you and me, always

It starts in a semi-dark and cramped space, a small door opened just a crack to let in light from the outside. The legs of people in some sort of formal clothing can be seen walking around outside, making the space recognizable as a closet or pantry. The jam at the right might sell the latter idea.

Inside it are two small identical elven kids, all knees and awkwardness, too big ears and noses. They cannot be any other than twelve, and even that might be a stretch. Especially since one of them is wearing a way-too big dress with a belt barely holding it together over what might be the same formal tunic and pants that the other elf is wearing.

They both look solemn, eyes puffy and red from crying as they lean to each other for support. The murmur outside is a little difficult to make out, probably because there was just too much going on at once - but some voices finally pick up above the rest.

"I must say this will be difficult. It's a miracle that their aunt managed to take care of them for so long. Who is going to take them now?" One says, taking a drink of something. The 'concern' falls flat in their voice. It's only gossip to them.

There's a long-suffering sigh from another. "There are no more close family, and there will not be room for two of them in any of the homes." That last word makes the twins huddle together even closer. There was no such thing as 'homes'. This was home!

"I heard it was hard enough for them to stay in once place before their aunt, and now they're known for getting in trouble. It would be easier to split them up to raise independently." Says a third, and, at least from the memory, she sounds nearly happy about it.

Lup grabs her brother's arm tightly, trying to control herself even though her other hand is making a fist to get ready to fight. "They can't split us up! I won't let them!" She whispers, fury in her eyes and hopeless fear in her gut.

Where she is anger and fury, Taako seems numb as he holds on to her as well, but that manages to calm his sister down enough to dim the need to rush out and kick shins. Instead they sit in silence for a long time until the chatter outside seems to move on elsewhere.

Carefully opening the door, the twins sneak out and head for their room as fast as they can. Entering this safe haven, this place where they had felt happy and at home for years, they simply look at each other and nod. Grabbing a bunch of stuff into two bags (blankets, clothes, important but useless knickknacks), they carry one each before lacing their fingers together again.

Leaving their room, they sneak by the kitchen where two elves seem to be looking for them, and head for the door. It has always creaked a bit when opened, but tonight it seems like they are blessed with silence as it swings easily to reveal the big vegetable garden outside.

Lup remembers hot summers, cool autumns and beautiful springs spent here, getting the ingredients for whatever their Aunt was cooking. Things that now would go to whoever bought this old cottage. They would get to eat the beans she planted. Not her or Taako. It makes her stomach feel sour and she stops for a moment, looking at the garden and then back at her brother.

He meets her eyes, and nods. As one, they descend upon what could be harvested now, refusing their hard work to be taken by someone else. They grab vegetables from the familiar stalks and fertile earth, shoving them in their bags and probably squishing a few as they do.

Then they leave the garden, and the cottage behind them. Side by side, connected and whole, existing as the other's heart. Nothing would ever pull them apart for as long as they lived, they promise as they step into the woods and disappear in the undergrowth.

his best day

The light is coming in through a window in a room, shining on a bed where Lup is sitting next to a sleeping man. She looks soft and happy, wearing a red robe and fully dressed while running her fingers through his short brown hair. Leaning in, she gives him a kiss on his temple.

"Hey Bar... it's time to get up, babe. I got a day all planned for you!" She says softly, smiling brightly as this 'Bar' mumbles something and turns to face her. He's a human man, middle-aged and slightly chubby (with a close resemblance to Tom Arnold). He yawns, wraps an arm around her and sleepily leaning up for a kiss. "Is that so?"

Lup nods happily, meeting that kiss with barely contained excitement. "I let you sleep in for once, you workaholic." She affectionately pokes his thick nose with a slender finger. "I've got food waiting for us, and then we gotta get going."

She reaches to hand him his (extra nerdy) glasses and then abruptly pulls the covers back. Thankfully, the man is wearing boxers. (Traditional white ones with little hearts.) "Babe!" He laughs, getting out of the bed with a grin to find his clothes. The first thing he puts on are a pair of blue, sturdy jeans before he slides a shirt over his head - and gets his glasses a little tangled in it.

