. He isn't needed here anymore.

"Taako-" there's a hand on his wrist, stopping him. He looks down at the hand then up at Kravitz, looking at him with his stupid handsome face, damn him. "Taako, I would- can I take you to dinner?"

Well that... isn't what he was expecting. "What?"

Kravitz shifts his hand so his fingers link with Taako's and squeezes. "I like you, Taako. Very much. I'd like to take you on a date. A real one."

@taznovembercelebration

Day 2 - Hurt/comfort

It’s not my best work, but I had some free time between classes, so I wrote somethin’

Expect more this month!!

“Babe, I thought you said your galavanting, saving the universe days were over,” Kravitz rubbed the bridge of his nose with a heavy sigh.

“See, that was before shit started happening again.” Taako pouted, wincing as Merle did his best to patch up the gaping wounds in his chest.

“Taako, dealing with liches is my job. Why didn’t you tell me you were going after these guys? I could’ve handled it.” Krav took the stool beside the cot and rested uneasily. He looked tense, like he was ready to jump up, drop his human form, and start hacking and slashing through hoards of enemies at a time at the drop of a hat.

“I’m,,,I’m gunna go. Good luck, buddy,” Merle excused himself, patting Taako’s shoulder on the way out as if to say ‘you’re on your own, kid.’

The moment the tent flap shut, the elf propped himself up, trying to hide his discomfort. “It’s not like I wanted to go fight some crusty alchemists, but duty called!”

“Like hell it did!” Kravitz raised his voice, startling them both. The last time he’s been this legitimately peeved, he had been hunting the party down to fix the fact that they were walking temporal anomalies. “I- I’m sorry, that was unprecedented-“ he avoided eye contact.

“Krav, I know you’re worried about me,” Taako took his boyfriend’s hand in his. “but you’ve gotta remember, I’m an adventurer too. This is what I do. Sometimes you get fucked up on the way.”

“And I know that, but this?” The reaper stole a glance at the already-bloodsoaked bandages covering Taako’s chest. “This isn’t ‘getting fucked up.’ You damn near got a hole blasted through your chest. I don’t know what I’d do if I knew you got that hurt again doing a job I should’ve handled.”

“Kravitz, look at me.”

He obliged.

“I love you, okay? And I trust you to handle yourself. I need you to take a breath and chill the fuck out for a moment. I got my ass handed to me this time, that happens, but I need you to trust that I’m gunna get back up again, okay?”

He sat for a moment, letting the words sink in. He knew deep down that Taako was right. He’s a gifted wizard, a competent explorer, and he has at least two people backing him up at all times.

“Okay, fine. I’ll trust you. Please take a couple days to rest and recover though.”

“Okay, skullboy. Do I owe you dinner for the stress too?”

“Yep.”