#blupjeans baby

[fandomsnstuff]

Sometimes you just have to crank out 3000 words in a day because it's been too long since you've written anything.

Read it on AO3

Lilliana Bluejeans is missing. Her soul disappeared from Faerun, and despite trying every magical and mundane trick in the book, no one could find her. It’s been a year since then, and that luck is about to change. 

An au of an au of an au

~

It’s almost a year to the day when the contraption in Lup and Barry’s basement finally pings with Lilliana’s location. Kravitz is just setting the table for dinner when Taako gets the call. They haphazardly throw their half-prepared dinner in the fridge and run across the lawn to the house next door. 

“Where is she?” Taako peers over Barry’s shoulder as he scrolls through data on a screen. 

“I’m not a hundred percent sure,” he says. “The reading is very, very similar to one of the cycles, with just a few data points difference on the end.” 

“Which means?” Kravitz asks. Try as he might, he’s never gotten a grasp on planar magic. 

“Which means it could be a reality that’s basically the same as whatever cycle this was, with a few small differences–”

“Or it could be totally different and we won’t know until we get there,” Lup says, flipping through a notebook. “But assuming it’s the saaaameee…” she trails off, turning a few more pages, “there!” She hands the notebook to Taako, “lucky number 93.”

He whistles. “Yeah, I’d say that’s pretty damn similar.” 

All Kravitz sees on the page is a long string of numbers and symbols, and a short description of the reality they supposedly denote. “What’s lucky about it?” 

“It was the year after we all learned artificing,” Lup says. “We came up with the relic plan and were hoping we could end it then and there.” 

“But we didn’t find the light before the scouts showed up, so it was a no-go,” Taako says. 

“We did still find it, though. The world itself was fine when we left.”

“Guys?” Barry interrupts. He’s clicking around on the computer screen. “We better go. The signal’s getting weaker.” 

“What?” Lup whips around and leans over him to look at the screen.

“I don’t know,” small indicators light up on the plane hopping belts connected to the system, “but we need to go before we lose it.” 

They strap the belts on and in an instant are standing in the midst of a strange wilderness. Thick trees wrapped in vines tower higher than Kravitz has ever seen before, their canopy shading them from a sun just beginning to set. 

“It looks like 93,” Taako says. 

“Where’s Lilli?” Kravitz asks. All he can see is vegetation. 

“I lost her exact location when the signal got shoddy, but she should be nearby,” Barry says. 

They head off in pairs. Lup and Taako go one way, and him and Barry go the opposite. As they walk, Kravitz notices some broken branches hanging from the trees, vines torn off the trunks, and general carnage that doesn’t go with the landscape around them. Barry doesn’t seem to notice. He’s nervously clenching and unclenching his hands, and taking a lot of slow breaths. “So,” Kravitz says, attempting casual, “was there much for civilization when you were here?” 

“Not really.” He scans the trees ahead of them, craning his neck to see further into the woods. “A few small towns here and there, but nothing like Faerun.” 

“I think you guys got lucky with Faerun. Not only was it populated, but it had magic just like yours.” 

He looks over at him. “Can you sense her?” 

“Lilli?”

“Who fucking else, Kravitz?”

“Right. Obviously. Sorry.” He’s also nervous, which makes him ask dumb questions. He takes a breath and closes his eyes. He focuses all his senses on reaching out for his niece’s soul. Usually he can find her in an instant and know exactly where she is. Here… she seems to evade him. He opens his eyes. “I can, just barely, but I can’t tell where she is.” 

Barry sighs and keeps walking, drumming fingers against his legs. “I don’t like this.” 

“None of us have used our reaper powers in a different reality before, maybe the magic is interacting weird.” 

“Maybe…” 

They continue on, keeping their eyes and ears peeled. Barry calls out for her a few times, but no dice. For a while, there’s nothing but the sound of their own footsteps to keep them company. Then, in the distance, they hear loud, jovial voices. They pick up the pace, hoping whoever’s there has seen their precious Lilliana. They come to a small clearing and burst out of the trees without thinking. They stop in their tracks, coming face to face with a silver ship and seven people clad in red. 

Barry exhales shakily and takes a step back, “what the fuck?” 

The seven members of the IPRE look equally as surprised but not as distressed as Barry. Magnus, younger than Kravitz ever knew him, breaks the ice, “holy shit!” 

“That’s fucked up,” Lucretia deadpans. It’s even weirder seeing her so young, even though he knows, logically, that she was younger than Magnus at one point. 

“I take it you’re here about your daughter,” Davenport says. 

Kravitz’s eyes widen and he looks to Barry. His face sinks into a frown. “What do you know about my daughter?” Captain Davenport shrugs and Barry’s hands curl into fists. “Where is she?” 

He crosses his arms. “I wouldn’t know. She tends to avoid us.”

“For good reason,” Merle mutters loudly. Davenport turns to glare at him and Lup shushes him. 

“What did you do?” Barry’s demeanor has settled into cold displeasure and he’s on his way to anger. He knows what this crew was like during their voyage, and Kravitz almost doesn’t want to know what he thinks they’ve done. 

“Nothing!” Lup defends. “We just– we ran into her sometimes.” 

“Lup,” the other Barry says exasperatedly. “Come on.” 

“We found her by accident,” Lucretia says, coming forward. “A few dozen cycles back, she died near the ship and we found her. We thought she was someone from that world, but when we went through her stuff, we discovered who she really was.” 

Kravitz can feel Barry trembling ever so slightly at his side. Through clenched teeth he says, “and then?”

“Well… being from the future, she had to know how to defeat the Hunger. We tracked her down on the next cycle and asked her to tell us. She refused. Then…” she hesitates and sighs, “we decided that we would keep trying. So it became a bit of a Wile E. Coyote and Roadrunner situation. She avoided us at all costs.” 

“But!” Lup steps in front of Lucretia, “with all our perseverance, we did eventually get our answers and,” she spreads her arms out, “it’s over! And it’s over early! No more Hunger, no more realities getting pillaged and absorbed, no one getting hurt anymore, and none of the ‘dark and hard and scary’ stuff that Lilliana said we’d have to go through later on!” 