Lup saves him from that conundrum and then melts into his arms for a while. There's a silent, comfortable moment before he kisses her on her forehead and begs for coffee. Together, they head out to have a crazy breakfast with a ton of pancakes, toast, Fantasy Poptarts that he likes and she loathes the very idea of... and nicely fresh-pressed coffee that Lup puts way to much sugar in.

He drinks it anyway and they have a moment of peace in this kitchen that seems large enough to hold far more people than just these two. It was their chance for some alone time between all the hustle and bustle with the rest of the crew. After finishing their breakfast, they lazily leave the dishes in the sink as Lup pulls the man with her towards the door. "I know this is your day and your faaaavorite thing is working yourself to death, but I got something else planned." She winks at him as she walks down what looks like silvery stairs to the quiet world outside.

They are standing in front of what looks like a silver space ship, and Lup leans in to Barry and whispers something in his ear. He immediately looks both excited and a little pink, and they head off together. Hand in hand.

wave echo cave

And We See Lup...




Lup goes off in in the mess that is the robot world, and the speech afterwards. (Serious/Funny/Sad)

Merle brings her a horrible gift. (Funny)

Lup's Final Battle Speech (Epic)

Lup crushes the pre-space flight interview and micdrops. (Funny)

The best day ever, including setting a DMV on fire. (Funny)

Telling her brother she's gonna become an undead monster for the greater good. (Sad)

Lup finds a gun??! (Funny)

IC

HUGGING 🔥 Sure! She might hug just to be annoying.

KISSING 🔥 Platonic? Yes. Otherwise? You gotta wear jeans and look like Tom Arnold. (Or just be a nerd.)

FLIRTING 🔥 Definitely.

FIGHTING 🔥 Hell yes! I'll probably roll dice in that case.

INJURING 🔥 Yes, but hit me up so we can discuss it!

KILLING 🔥 Discuss it with me, first! She can't really... die.

SHIPPING 🔥 She has a canon boyfriend she's been in love with for more than half a century, so probably not.

MIND POWERS 🔥 Give it a try, but since she's an elf and has advantage on resisting that stuff, she might be able to shake it off.

OFFENSIVE SUBJECTS & TRIGGERS 🔥 Hurting her friends will make her blow you up. Also not fond of being misgendered - you'll probably get blown up then, too.

ANYTHING ELSE 🔥 Lup and Taako are identical twins, and Lup is canonly a transwoman. If this is an issue ICly that's fine. If it's a problem OOCly, please keep the fuck away from me. (Also please let me know if I mess up somehow, as it can be a sensitive subject.)

OOC

BACKTAGGING 🔥 Absolutely! My bread and butter since I'm on a stupid timezone.

THREADHOPPING 🔥 As long as it makes sense.

FOURTHWALLING 🔥 No 'You're Lup from The Adventure Zone' but recognizing her as a D&D elf is fine.

OFFENSIVE SUBJECTS & TRIGGERS 🔥 OOC LGBTQIA intolerance/'jokes' - otherwise I'm pretty okay with everything.

ANYTHING ELSE 🔥 My timezone is GMT+1 (Sweden)


ABILITY PERMISSIONS

Blahblah Lup doesn't have as many mind-altering spells as her brother but give me a holler if you want to avoid anything.

THE STOLEN CENTURY CYCLES

Homeworld: It's a press conference! Seven people of the Institute of Planar Research and Exploration are about to get on a ship and explore the universe!

The group are all asked questions, and when Barry goes up and talks about the science-y stuff, Lup leans to her brother and whispers 'nerd alert'.

On Lup's turn, she is asked about her thoughts of leaving the world for this fantasy science mission, she replies rather iconically that she's done this shit world already - and later mic-drops after yelling about Greg Grimmaldis owing her 15 dollars and that she aims to collect. Later, Lup and Taako hustle people at pool for fun and take the losers' shoes.

They all leave the next day on the ship known as the Starblaster - but an unknown entity of dark power the size of all the planes together suddenly descends to devour their world. The seven are split apart from their bodies for a moment and then return to themselves - but the world they come back to is not the same they left.

Cycle 1: They first come to a world uninhabited by any sort of humanoid races. It is an animal world, where all animals are herbivores (even carnivores) and speak a shared animal language. Lup tracks the heading of the Light of Creation that they now know the so-called Hunger is hunting. They cannot go back to their own or leave this planar system.

