under the stars i'm alone among strangers

[elderflowermacarons]

WHO: Taako
WHERE: Around 6I
WHEN: First two weeks of September
OPEN TO: All
WARNINGS: None anticipated, will add if needed

---

Taako's not settled in. That would suggest he has some intention of relaxing and staying here. But he has finished hurling himself into all the obvious corners at high speed in hopes of finding a simple solution. Time to let those bruises fade and test his surroundings more carefully. And to find a place to actually live, so empty houses feature heavily in his prowling. He climbs a lot of trees in the hopes that the vantage point will make things clearer somehow. And to keep out of the way. He doesn't trust any of these people any more than he does their cute little prison.

Not particularly concerned with social graces--it's not like he ever has been--he sticks his head in wherever seems fair, poking around the inn and any other buildings that look public, accosts hapless passers by with "what's your story" or the occasional blunter "how've you tried to get out so far?"

And sometimes he does have to go have Taako time. He's found a fiddly little fishing setup. It's been a while since he fished, but he's pretty good at it, and it's always been a good way to sneak in a nap while ostensibly being productive. Naps happen a lot more now that he actually needs to sleep. Being a human sucks, and he's awful at judging how tired this stupid body is. (He's also walked into a few walls and trees when he forgets he can't see in the dark.)

Less relaxing but just as reassuring, he also takes up refreshing his very rusty swordsmanship. He hasn't needed it for years and he was never actually good. Just competent. When he has a sword, the other person is more likely to get hurt than Taako is, but the other options are just much better when there's not a horrible arcane dampening field over everything. The missing magic is vast and terrible and impossible to contemplate, hobbling Taako himself and potentially keeping any rescue attempts away. But he's dealt with that periodically, being out of spell slots and components, being up against it. The difference is he's...

He's alone again. The problem manifests consciously as no Magnus, but he's got lots of people he's hidden behind over the years. Even Sazed was... Well, he doesn't do so great without backup. That's just facts. Taako with a shortsword-sized stick versus a tree is a periodically amusing sight. He does more or less know what he's doing, approaches the combat like a saber fighter. He's graceful, if much too showy and not flexible enough in his stances, not a lot of strength behind any of the blows. The tree can take it.

He circulates a lot. Even for the Valley, it might be a bit odd to get used to the sight of the tiny man with three feet of braid dangling behind him, magenta scrubs somewhat inexpertly altered into a wrap skirt and an off-the-shoulder, half-length top. The fabric is crap and he's not used to sewing he can't assist with magic, but he doesn't hate the color and it's better than nothing. He may be stuck as a human with no hair products, but it'd be worse not to try. He's not giving an inch, here.

Comments

[elderflowermacarons]

"That's what she said," Taako says, covering his start as best he can by being snippy. It's an absurdism verging on the purely surreal if you know him, but without context... Well, this is why he keeps the friends he's had for a hundred years instead of making any new ones.

[chirrutsluck]

Oblivious to the contemporary context of that, Baze asks, "If somebody already told you, then why aren't you doing it?" His voice is a little raspy, as if he's getting over a cough or is a regular smoker. "You know some things, that is obvious. But you are sloppy." He doesn't recognize the style, but he knows combat practice when he sees it.

[elderflowermacarons]

Taako wants to descend into a cascade of giggles. A few escape him. But without anyone to elbow and pass the childish glee back and forth, jokes burn out a lot faster. What should be a hilarious and rare triple-that's-what-she-said just... fizzles, and he shrugs after a bit of self indulgent snickering. "That'd be my middle name if I had a last one."

[chirrutsluck]

"Then if you want to be good with a weapon, you will have to learn better," Baze answers. "Sloppy could get you killed if you are fighting." He has his small collection of poor bows, since he'd been heading out to practice (read: get frustrated at how badly his makeshift archery set works), and he pulls one out of the bundle that's a little straighter than the others. "Try me instead of the tree."

He's not in the best condition, but he's also used to sparring with Chirrut, who is far better than this kid could possibly be.