Kravitz can see the lecture rolling around in Barry’s brain. He opens his mouth to give the IPRE a piece of  his mind but is cut off by an agonizing wail deeper in the woods, back the direction they came. He turns sharply and whispers, “Lup.” He takes off into the trees with Kravitz at his heels. He can hear the IPRE following behind them, but Kravitz can’t think about that right now. Whatever made Lup scream like that is far more important. 

They enter another clearing, much larger than the one the Starblaster had been parked in. On the far side, they can see Lup’s back as she kneels next to Lilliana, who’s flat on the ground. Lup’s hunched over with her hands over her mouth. Taako’s next to her with a hand on her back and Lilli’s bow at his side. “No,” Barry says to himself, picking up his speed, “no no no no no.” He goes around the other side of Lilliana and kneels. Kravitz brings up the rear, slowing to a stop and standing at her feet. His chest constricts as he looks down at her. 

She’s dead, and it’s not pretty. 

There are large, open puncture wounds and fresh blood coating her neck. Her red cloak, made from an old IPRE robe, is fanned out underneath her in a cruel mockery of the pool of blood soaking into the dirt. There’s some blood on her lips and trickling out the corners of her mouth. Kravitz has seen a slit throat or two in his time, he knows she was choking and gagging, trying desperately to breathe and keep herself alive, only for her own blood to get in her way. Her eyes are open, staring blankly at the clear sky above where there’s not a speck of Hunger to be found. 

“We have to bring her back,” Lup says, looking across Lilli’s body at Barry. He nods, his eyes glistening, and summons a black leather-bound book from nowhere. In any other circumstance, Kravitz would question why he felt the need to carry it with him. 

He flips through it, then runs his hand down one of the pages and nods. He stands. “You should go find her soul,” he says to Lup. “She’s not from this world, and I don’t know how many times she’s died before this. I don’t want her to get lost.” Her and Taako’s heads jerk up, but before she can question him about her daughter dying more than once, he juts his chin towards the other end of the clearing. They turn and see the other IPRE lurking just beyond the treeline. 

Lup gasps, and looks back to Barry. He nods solemnly. “Oh, my baby,” she says. She caresses Lilli’s face and kisses her forehead, “my baby girl, I’m so sorry.” 

“We’ll fix it,” Taako says, squeezing her arm. “Go find her.” 

She stands and takes Barry’s hand for a moment as he passes her, heading for the middle of the clearing. Then she summons her scythe, tears open a rift, and disappears. Barry draws his wand and starts burning what Kravitz can only assume will be a ritual circle into the hard packed dirt. He can see the IPRE whispering to each other back in the trees.

Cycle 93. They were so fucking close. 

“Krav.” He looks to Taako, still kneeling next to Lilliana. He nods to the space across from him, “help me get her accessories off.” He kneels as Taako undoes the fastener on her cloak. “Lift her up.” 

She’s still warm as Kravitz slides a hand under her neck and cradles the back of her head. He puts his other hand on her chest and angles her up gently, just enough for Taako to remove her cloak completely and lift the strap of her bag of holding over her head and off her shoulder. Her braid is soaked red with her blood. Taako casts prestidigitation to clean it all up, and Kravitz lays her back down. They remove her quiver from her hip, her leather archery glove, and the leather bracer she wears on her other arm. Taako carefully places all her belongings in her bag. Kravitz closes her eyes and crosses her hands over her stomach. If it weren’t for the gaping holes in her neck, she could be sleeping. 

Taako stands and swings the strap of her bag over his head. “I’m gonna see if Barry needs any help. You stay here–” 

A tearing sound right next to his ear makes him jump, and Lup comes marching out of her rift. She ignores them and beelines for the IPRE across the clearing. She grabs the alternate version of herself and throws her to the ground. The parts of her clothes that were touched are singed black. She scrambles to her feet and takes a step back, “what the fuck is wrong with you?”

Smoke curls out of Lup’s closed fists and her eyes burn with fury as she advances on herself. “My daughter just screamed at me to go away and leave her alone. She ran away from me. My daughter does not run away from me.” She grabs her again and gets in her face. “What did you do?” 

The other Lup shoves her off and pats out the small embers that had caught on her robe. “Nothing you wouldn’t have done. We’re literally the same person. I wanted to minimize as much suffering as I could.” 

“I haven’t been you in a long time. I don’t give a damn about what you were trying to do.” Lup points back towards where Lilli’s body lies, “that little girl is my first priority.” 

Other Lup crosses her arms. “She’s an adult.” 

“She’s mine.” 

Other Lup looks away from her and doesn’t offer a response. 

Lup brushes past her, bumping her shoulder aggressively, and walks back over to them. “You have to go get her, Kravitz.”

He stands. “She’s nearby?” 

“She was. She ran off when I got too close, but if anyone can find her, it’s you.” 

He puts a hand on her shoulder. “The dead don’t always have all their faculties. She’ll recognize you when she’s back.” 

“Just go. I don’t want her to wander off too far.” 

He summons his scythe, tearing a rift with centuries of ease. He steps through it into a copy of this world painted in greyscale. He reaches his senses out for Lilli again, and this time it’s stronger. He heads off in the direction it leads him. He only has to walk for a short time before he sees a faint white glow in the distance. He approaches carefully, and there she is, wandering aimlessly through the trees. She’s all white, dressed how she was when she died. Every now and again the edges of her form flicker and blur, the sign of a soul that’s been through a lot. 

“Lilliana?” She startles when he speaks, and she’s tense as she turns to face him. Her eyes are all white. He holds his hands up placatingly. “It’s all right, I’m not going to hurt you.” 

Her shoulders relax, and she stares at him. “Kravvy?” 

He smiles. “Yeah, Lilli. It’s me, Kravitz.” 

“I think I’m lost.”

“That’s okay,” he takes a tentative step towards her, “that’s why I’m here. I’m taking you home.”

“You know how to get home?”

“I do. Mama and Daddy and Uncle Taako are all waiting for you, just through the woods a little ways.” He holds out his hand, “I’ll show you.” 