Barry, Lup and Taako learn the animal language to find a way to ask where the Light is. Magnus wants to fight one of the leaders of the animals known as a Power Bear to prove themselves, but the same giant void of dark force destroys the Animal Court before they can get the Light of Creation, and the twins run while Lup takes potshots at the darkness creatures - and is the first to kill one.

Magnus dies heroically, but when they leave the planet, everyone returns to the original form they had when they left their own world - Magnus comes back, alive.

Cycle 8: By now, Lup and Barry have figured out how things work. Whenever the group cross into a new reality their physical forms are brought back to the so-called 'recorded state'. Literally how and where they were when they first left the home world.

The group cannot choose what realities they come to, and are not exactly sure what does choose it - but whenever they enter a new reality, a few days later, the Light of Creation descends at a random point in the sky and falls down. A few days after that the dark force - which Lucretia names the Hunger - locates the plane that has the Light of Creation in it and then about a year later the Hunger arrives in proper to devour the whole plane and the Light.

But in the cycles leading up to cycle 8, the IPRE have recovered the Light a couple of times before the Hunger does. When they manage to leave the reality they in with the Light, the Hunger still goes and attacks the plane, but when it doesn't find the Light it doesn't absorb the whole world. Instead it chases the Starblaster into the next reality. However, whenever they leave a reality with the Light, once they cross over into that new reality, they don't have it anymore.

Cycle 8's reality is a world of glowing lethal fungi and a few smaller races like halflings, gnomes and dwarves. Lup goes with Magnus and a few others to find the Light, while her brother tries to make a fake Light of Creation as a decoy... and Merle starts a church.

They get the Light, but Magnus dies again - and Taako finishes his fake Light. It's a mixed success, though. The Hunger still attacks, and Merle stays behind to calm and sooth his faithful until he's pulled away to the ship as well when the cycle restarts.

Cycle 17: The Light falls in an unknown place and Lup tries to triangulate it but it's to no avail. This world is full of advanced tech ruins, and the only sentient creatures they can find are robots. Later they find out that these robots were created to let human souls inhabit them after a plague destroyed all organic life.

Magnus builds a giant robot arm for the Starblaster, Merle and Lucretia try to save as much of the world's history as possible.

Lup and Taako go scraphunting and looting as much as they can. Lup finds a Tommy gun and unloads it for fun, and picks up another one to continue that goof while yelling 'count the shells'! They get a lot of stuff back to the Starblaster, especially metal plating for repairs, and also find signs of arcane energy deep under the robot city.

Later, a week or so before the Hunger usually arrives, they go down to check it out - leaving Barry behind to get away if something goes sour. It's under water, so Taako uses the spell Water Breathing on everyone.

Down below they find a crystal of energy holding a bunch of souls of the people that died in the plague, and robot guarding it. Seeing that it's not the Light of Creation but something almost as powerful, they talk about destroying it all to not let the Hunger get it - which sets Lup off. She does not agree, not even with her brother, and says they can't do it - it would make them just as bad as the Hunger, and it wouldn't be them any more if they started doing things like this.

They can't just burn every world they can't save just so the Hunger won't get it.

Eventually they decide to leave it up to the robots, and they decide that they will fight. Taako suggest that they take the crystal with them to save their 'memories' like that, possibly returning them one day if the Hunger is beaten. It is shrunk down and given to the group while they help the robots prepare for the Hunger's arrival.

Lup gives the soul-guard one of the guns she found and tells them to 'Light them the fuck up!'

When they leave on the Starblaster, Lup mentions how dark they got down there, and that they have to swear to never let it get that bad again, and to never even think about destroying a world ever again.

Cycle 21(?): Beach Episode! They land on an completely uninhabited world mostly consisting of sea and a few islands. The group finds the Light almost at once, and can relax for a whole year in this tropical paradise.

Merle makes horrible beach-trash gifts for everyone, and Lup's is a giant man-of-war 'shower cap'. "I don't want that! You get that I don't want that, right?" (She squishes it on the ground and blames destroying it on an invisible demon.)

She also has fun with Magnus, as he throws driftwood in the air, yelling 'pull' and Lup shoots it down with magic missile Devil-May-Cry style.

Barry also kind of admits his love for Lup to Taako.