[elderflowermacarons]

When did he last physically spar anyone? Once in a while on the road in Faerun, maybe, but his skills are as rusty as they are for good reason. Last time he even had a sword unsheathed it was thanks to a confusion spell and all he actually did was poke Merle a little bit. But since the guy's offering... Taako shrugs. If this turns bad on him (and he's always ready for that eventuality) he's already holding a pretty okay stick and he's mapped several escape routes in his head. Paranoia's an old friend. He faces Baze in his shallow fencer's stance with a natural grace that could probably have been turned into something deadly, but definitely hasn't been. It just looks kinda cool when he swings around from the side.

[chirrutsluck]

Baze holds his bow like a staff, rather than a sword. Swords had never been a big focus at the temple, after all. But it's entirely possible to counter sword with staff, and a lot of the basic bits of stance and balance remain the same, so he thinks he might be able to help a little, at least. He takes the stick-sword attack from the side by pivoting just enough to catch it on the end of his bow.

"You have balance," he admits, a little bit of a compliment maybe. "You do not have fine control, or speed. Or much strength behind your swing. Again."

[elderflowermacarons]

He's never taken direction well. It's a wonder he ever got further than the initial flailing that started him down the road to magic, and if Lup hadn't been there he might have given up on even that. Looking huffy, he drops the stick to his side and sets a hand on his hip. "Hey, I never said this was my bag. Usually I have a big guy to hide behind. And shoot fire out of my fingers." Pout.

[chirrutsluck]

Though he doesn't lower his staff, he does cock his head at Taako. "If you do not want to learn, why were you practicing on the tree?" he asks-- a valid question, as far as he's concerned. You don't stop and complain that it isn't your thing if you're trying to learn. Right?

[elderflowermacarons]

"Ahuno, why do people do anything?" He does want to... Well, not improve, exactly. He has no interest in putting in the kind of time that fighters do to get really good at stuff like this, but he would like to be back up to scratch. Slightly more competent than some doofus who picked up a weapon at random and started swinging it around. Better than flipping a coin. "Main goal is hit some jerk with a stick and run away, since everythng else is a fuckin' wash."

[chirrutsluck]

"Then you should work on hitting them harder, and in particular places that hurt the most," Baze suggests. "But if you do not want to be shown, I will leave you to figuring it out on your own." He lowers the bow, with a noncommittal shrug. He half-expects Taako to let him do it, but also half-expects Taako to relent. It could go either way.

[elderflowermacarons]

"Okay, fine, what places are those? Besides the obvious. I'm a big brother. I know about cheap shots." He's twenty minutes older than Lup. Still counts. She can bench press him. Well, thus the cheapness of the shots in question. It's a dangerous road to go down. Missing Lup has paralyzed him before. But skirting over the surface of the wound keeps him sharp enough to maintain his pique without storming off.

[chirrutsluck]

Oblivious to his inner balancing act, Baze lifts the bow again, to point on Taako's body with it, though he doesn't actually touch him with it. "Here, just under the ribs." He nearly touches that one, the solar plexus. "Here, on your throat. The backs of the knees, and this spot on the elbow. And your cheap shot, but only on a human man, or a species with a similar biology." Other species don't always keep their genitals there, after all. "But these are always well-protected places. You will need to either take someone by surprise, or be good enough to get through their defense."

[elderflowermacarons]

"Yeah, no, I'm actually familiar with the concept of crotch shots. Not actually what I meant. For one thing, not actually all that easy. Everyone knows about that one. I mostly meant cheating." It's way easier to land a shot if you play helpless and confused (or make nice, but he's way worse at that) and then go for an unprotected spot with a stabby object.

[chirrutsluck]

"Then be clearer in what you mean to say," Baze suggests, with a bit less patience. The boy asked where the places were that hurt the most, he got his answer. What else does he expect when he asks that question? "How do you cheat, then?"

[elderflowermacarons]

"I look all flimsy and adorable and then I stab people in the kidneys once they stop watching." He's still more flustered than he likes, since in the usual course of things this is stuff that would only happen if he'd burned through all his magic and didn't have any spare components on him and shit was getting real and there was no one to get his back in the first place. Almost all of which is true in this place, and he's never coped well.