She looks at his hand, then up at him. She takes it and smiles softly. “Okay, Kravvy.” Her form shimmers and coalesces into a ball of light. He brings her in close and cradles her against his chest as he retraces his steps through this in-between plane. Back where he started, he tears a rift into the Prime Material and returns to the real world with his niece’s soul in hand. 

Lilli’s body has already been placed in the center of the ritual circle, outlined with runes and the dust of various gemstones. Barry stands outside the circle at her head, Lup at her feet, and Taako stands ninety degrees between both of them. Kravitz takes his place across from him. 

Barry takes a deep breath, “okay.” He begins reading an incantation. The runes drawn around her begin to glow, and Kravitz holds out his hands, allowing her soul to float away. It stops and hovers over her body for a few seconds, then sinks down and disappears into her chest. Barry’s incantation continues for several lines, allowing Lilli’s wounds to vanish, then stops. The glowing dims and disappears, and they all wait with bated breath. She lays there unmoving, and Kravitz worries for a half second that Barry Bluejeans, best necromancer this side of reality, fucked up his daughter’s resurrection. 

Then she inhales sharply, and her eyes fly open. She takes quick, short, panicked breaths. He steps into the circle and takes a knee next to her, putting a hand on her shoulder. “Deep breaths, Lilli. You’re okay.” 

Her eyes dart over to him. “Kravitz,” she breathes. “You’re real.”

He takes her hand and holds on tight. “Real as ever.” 

“I’m alive.”

“You are. Do you think you can sit up?” She nods, and he helps her up. She freezes when she sees Lup ahead of her. “Hey,” he says softly, she doesn’t look at him. “You’re safe. Look closer.”

Her eyes roam over the woman in front of her. “Mom?” Lup’s breath stutters and her eyes glisten, but she smiles. Lilli reaches for her, tears welling in her eyes, “Mama.” He steps back to let her in, and she falls to her knees, wrapping Lilli up in her arms. “Mama,” she cries. “Mama, I’m sorry. I tried so hard. I’m so sorry.”

Lup caresses the back of her hair. “I know, honey. It’s okay. This never should have happened. It’s not your fault.” 

Barry abandons his book and drops to his knees next to his family. He wraps both of them up in his arms, silent tears rolling down his face. Lilliana sobs in their embrace, overwhelmed by finally being freed from what Kravitz can only imagine was decades of crippling loneliness. 

Taako picks up the necromancy book and puts it in Lilli’s bag. He smiles at him, then walks over to the still-lurking IPRE. He claps his hands together and says in his best Sizzle It Up! voice, “all right, folks! Show’s over! You can get back to whatever sad lives you’re planning to build on this lame planet.” The other Lup rolls her eyes and Taako narrows his. “Got something you want to say, Lulu?” 

“Just because we beat the Hunger sooner than you doesn’t mean our lives will suck.” 

“Maybe not.” 

“And all of this,” she gestures to the ritual circle and family behind Taako, “just proves my point. The second we destroyed the Hunger, you guys showed up. If she had just told us that all it’d take was a shield and didn’t make us spend 40 years and a ton of magic dragging it out of her, then maybe we could’ve learned artificing earlier, and we all could’ve been done with it ages ago.” 

“You learned artificing last cycle.” Taako’s tone is level. Too level. Something’s been put together in his head and he doesn’t like it. 

“We did.” 

“So you knew you were ending it this cycle.” 

“We found the Light, we had the staff, Lucretia had the spell. Why wouldn’t we?”

He gives a one-syllable laugh. “Of course. Why wouldn’t you? You have all the pieces.” The other Lup nods, Kravitz waits for the other shoe to drop. “So why, on Pan’s green fucking Earth, wouldn’t you give the kid a fucking heads up, so she knows not to fucking die?!” 

There it is.

The other Lup balks. “She runs away from us! It’s not like we could’ve talked to her about it!”

“Message! Sending! Carrier pigeon! Half of you are wizards, you should be able to figure this shit out!” 

She throws her hands in the air. “What do you want from me, Taako? Why should our crew have to suffer as long as you did, for the same ending?”

He laughs. “Oh, you’re not getting the same ending out of this, Lulu.”

Lilli, now standing, comes to Taako’s side and takes his hand. “Don’t bother, Koko. I told them over and over again to forget about me and figure it out themselves. I told them that if they just stuck it out that they’d go through some shit, but they’d find so much happiness at the end of it all. I even told them that all the planes that got consumed would be fine. She doesn’t care.”

Taako purses his lips, scanning over the crew in front of him. He lands on Lucretia. “You know, I’m not a huge fan of some of the actions taken by certain people in my reality. But even I have to admit that those actions brought way more people into our lives than we would’ve had otherwise.”

“Like Kravvy,” Lilli says, resting her head on his shoulder.

Taako snorts. “He’s one of the few that we would’ve met anyway.”

“Who is he?” Other Taako asks, speaking for the first time. 

“I guess you’ll never know,” Lilli says. 

Taako puts his arm around her and steers them back towards Lup and Barry. “C’mon peanut, let’s get you home.” 

[ceilingfan5]

Wip Poll

Rules: Make a 24hr poll listing the titles of every WIP you want to work on. (It’s fine if you only have one, still make a poll for the vote count). Whichever WIP title gets the most votes, write 1 sentence for every vote received.

tagged by @aeivyen, thank you!!

mmmmmmm (all of these are taakitz) (shocking no one)

tagging @noodyl-blasstal and @holdmecloser-gandydancer @barry-j-blupjeans and you, who is reading this and not working on your wip even though you kinda wanna but you want it to be worth it. the people want you to work on it bc they love you

[noodyl-blasstal]

Blupjeans Week: Bet (day 2)

It's @blupjeansweek day 2. This follows on from yesterday's prompt. You can also read on Ao3

-

"It's going to be fine."

"Easy for you to say, you just casually revolutionised thermodynamics, you're gonna walk your viva." Barry could hear Lup rolling her eyes at that one, though he stayed resolutely focused on the raggedy copy of his thesis which was, at this point, 70% sticky notes. Could he read what any of them said because of how much they overlapped? Shut up.

"Natch, evocation is never going to be the same thanks to cha'girl's research, but that doesn't meant you're going to fail, Barold."