Cycle 30: They land on a rich, full world with several species and cultures, absolutely thriving - and all living in harmony. The Light falls in a place called Tesseralia and the group is warmly accepted into the community there.

The Light is in the possession of a place called the First Monastery and Abbess Oriana wants one of them to stay and prove themselves worthy to get the Light. She picks Merle.

The rest of them spends the year just hanging around. Magnus coaches little kids in a sport, Taako and Lup explores new cuisine and go to the best restaurant in the world. (Taako has an epiphany over the best food he's ever had.)

Merle learns the spell Parley and try to communicate with the Hunger with it. (It kills him.) Then he tries again, and learns the Hunger's name was John and that it's desire is to grow. Then Merle is killed again.

...this goes on for a lot of cycles, and they share information quid-pro-quo. Yet Merle is still killed each time afterwards, until he's had enough.

Cycle 47: They find themselves in a place full of loud noises as they are assaulted with music, songs, poems and stories all at once when they enter the new plane.

It's scarcely populated, and the Light falls into the Kingdom of Lagato and the chancellor there (Marlow) tells them that each kingdom has a conservatory for artist crafts that are very competitive.

They go to the Lagato conservatory and hear a beautiful piano piece. It's played by a young man, and the notes are later sacrificed to something in a cave. The song disappeared from everyone's mind - but is then shot out again to everyone in the entire world - even the other planes.

The group is told that they have to create something to offer this mountain the cave is in to even have a chance to accepted inside this cave where Marlow says the Light is.

Magnus learns woodcarving and makes a duck. Merle learns interpretive jazz dance and calls it 'Pan-demonium'. Taako steals inspirational quotes from his home(OOCly our world) to do make a book called 'Taako Time'. Davenport sings the opera. Lucretia offers a painting of a market from their lost two-sunned world.

Lup and Barry do a duet with her on the violin and Barry on piano. By now they have had so many cycles together and have fallen deeply, truly in love. They hold hands a long time after the duet, and disappear to be by themselves.

However, the group still does not get access to the mountain and Davenport asks if Lup can't just blow it up, something she says yeah to, but mentions that it should be the last resort. They dejectedly go home, but that night Magnus cannot sleep and goes back to the cave, where he meets a small, floating, shining jellyfish that invites him inside. Inside is a whole community of these bigger jellyfish, and the baby jellyfish shows Magnus its collections of things - the duck he carved among them. It loves the duck and wants more!

But the Light of Creation was not in the mountain, and now it is too late to find it.

Taako tries to enlist people to look for it, but in the end the world is destroyed...

...but Magnus tells Lup to not leave without him, and then runs and takes the baby voidfish with him on the ship while the rest try to buy him time.

Cycle 65: Escaping is getting narrower and narrower, the Hunger is getting stronger and smarter and there have been many close escapes.

This cycle's world is an ash-gray rock land, harsh and violent. All they could see while flying above were small, struggling settlements - until they reach a city of white marble in the middle of a massive blue lake.

Four human statues are kneeling in the city, impossibly large.

They do not have time to see anything more, however, because something shoots the Starblaster out of the sky. The group are taken prisoners and taken before these statues. Their magic is suppressed, and a human man calling himself Prosecutor Olsen greets them and says they are on trial for violation of a fly zone and ill intent.

They try to talk themselves out of it, and notice that Lucretia isn't there with them. They are all given charges their sins of their past by some kind of gods speaking through the statues.

When it's Lup's turn, she interrupts the talking statues and guesses her own sins - lust, gluttony, pride... and Taako happily adds wrath, and she pleads guilty with a laugh.

They all go through a really weird pre-trial.

Merle, Barry and Taako are found worthy.

Lup, Davenport, Magnus are found wanting, and Magnus tries to escape but is immediately killed.

Then the statues just start to call out accusations from their future, and it gets nasty. They do not even go to the full trial - everyone are executed.

A year later, they all come back again, and Lucretia has saved them all! She spent a year alone, running from these justice people for a whole year.

She had made it!

Cycle 82: Things are still really difficult. The Hunger is closing in around them, and everyone is much more cautious. The certainty that they could always escape is has taken a hit.

They enter the world and see that this planar system is different - the prime material plane has been vivisected by the plane of magic. It is quiet here, no people and no animals. The waves have stopped.