[chirrutsluck]

"So you take people by surprise," Baze summarizes, repeating his suggestion from earlier. "Good. That's better than trying to fight outright when you are that unpracticed. Though if you wish to become more practiced, I am not hard to find. And there are others who can fight here. Mostly," he adds, "we do not fight each other in earnest."

As in, don't expect your fellow prisoners here to try to stab you, and please don't try to stab them, either.

[elderflowermacarons]

"What I fuckin' wish is for my magic back, but I guess it's hitting people with sticks for the time being." Sticks are stupid. Fighting is stupid. Violence isn't stupid, but only if everyone else brings a glorified stick and you bring a vortex of swirling ice and swarms of confining tentacles from another dimension.

[chirrutsluck]

Baze is starting to run out of patience with this conversation. Really, it's a miracle it's lasted this long. "Then you will be wishing a long time. There is nothing like that here."

[elderflowermacarons]

"Then this place sucks and somebody should fucking fix it. Starting to think there's mind control going on to go with the arcane dampening." Taako spends most of his time with heroes, despite not being one himself in the slightest. He's not used to complaisance.

[chirrutsluck]

"Do you think we have not tried?" Baze counters, irritated. "Are not still trying, even if we must stop now and then to take the time to keep ourselves alive?" Nothing Baze has actively done here has been frivolous, all focused on survival and, to an admittedly lesser extent given he spent a lot of time too depressed to do much and a couple weeks too sick, learning about where they are. Being told that he's apparently not trying at all is offensive. "If you think you can find something to get us out of here, you are welcome to try, as well. I would probably be happier going back to being dead."

[elderflowermacarons]

Taako's attention is suddenly much more sharply turned on Baze, as though he's gone from an annoying feature of the landscape to something to... dissect. "I mean, you do you, death is pretty chill." The layers of irony in Taako making that statement would require a sedimentary geologist and an English major to unpack.

Of course, that's death the general concept. A certain couple of capital-D Deaths, and more particularly the absence thereof, is one of the most concerning things about the current situation. "But." He's suddenly speaking a lot more slowly, the shrill and aimless highs and lows falling from his voice in a way that makes it clear the dramatic flourishes are a put-on. "Death is supposed to be able to slice clear through the planes." And if this guy is a runner from the Astral Plane, Taako isn't the only thing that should be drawing the reapers here.

[chirrutsluck]

"If death was coming here to take me back, it is overdue," Baze snorts. "And Bodhi, as well. He has been here seven or eight months, me for almost five. We both died before waking up here. We are probably not the only ones." He's unaware of the various other meanings behind Taako's comments, but then, death is just an end, as far as he's concerned, not a place or a person or even really some kind of concept. Chirrut might disagree, but Chirrut is not here to argue about it.

[elderflowermacarons]

"So overdue," Taako agrees, much of the latter half of Baze's statement turning to white noise in his ears when he realizes it's about some third party who isn't even here for him to ignore. "I just had to die the eight times to get his attention originally, buuuuuuut. Special circumstances. And he did kinda wang that one up. Even if they can't track me specifically, if there's a concentration of souls that belong in the Stockade, the bounties alone should be..." He's not really talking to Baze, just sorting through thoughts out loud. Baze is welcome to participate if he wishes.

[chirrutsluck]

Now Taako is also veering off into strange territory. Baze squints skeptically at him, trying to work out what all that means. It's pretty alien to his universe. "You died eight times? And death was a person?" Please explain, Taako. He'll gladly participate once he actually knows what Taako is trying to say.

[elderflowermacarons]

"Nineteen now, there was a whole thing with a time loop and my buddy's dumbshit magic cup dealie." As though Taako's dumbshit magic rock thingy didn't cause its own share of trouble shortly beforehand. Magnus would be touched to be referred to as buddy, though. It's an outpouring of affection by Taako's standards, a slip born of loneliness and desperation that lets it slip instead of the usual some moron with dumb hair. "Preeeeetty sure pretty much all the Raven Queen's direct operatives can go by Death if they feel like it. It's just that three of those are my sister, my boyfriend, and my sister's boyfriend, so, like, somebody should be on this shit."