"No, they're just going to MPhil me out."

Lup sighed heavily. "Oh no, you worked hard and gained mastery in a subject, how terrible, what an embarrassment."

Barry did look up then, didn't she get it? He’d thought she’d get it. It was an embarrassment! She’d watched him put so much into this, the stupid well thumbed, badly bound paper stack represented four years of late nights, early mornings, cancelled plans, 3am anxiety… he thought she understood. She’d lived it with him, they were working for the key to the next level, if they gave him the wrong one what was even the point? "You think…?"

"I'm being flippant because that's not going to happen. Once again, I've read your work my guy, it's good, in fact, it’s great. In fact, right now, you’re arguing with established fact.” Barry grimaced as Lup spoke, but she ploughed on. “... you've already published three chapters of this thing in peer reviewed journals. 6/6 esteemed peer reviewers agree!"

"But they publish bad science all the tim…"

Lup cut him off. "Barry stop. You know you’ve done good science because a) I would have told you if you hadn’t, and b) peer reviewers might be lazy but you’re not. You know your submissions were solid, just look at the citations.”

“But…” She was right. But Barry still struggled, sure she hadn’t said anything incorrect, he knew he’d done solid work, but he also just knew that he’d fucked this up.

“...But what? But maybe they're idiots who can't recognise genius? They're gonna recognise it, Barry. It's impossible not to recognise how brilliant you are. That thesis is just you yelling “I’m Barry Bluejeans and I know what the fuck I’m talking about, pay me money about it.” Plus, publish a few more chapters and you can do PhD by publication without those losers to worry about anyway."

Barry didn’t even register the second part because Lup thought he was brilliant! Lup thought he was brilliant and she was telling him and he kept shutting her down instead of just being grateful about it. Maybe if he tried to accept the compliment. "Than…"

Lup started speaking at the same time. "In fact…" She paused to let him speak, but he shook his head and gestured to her, he could try being gracious another day. "... Okay, if you're sure." He nodded. "I think, Baraldo, that we should make a bet, you and I. I may as well profit from all this self doubt, so I bet you're gonna pass with no corrections."

Barry laughed bitterly. Whatever she was betting she'd be losing. "Lup, I'm going to fail."

Lup shoved his shoulder gently. "You're not and you know it. Be serious."

"Oh, like yours was serious?"

Lup's ears flicked back defensively. "Serious? Barry, c'mon. Obviously we all know cha’girl’s out here shaping the future of evocation, but you're doing magic within magic on all your spooktacular stuff. The chapter on spell wheels? I'd never considered it, and even if I had, I definitely would have taken at least 10 minutes longer than you to come up with something so elegant. You know what you're doing, I know what I'm doing, it's why we're such a great team."

They did make a great team. They’d met the first day of undergrad at orientation. Barry the lone mature student in a sea of babies, then Lup and Taako had appeared, and sure there was The Nerd Incident, but they cleared that pretty fast. They coincided in most classes, worked together in labs, and powered their way through a ridiculous amount of higher education together. There hadn’t been any question about it when the option of choosing housing came up, they lived together off campus and were joined by a rotating cast which had pretty much always featured Taako (well, until this year), but LupAndBarry, BarryAndLup? They were a constant, they worked. “We do work well together.” 

“You can say that again.” Lup glared at him as he opened his mouth to repeat it. “...And you know exactly how smart I am, right?” Lup asked. Barry could taste the trap-ness of this question, she was an angler fish and the question was a beautiful little light, he was going to answer it honestly and wholly and she was going to chomp him down with her big clever teeth.

“You’re incredible Lup, your research is amazing and you’re passionate and eloquent and so smart…” 

Lup’s teeth closed. “Then you know I know my shit well enough to know your shit’s good, so, what’s your bet?”

“I pass with major corrections?”

Lup raised an eyebrow. “Question, or an answer?”

“I pass with majors.”

“Fine. If you want to lose whatever you’re betting then be my guest, Bluejeans.”

“I don’t think I have anything you want.” Barry said, and he wasn’t sure, it was a ridiculous thought, but he could have sworn that Lup’s ears reddened at the tips. She coughed loudly, then almost shouted “Jeans.”

“What?”

Lup coughed again and spoke in a softer tone. “I get rights to your wardrobe. I know your jeans are comfier than mine.”

Barry hesitated. He’d already lost a good chunk of his shirts and sweaters to Lup. Not that he minded most of the time, he usually managed to steal his favourites back briefly on laundry day, but his jeans? He only had three pairs and they all served specific purposes in his life, he couldn't afford to sacrifice them, no matter how cute Lup would look in them. But, <;i>but</i>, there was no way he was actually going to pass without corrections, everyone at least got minors and Barry's supervisor definitely didn't think he'd even manage that. According to the available evidence, this seemed like a safe bet. "Deal!"

Lup grinned big and wide and dangerous . "GuyWhoJustLostHisJeansSaysWhat."

"What?" Barry asked.

Lup snickered. "Just asking what you wanted from me if your externals are somehow struck incapable of recognising brilliance?"

Oh... yeah, Barry had forgotten this part. Lup's brash overconfidence in his abilities had essentially signed her up to do whatever he wanted. He could stick her with dish duty for the next hundred years; make her actually use the dregs of her body wash before she moved onto the next one so the edge of the shower wasn't a terrifying pile of upside down barely balanced bottles; he could ask her to tell him whether there was an expiration date on their whole thing, whether the end of study meant different directions and fond memories, phone calls which dwindled as she remembered less and less… "You have to come home with me." He blurted out the thought before he could properly consider what he was asking. Was that too much? Oh it was probably too much. A trip home meant a road trip, motels, meeting his Mum. There was no way Marlena wouldn't pick up on exactly how he felt about Lup, not that she hadn’t already, but it was easier to lie on the phone. Plus, there was no way his Mum wouldn't love Lup too. How could anyone not? Then he’d only disappoint her when Lup moved on with her life and left him behind. Maybe he could back track, do the dishes thing instead…

"You have yourself a deal, Mr Bluejeans, may as well use that title one last time. Now, I have some outfits to plan, go eat the sandwich I made you, then I'll help with the last minute prep." Lup disappeared in the direction of Barry's room. 