Ruins tell them that there used to be people here, but everyone was destroyed when they tried to pull the plane of magic into the material plane. They find the Light almost at once.

Magnus and the Jellyfish (named Fisher) find a library and learn more about the world, but Fisher eats it. Then they have a nice time eating books.

Davenport masters illusion magic.

Merle writes his memoirs, Lucretia illustrates and edits.

Lucretia learns shield of fate from Merle and starts working on it to change it. She creates a strong opaque bubble - and says that she's going to save all of them. "We're done dying."

Barry studies the Light and figures out how the Hunger finds them. The force it gives off creates a want and need to use it, and it acts like a beacon. He tries to find a way to block it, but isn't successful.

Taako works on his impersonations and voices for illusion spells. He finds an Bardic college to help him.

One morning a month out from the end of the year, Lup comes into Taako's room (knocking, even!) and gives him tea, requesting that he plans to give her the Best Day Ever. When he asks why, she says it's because she and Barry are researching a type of magic that can help them, and her having a great day is going to limit the risks that goes with it.

So Taako throws her an amazing day. The best breakfast, a super dank nap, a squirt gun fight in a park and then absolutely blowing the shit out of the planet's only DMV. Later that night they have turkey made from their aunt's recipe, and Lup fully reveals what Barry and her are planning.

They are going to become liches.

[The day of the ceremony, she's nervous and feels displaced - and that is when she arrives in Riverview]

---

ABOUT LUP'S IDENTITY AND RELATIONSHIP WITH TAAKO

Justin: You would have to back pretty far to get to something that looked more like childhood so I haven't really thought about that, I guess, he and Lup probably got passed around, I would think, that like— I feel like staying with the aunt was sort of a, more of a respite scenario than any, they're more, thing like, super long-term.

Griffin: Sure.

Justin: I feel like it was something that worked for a while, and that was a— a good time for— for— I mean I guess them, I’m saying them, it feels like the caravan stuff was probably the two of them...y’know, looking out for each other, but still very much— [?]

Griffin: Yeah. I— I absolutely don’t want to take away like, Taako’s distrusting nature and sort of individualism by introducing this other— by introducing Lup, this other character, ‘cause I still feel like the two of you had it rough, and relied on each other, but still have this sort of distrusting nature.

Justin: Mhm.

Griffin: Um, one thing I kinda want to make clear— we’re gonna learn a— a lot more about Lup during this session, um, and pretty much on through the rest of the campaign, but I wanted to say as long as we’re talking about your backstory that the two of you are twins, and that Lup was assigned male at birth, but at like a fairly young age she transitioned, and identified as a female elf, and as, y’know, as Lup...

Which I only mention because like, we’re talking about your backstory and having kind of like a, a difficult childhood or whatever, like, I don’t really... it’s your call but I don’t want that backstory to be like you had a traumatic childhood because of your identities or whatever, ‘cause I think that would kinda be shitty, but rather just that like, it’s a tough world.

Justin: I— I feel it was more scrappy. I feel like it was more like, “well, we’re gonna look out for each other,”

Griffin: Yeah.

Justin: —and that’s the, the, that’s it.

Griffin: Okay.

Justin: We're on each other's team and we're looking out for each other, I don't think it has as much to do with our identities. Um, so we're clear and at the right— so I'm clear not to, uh, misgender Lup, can we make the assumption that the things that we are talking about probably took place after she transitioned so that...

Griffin: Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Justin: Y'know, if I'm referring to Lup,

Griffin: Yeah.

Justin: —as she— anytime that I'm referring to Lup, it’s—

Griffin: That's her— that's her pronoun. Yeah.

[...]

Justin: Do you see Taako and Lup as sort of a package deal, like, they do similar stuff? Like together?

Griffin: Yeah, you two graduated I think, fuckin’ high on the list at the academy. And you did fuckin’ really, really, like, you— we should be doing this as like, as like reporter conversations maybe, but you all are like, just fuckin’ really good at magic, right?

And that’s not revisionist history, like, listen to the rest of The Adventure Zone. You’re fucking really— We make jokes from time to time but Taako is an incredibly competent magician.

Justin: I just didn’t know if— I know, listen, you’ll find no shade on that fact here. I was more talking about Lup, if she’s like also a bomb-ass magician, actually in school maybe?