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Not really.

Can I... come see you, though?

(Yeah, that was a pretty dumb question.)

'Course. Door's always open.

(Then:) Unless you don't need to use it now? In which case walls are always... here. For you to come through. Whenever.

I think I'm gonna stick to at least coming through the door. You got any wards in place that I need to circumvent?

[Like... holy ones?]

(Lucretia does a quick mental scan of her place.)

Nah, should be good. You're on the white list for all my wards anyway, so.

OMW

[...and after a while, the red-robed lich politely knocks on the door with mage hand before passing through it. Just as a heads-up.

She doesn't look any different from the other times she died after becoming undead, thankfully.]

Hey, Luce.

Hey.

(She'd been sitting at her table when Lup knocks, and stands as she slowly passes through the wall. It's familiar in a sad sort of way, to see her like this. She smiles, but her expression is melancholy.)

How... how far did the canister take you?

Oh, it's the end of the world.

[She shrugs a little bit, as if that wasn't a big deal.]

Last battle and all that. Guess I'm not the baby in memories any more.

The last battle?

(Oh, she's right up to where Taako is... interesting.) You're a bit ahead of me then, huh. Magnus is the baby again.

(Just like old times.)

Magnus is always the baby, lets be real.

[Lup smiles a little.]

Everyone in all the planes know our story now, Lucretia. We're legends.

Oh, natch.

(Lup's next comment is interesting. Lucretia's gaze automatically flickers to where she had last seen Junior: it's still there and in stasis, um-moving except for an occasional bob up and down as if sleeping.)

All the planes? How? (She understands the way the voidfish broadcast specific information back to those nearest, but had no idea of the scale of that power.)

You know, I don't really know how it worked but Fisher and its baby just went off to space and broadcasted everything they had eaten to everything. It was fucking amazing.

[She floats over to the little void fish container and coos at it.]

It also means everyone can see the Hunger and fight it.

Oh, shit.

(It's all she can think to say. That's a whole lot. The idea of everybody being able to see the Hunger is both exhilarating, and terrifying. She watches Lup fuss over Junior, arms folded across her chest. She can feel her heart pounding. Lup seems... friendly enough, considering she knows all the shit that has gone down in the ten year interim but– well, she has to ask.)

Lup are– are we cool?

[She turns, moving over to Lucretia again and looking down at her.]

Lucretia, dear, I’ve already forgotten about the whole thing. Oh, uh! [She smiles, because she can reuse her old joke again.] Sorry, bad choice of words.

[...but in all honesty she had not exactly been aware for a decade, had she? She had to fight to even have a consciousness, and then learn how to see and hear and exist.

Oh, she had been horrified and broken when she realized nobody came for her, existing as a barely a conscious mind in her staff.

Then Taako arrived, and didn't recognize her staff or her remains. She had sensed Lucretia outside, known that nobody remembered her.

...but how could she not forgive her? Especially not now.]

Oh, (Lucretia says, looking up at her and the crushing relief that follows is a little shock, because she hadn't been expecting it. Of course, she never would have asked for Lup's forgiveness, never would have dreamed of it. Not after what had happened with Taako.

To be forgiven is something of a kindness: perhaps too much so. But she's too selfish to question it in this moment. Surely it isn't a crime to let herself be happy and relieved for an afternoon.)

Awesome. That's– thank you.

[Lup rolls her eyes a little.]

Don't thank me, doofus. You did all right in the end.

(Lucretia lets all her breath out with a big huff until her shoulders slump.)

Yeah, I guess so.

Just got to get you back in your body now, huh?

Yeaaaaah. I mean, Taako's been pretty bamf with his spells studies and knows Clone now, so he's gonna make me a new one.

[Shrug.]

It's gonna take a while, though. Four months, give or take.

Cripes. (I mean, in comparison four months probably doesn't feel like a long amount of time to Lup but Lucretia still wants to help.)

Does he need a hand? Because I might be able to help speed that up. Like, not to honk my own horn or anything but I am also pretty 'bamf' with the magic side of stuff now too, so.

[She's so, so used to waiting by now, but this place was kind of outside the cycles and was a little harder to enjoy as an incorporeal lich.]

Of course you fucking are, you're gonna go put a shield around the Hunger like the baddest bitch in history!

[Lup smiles, all teeth but honestly.]

I'm sure he could use a hand. I mean... it's gonna be my body. From my hair.

[She loses her smile and backs of a bit.]

Shit. It's gonna be different.

That's the aim.

(She grins too. Besides, Taako will let her help if it's about Lup.)

'Different'? How so?

Ughhh. I mean... I haven't had my old body in centuries, Luce. It's going to be really shitty.

[That was putting it lightly, but she could do it. It would just be for a little while, until they could change it back to her.]

I know. But we'll do our best to get everything back to normal for you as soon as possible.

(She holds her hands out to Lup, as if going to take hers, then drops them again with an embarrassed chuckle. Whoops, already slipping up.)

[It's going to be shitty and dysphoric and all that stuff, but it's temporary, just like this is temporary. Because she has the best family.]

I know.

[She sees the gesture and there's a warmth in her chest as she conjures that stupid mage hand that she's been doing everything with lately, and lets it grasp Lucretia's.]

(She grins, and clasps the mage hand in place of holding Lup. They'll all make it through this, she knows they will. She has all the faith in the world in them.)

So how many awful pranks have you got lined up before the four month lich body grace period is up?

So many.

[She beams at Lucretia. Damn, the other woman knows her so well.]

Definitely making Magnus do that squeak a lot as payback for all the ass I see.

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oh no the icon 😭

just for u ❤️

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