Barry resigned himself to losing another few shirts while Lup investigated his wardrobe and obediently shuffled his way to the kitchen. It was definitely time to eat, he wasn't entirely sure when he last did… probably the last time Lup shoved food at him. He definitely had to thank her when this was over. 

-

"...And why did you decide on Necrostics?" Lup looked expectantly at Barry. 

"It was the most logical methodological approach as it incorporates acknowledgement of the agency held by constructs and the undead while also acknowledging the influence of social and summoning factors. I modified the approach to ensure it was appropriately controlling for the new spells I developed."

Lup clapped her hands delightedly. 

"It was that good an answer?" Barry asked.

"It's that good a wardrobe. I cannot wait to get my hands on it, Barold, you're gonna be living in your pants… although…" Lup narrowed her eyes. 

"Absolutely not, no!"

Lup shrugged. "You can't watch your stuff all the time, Barry. Cha'girl needs some new sleep shorts."

Barry felt his face flame at the thought of Lup sleeping in his clothes, Lup wanting to. "I'd better go now!" He said, too fast and too loud. "Gotta go get it over with."

Lup jumped up. "Cool, I'll grab my book and and few other bits and come with. There's some comfy chairs in the corridor with my name on them."

Oh. Lup was going to come with him. Lup was going to wait for him. "You don't have t…"

"I want to."

–

"Good luck Barold, you've got this." Lup hugged him firmly, he squeezed back. If he didn't let go he didn't have to go into the scary room. Can't defend your thesis if you’re in the middle of a hug, that’s just science. Lup pulled back slightly, then dipped her head to kiss him on the cheek.

Barry didn't have time to react before Lup pulled away and planted herself across the corridor chairs, head buried in her book.

"Are you ready, Mr Bluejeans?" A voice asked from the door behind him. All Barry could do was touch a hand to his cheek, turn, and nod. 

– 

"Congratulations again, Dr Bluejeans, this may be the most enjoyable viva I have ever taken part in." Said Dr Combish, opening the door for him. 

Barry was going to pass out. The adrenaline finally drained out of him, weeks, months of panic, gone. It was over. An outright pass? It was so rare, so ridiculously unlikely. He should be raring to celebrate, but mostly he just wanted to go home and sit very still in the dark. He stepped into the corridor, remembered to thank Dr Combish, and stared numbly at the door as it closed. What did he even do now? It was over. A whole chunk of his life was just… done. He had the keys to the next stage, had the fancy title, had everything he'd worked for and… and? 

"Hey Bear?" Lup nudged his arm gently. "How'd it go?" 

"I… I passed?" Said Barry. "Yeah. They. Well. I passed!" His voice broke momentarily, to say it was so surreal. "Lup! I passed!!!" He grabbed her into a hug. "I did it! We did it! Thank you, thank you thank you thank you!"

"Knew you could." Lup said thickly, hugging him back. They didn’t say anything for a while, just held on tight. “We… we should do something.” Said Lup, eventually. “Celebrate, you know.”

“We’ll celebrate together when you pass next week.” Barry didn’t even have to think about it. Whatever he could do, Lup could do better, there was no way she’d be correcting anything.

“Fine, but we’re getting pizza, from the good place.” Lup grabbed her backpack from the chairs.

Barry stared for a second. “You… you’re wearing my garden jeans. Lup!”

“And they look great on me. Told you I believed in you. Fair’s fair.” Lup winked, wiggled her butt, and grabbed his hand. “Now, let’s get you home, Baraldo. We need to ring Marlena and tell her, she’ll be having kittens.”

Barry couldn’t do anything but nod.

[cyrenescreams]

(Don't Call Me Kassidey) My Name is Baby by Adjust the Sails is soooo blupjeans coded

specifically Barry about Lup

[anistarrose]

writing ask game: 11 and/or 20 for your blupjeans vampire wip!

(ask memes here!)

unfortunately I don't have any great moodboard images for this one, so I'll stick to the first question!

11. What scene are you most hyped for this chapter/fic?

I'm very excited for the final scene, which part of me doesn't want to spoil, but like. it's a vampire fic. very little explanation needed, you know someone's blood is gonna get a little slurped lmao

but the reason I'm excited is because for one thing, I'm making Barry the vampire in this one because I felt like inverting the common fanon choice for those two in vampire AUs, but also because it's actually an incident that goes down mid-Stolen Century instead of an alternate universe, and I got to have so much fun weaving it into canon thematically! (the justification is that Barry just got jumped in the woods by some vamps in Cycle 30-something. funny enough, I actually rolled "vampire AU" for a TAZ November Celebration, but I wanted the challenge of canon compliant vampires!)

and actually, I kinda lied about question 20. I still don't have good atmospheric moodboard images but I do have an offering of three bespoke text posts instead:

[Image description: screenshots of tumblr posts. The first reads: "hey sorry if i was offputting and strange and bizarre and weird as fuck last night i was just being myself".

second: "sorry i came back wrong do you still wanna hit it"

third: "baby i can be your case study". End description.]

[raspberryzingaaa]

I am SO normal about Angus McDonald Blupjeans baby AUs

[lillianabluejeans]

Did someone say mermaids?

@taznovembercelebration Ocean or dirt

-

Not too far off the coast, a boat belonging to the Institute of Marine Research and Conservation (IMRC, if you will), lazily makes it's way through the water. Davenport is manning the helm, Lucretia's keeping an eye and ear on cameras and sensors, and Lup and Barry are watching the water for anything to break the surface.

Their use of the boat isn't entirely kosher, though. The mission they're on would get them laughed out of the room if they tried to propose it. But Davenport can pull rank and get a boat outside of work hours whenever he wants, as long as it comes back in one piece.

Lup perks up from where she was leaning against the railing around the deck. "Bear," she puts a hand on his arm, "do you hear that?"

He pauses and tries to listen past the sound of the boat and the water. "Yeah," he says, "I do."

Coming from a small cave, they can hear a high-pitched wail, like a baby's cry. Davenport steers the boat to the entrance, close enough to peer in, and all of them feel their breath catch.

The cave is a semicircle, with a few feet of a flat rock floor around the edge, the water in the middle laps up onto it as waves come and go.

Lying on that flat rock, is a mermaid. The fin of her deep orange tail is still in the water, she has more orange fins on her back and forearms, webbed fingers, and gills on her neck. She has a series of bleeding wounds on her side and back, her breathing is laboured and her eyes are closed. In her arms is a wailing human baby, wearing a seashell necklace.

Lup carefully jumps out of the boat. The mermaid's eyes snap open and meet Lup's. Lup holds her hands out to try and placate her. "I'm not going to hurt you," she says, "I want to help." She approaches slowly, and the mermaid draws her baby closer into her chest, and it's cries calm to quiet whimpers. She looks scared, and desperate. Lup stops where she is, and kneels to be closer to her level. "Did a human do this to you?"

The mermaid digests this question, then shakes her head. The movement is lethargic. "My own," she croaks.

"Other merfolk did this to you?"

The mermaid nods. Lup bites her lip as she debates her next question. "Where..." she hesitates, "where did the baby come from?" She hopes the mermaid doesn't take it as an accusation, but the baby looks human. She has to ask.

The mermaid looks down to the baby, then, with what looks like a lot of effort, she twists and leans towards the water. She scoops some up in her hand and pours it over the child. With a small shimmer, the baby transforms to have a bright pink tail and fins. "Mine," the mermaid says, laying her head back down on the stone and closing her eyes, "but illegitimate. That's why... this."

Lup picks her jaw up off the floor and says, "they did this to you because... you had an illegitimate child?"

She nods, her movements slowing even more. She opens her eyes and looks up at Lup. They ponder each other in silence for a few moments, then the mermaid pushes the baby in Lup's direction. "Safe," she whispers.

Lup's taken aback. "What?"

"Keep safe, with humans. Merfolk stay away from shore. I return to the depths for eternal sleep."

"No," she finally comes right up to the mermaid, "no, I'm not letting you die." She twists to call back to the boat, "Bear! Bring-"

"Shhh," the mermaid hushes her, putting a hand on her arm, coaxing her to turn back towards her. "Time is up," she whispers, her eyes lidded. She lowers her hand to rest on the baby's chest. "Take her," she says. Hesitantly, with shaking hands, Lup takes the small mermaid into her arms. The mermaid keeps her hand on the baby and says, "keep safe. Let swim, but keep close to shore. Sea is in her blood."

"I will," Lup says, "I promise."

The mermaid smiles, and her eyes flutter shut. Her hand falls to the ground, and her whole body starts to shimmer. Moments later, all that's left is seafoam. Water laps up over the edge of the stone floor and starts to carry it away. Lup looks at the baby in her arms. The water her mother put on her dries up, and her tail shimmers and disappears. She looks up at Lup with big curious eyes. "I'm so sorry, baby," Lup says, her voice wavering, "I wish I could've done more."

The baby eats her fist and whines. Lup kisses her forehead. "Come on, you're probably cold."

She stands and walks back to the boat, where Barry, Davenport, and Lucretia are all waiting for her with teary eyes. Lup climbs up with the baby, and is handed a towel that she wraps around her. "We'll have to, um," she sniffs and wipes under one of her eyes, "call Kravitz. He can probably get us a- a birth certificate. And stuff."

"Maybe you should sit down, babe," Barry says.

She lets him guide her into a seat. "I should've asked for her name. Both of their names. Now she'll have some- some human name we come up with, and I won't be able to tell her her original name. Or her mother's name. Fuck." Her vision is blurry. She blinks, and she feels tears roll down her cheeks. "Shit."

Barry crouches in front of her, "maybe someone else should hold her for a minute."

"No." Lup holds her closer. "I can hold her." She looks down at her little face as she starts to settle into her embrace. Lup feels her lip quiver and she shakes her head, "this wasn't how I wanted to make this discovery."

"I know," Barry brushes away some of her tears, "but there's nothing we can do about it anymore. We don't even know if we could've saved the mother." He stands and kisses her forehead. "But we can keep the baby safe. She'll grow up happy and healthy and loved."

Lup nods. She looks out over the water as Davenport drives them back home. She wonders how far out the merfolk are. If they're still looking for the woman and her baby. She wonders how long they'll search.

She looks back down to the baby, and notices the seashell necklace again. It's almost comically big, sitting against her little chest. She turns it over and inscribed carefully on the back in neat, swirling letters, is the name Lilliana.

Lup smiles softly and looks at the baby's face. "Hi, Lilli," she says, "I'm going to take real good care of you."

[lazylittledragon]

I just wanna know what Taako's reaction was when Blupjeans had Melody 😂😂

he slept through it

bonus:

[herbgerblin]

OC Commission, Lena for @tazdelightful

✨Commission Info✨Twitter (main)✨Twitter (art) ✨Instagram

[sadiexsketches]

I’ve recently gotten back into the swing of writing my Blupjeans baby fic after a nearly two year hiatus. 

Titled “The Second Century: How a Half Elf Put Dogs on the Moon”, it’s a story that focuses on Sigfriede, a half elf wild magic sorcerer navigating the world post S&S as she struggles to understand her magic. There’s a lot of humor, a lot of emotions, and a lot of swearing. If that’s something you think you’ll be into, give it a read on my AO3! 

[fandomsnstuff]

Single dad barry has had ample time in my brain, so now it's single mom lup's turn

This may or may not turn into something i just needed to get them down on paper

~

Lilliana lounges on her mother's bed like she owns the place, happily on her way to becoming Pokémon Champion (again). She can hear the shower running in the adjacent room. Just as she emerges from Victory Road, her mom's phone starts buzzing. Lilli glances at it and sees an incoming call from a contact with no name or picture, just a blue heart emoji. She smirks and answers it. The Elite Four can wait.

“You've reached the desk of Lup Taaco.” 

“Oh.” This is the first test. How does her mom's mystery boyfriend respond to suddenly being faced with the teenage daughter he hasn't been allowed to meet yet? “Hello. I'm looking to speak with Ms. Taaco.” 

Hm. Immediately playing along with the bit. Alright. “I'm sorry, she's unavailable at the moment. May I take a message?” 

“Of course. I was just calling to let her know that I got held up at work and will be late for our meeting.” 

Calling his date a meeting to really play in the space? It'd make mom laugh for sure. “I see.” She sets aside her DS and sits up. “And may I ask who's calling?” 

“Who are you talking to?” Her mom enters the room, wrapped up in a bathrobe. 

She angles the phone's mic away from her mouth. “You tell me. It's a saved contact with no name.” 

Her eyebrows raise and she marches over to the bed. “Give me my phone.” 

“No.” 

She tries to grab for it and Lilli leans away. “Lilli-” 

“I'm sorry, sir,” he tries to push her mom away with one arm, “I couldn't hear you-” 

“Lilliana Marlena Taaco-” 

“What did you say your name was, again?” 

They scuffle for the phone and her mom snatches it out of her hand before she can hear the answer. “Hey, sorry,” she says breathlessly, standing up off the bed. She laughs at something he says. “She's something, that's for sure.” 

Lilli sticks her tongue out at her, and her mom sticks hers out right back. 

“Ugh, gross,” she says, probably in response to Mystery Man only just getting out of work. Lilli shuffles on her knees to the edge of the bed and leans her head next to the phone, trying to hear what he's saying. Her mom playfully pushes her away and she sprawls over the bed. “I mean, you could come straight here rather than going home then turning right back around to pick me up.” She crosses to her closet and flicks through her clothes. She tosses a pair of leggings at the bed, hitting Lilli in the face and making her giggle. 

“We don't have to go out. If I order to-go now, by the time we get to the restaurant, it'll be ready. We can just take it and chill.” A sweater joins the leggings. She smiles. “Awesome. I'll see you soon.” Something in her smile changes, like she's biting the inside of her cheek, and she glances over at Lilli. “Yeah. I'll see you soon,” she repeats, her tone gentler. 

She hangs up, and Lilli looks at her curiously. “The hell was that?” 

Her mom points at her with her phone, “you're an awful secretary.” 

She scoffs, sitting cross-legged on the bed. “I'm a great secretary. You stole the phone from me.” 

She laughs and shakes her head, setting her phone down and picking up Lilli's DS instead. “Go fight your pokeymans in your own room, kid. I have to get dressed.” 

“You know what they're called,” she says, taking her device and standing up. She glances back at the comfortable outfit laying on the bed. “I thought you wanted to get all dolled up tonight?” 

“There'll be other nights. Now go.” 

Lilli rolls her eyes and crosses the hall into her own, smaller bedroom. She lays on her bed and returns to her game. A short time later her cracked open door widens. 

“Hey,” her mom says, “how're we doing?” She nods to the DS in her hands.

“I lost the third battle ‘cause I was stupid and forgot my type matchups.” She looks over at her. She's dressed in the outfit she picked, her hair is pinned back just enough to stay out of her face, and she isn't wearing any makeup. “Are you going?” 

“Yeah,” she leans down and kisses her forehead, “don't wait up.” 

“If I do, it's not on purpose.” 

“Please go to bed at a reasonable time.” 

“No promises. Say,” she sits up and sets her game aside, “when am I going to get any details about this guy?” Her mom sighs, but Lilli's had enough being in the dark. “I don't even know his name. Or what he looks like, or what he does, or how old he is. How can I know he's good enough for us without any info? It's been like eight months and there's been no inkling of me meeting him. I know Taako met him. Why does Taako get to meet him and I don't? I'd argue I'm more important-” 

“Okay- first off, Taako met him by accident, totally independent of me.” 

“Uh huh.”

“Secondly,” she's given a watch the sass look, “I'm not going to bring a partner of mine into your life unless I'm absolutely sure it's endgame.” 

“Endgame is a shit movie and you've dated him longer than anybody else.” 

She snorts and shakes her head. “You're a nuisance, you know that?” 

Lilli beams. “I learn from the best.” 

“I'll see you in the morning, and we'll talk about this later.” She turns and starts walking away. 

“I'm not calling him dad,” she yells at her retreating back, and her mom's laugh echoes through the apartment. 

[ceilingfan5]

PQRS for the fic asks if you'd like :3 !

P: Are you what George R. R. Martin would call an “architect” or a “gardener”? (How much do you plan in advance, versus letting the story unfold as you go?)

oh for sure a gardener and maybe even a forager some of the time. aw sick mushroom i cant believe ive been lost for three hours. but you guys have seen my planning docs right? like?? it's a guideline and then the fic happens to me. im along for the ride too baby

Q: How do you feel about collaborations?

YEAHHH WOOOOO HOOOOO ILU PLAY WITH ME

R: Are there any writers (fanfic or otherwise) you consider an influence?

i mean theres douglas adams, rick riordan, barbara park, beverly cleary, douglas evans, fucking. roald dahl in a way, authors i hate who help me shape my writing AWAY from the stink garbage, like for example my parasocial nemesis james patterson. and also on the good side, hundreds of other authors i read from the moment i could crack a book on... but in the taz fandom, we got. the mcelroys themselves. obviously honeycorvid, barry-j-blupjeans, you, wevilo707, noodylblastal, thie my beloved thie who helps me plan all my fics anymore bc we play and play and play, several other people im not thinking of at the moment but love anyway, lots of people i havent seen in the fandom for years, people from old fandoms like haikyuu, opm, welcome to nightvale ...i could keep going do you wanna sit down and analyze my fics with me come sit down and play we can annotate and everything look i have different rainbow highlighters and sticky notes. here we have a line that's a reference to junie b jones and then th-

S- i thought of one more and it's schemes and plots and shenanigans

[noodyl-blasstal]

Blupjeans Week Day 1

It's @blupjeansweek! Blupjeans week last year was the thing that encouraged me to start writing fics, so it's been fun to play with it again! Like last year, it's loosely connected (so far anyway!). So, now I'll stop blethering and here's some words. Day 1 - refuge

16 hours to go.

16 hours until he tanked his viva, fucked up everything he’d been working for, and his supervisor says he hadn’t ever believed Barry was capable, he just wanted his fees... Well, John would definitely say that if Barry could get hold of him but it had become abundently clear over the course of his postgrad research that John wasn’t the easiest guy to reach. Which might not be a problem if it wasn't his literal job to support Barry through his PhD.

At this point Barry hadn’t heard from him in two weeks despite a variety of progressively more panicked emails. The last conversation they had was John's particularly un-comforting statement that Barry should “...expect majors" because "it’s not the worst thesis I’ve ever read, but it certainly isn’t the best.” Barry's secondary supervisor hadn’t even bothered to show up for that meeting, so it was anyone’s guess what his take was. Barry assumed it wasn’t great.

He grabbed the pot from the coffee machine he’d abducted from the kitchen a few days ago and perched on his desk instead. He debated swigging straight from it, that seemed more efficient than using a mug, plus, his hand seemed to be shaking a bit and he didn't want to risk trying to pour it into a mug then into himself - he needed every drop to keep him awake long enough to work out how to fix this disaster.

“Knock knock! This is your 16 hour anxiety check in.” Barry’s door creaked open, but Lup didn’t appear. “Barrrrooollllld?” She sing songed, then added hopefully “...have you finally decided to sleep?” 

“Come in Lup.”

“Damn, you’re still up.” Oh, of course she was disappointed. She was probably sick of having to baby him through his anxiety. “...Not that I don’t want to see you, I was just hoping you were getting some rest.”

Barry held up the coffee pot in a cheers motion then took a swig from it. He was fine, this was fine, but if Lup left in disgust he could get back to scribbling increasingly unhinged and hard to read annotations on his sticky notes and trying to work out how to pull this disaster over the finish line. 

"Doing totally fine, huh?” Lup eyed him disapprovingly. “Barry, you have to take a break. You're going to crash in the middle of it if you keep this up. You've got what, like 15 and a bit hours?" She waited for him to nod in affirmation. "Cool, then you've got time to sleep."

He didn't have time to sleep, he had to try and plug the holes in the sinking ship that represented four years of his life. Suddenly Lup was in front of him, he hadn't noticed her moving, but she had appeared and was gently prying the sticky note monstrosity he hadn’t realised he’d picked up out of his hand. "No, I need to…"

"Sleep." Lup said. "You need to rest. There isn't a single thing in here you don't know. It's fucking brilliant, no, don't argue with me, I've read it." Barry snapped his mouth closed, he wanted to protest, but he wasn't entirely sure he could remember what he was arguing with, there was no fight left in him. "Now give me the coffee pot, Barold." He gripped it more firmly. No, not even for Lup. He couldn't relinquish this, it was the only thing keeping him awake. Lup raised and eyebrow. “Barold, don’t make me full name you. I'll do it! Hand over the pot.” Lup held her hand out expectantly.

"I'll fall asleep."

"That's the idea my guy. C'mon, gimme the sweet sweet bean juice. You don't need that where you're going."

"Where I'm…? Where am I? I'm here." Barry looked down to check.

Lup used his moment of confusion to swipe the coffee pot. Usually it wouldn’t have worked… probably, okay, it would have, but slower and he would have protested more. Right now his hands felt too heavy to even think about taking evasive action. "Yoink!" Lup said triumphantly, holding it aloft. Then he blinked and she didn't have the coffee pot any more. Maybe she magicked it somewhere? Barry turned his head to try and find it, and then she was tugging at his hand. "Not here, Bear, somewhere comfy."

"The chair's comfy, it's ergonomic." He paid a lot of money because the guy in the shop was really confident about that.

Lup snorted and tugged harder. "Barold Jorts Bluejeans, you're coming with me." 

"My name isn't…"

"...Ssssh." Lup might have been laughing. Barry wasn’t entirely sure, maybe it was him actually? Should stand? Oh, actually, he was up and moving and Lup still had hold of his hand and maybe she didn't have to let it go and she could just keep holding his hand and he could hold hers and maybe she’d have a nap with him. They stopped.

"This is your room." Barry wasn't entirely sure how they'd got there, time was doing strange things. 

"Yup, cha'girl decided you couldn't be left unattended in yours, it's too full of anxiety, even if I get you to sleep you'll marinade in it. So, we're here." Lup pushed the door wide.

Her bed had developed some kind of blanket canopy, there were string lights strewn around, and he could hear the soft patter of rain even though there wasn't a cloud in the sky. "It's… this is… magic. You made it all magic."

"Uh huh, now get in." Lup lifted a corner of blanket, it revealed a whole mess of pillows and blankets waiting inside. The bed looked so cosy, so inviting, so much better than his boring bed. He shouldn't, he really shouldn’t, he should study more, he couldn't afford to get off track. "That’s it, Bear." Oh. He was in the process of crawling in, and he was comfy. He flopped bodily into the bed and everything smelled of Lup’s orange body wash. Maybe he could just live here.

"I should do more prep." He mumbled, and sank into the pillow nest, rubbing his face on a soft fleece blanket. 

"Uh huh." Said Lup. 

"There's… I need to… you see, I have..."

"I'll wake you up in a few hours, sleep tight, Bear."

“Sleep tight Lup.” Barry mumbled from the depths of his blanket cocoon.

Part 2 here.

[timeforlupsopinion]

for those of you who missed the last post, taakitz baby (and blupjeans baby) posts will now be done at @cashmerelyric, so if that’s what makes you happy, that’s where you’ll find it <3

[forestlingincorporated]

I couldn’t resist this scene from  Weevilo707′s Heartstrings on Archive of Our Own. It’s done in Windows Sketchpad, so there’s only one layer and I had limited colors, but it was a nice challenge. 

I tried to make them look like how they’re described in the fic??? Basically, AU where Angus is Lup and Barry’s kid. A wee Angus Bluejorts.  

[iftheworldendsinflames]

Title: Angus "Jorts" McDonald (Chapter 7) 

Rating: G 

Ships/ Primary Characters: Lup/Barry, Angus 

Warnings/Tags: Angus is Blupjeans baby 

Summary: Angus was always curious about his parent since even his grandpa, the greatest detective ever, couldn’t find them. Then on his fifth birthday, a man named Barry Bluejeans arrives claiming to be his father.

Chapter 7 is now up!