p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14.875px;"spanMorning came quickly, and Taako felt anxiety grip him tightly when he heard the human padding around in the other room. He remembered how Lup screamed yesterday, and she had minimal injuries. What would it feel like to have someone poking inside him, where all his organs would have been if he were still alive? There was no way to turn off feeling pain— believe him, he tried when those shark masked ruffians beat the daylights out of him. Oh gods, what if it felt worse this time? What if—/span/p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14.875px;"emTaako. Chill./em/p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14.875px;"spanThe human was making coffee; he could smell it from here./span/p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14.875px;"emTaako./em/p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14.875px;"spanHe was humming, stirring his coffee as he padded towards them. Did he not know who they were? Did he not know there were breathing, living beings inside these husks?/span/p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14.875px;"emTAAKO!/em/p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14.875px;"spanTaako jumped, his neck shrieking when it whipped towards Lup, who was rubbing her thumb along the back of his hand./spanem Chill, Koko. Just meditate, okay?/em/p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14.875px;"spanHe had no time to reply when the human picked his sister up bridal style and carried her to the chair he'd been in yesterday, and laid him out flat on the table./span/p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14.875px;"emYou can do this. You're Taako Tacco, for fuck's sake! /emspanhe thought to himself./span/p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14.875px;"spanOf course, that didn't stop him from letting out a tiny shriek when the human touched a cut on his arm. The human jumped and frowned at him disapprovingly, and Lup cackle-beeped from her chair./span/p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14.875px;"span"I just need to check if there's any torn wires in your cuts. Can you handle that?"/span/p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14.875px;"spanTaako nodded as best he could./span/p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14.875px;"span"/spanemThank /emspanyou."/span/p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14.875px;"spanThe human pulled back the skin from his cuts, prodding around inside them with a weird stick thing. More often than not, he would frown and mutter an incantation, and Taako could feel magic surge through the stick thing and then feeling would return to a small portion of his arm. By the end of an hour, the human got up to stretch, and Taako could move his right arm again./span/p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14.875px;"emSee buddy? /emspansaid Lup. /spanemIt's not so bad!/em/p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14.875px;"emCan it. Besides, you screamed so loud I could hear dogs barking./em/p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14.875px;"emMy joints were dislocated!/em/p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14.875px;"spanThe human finished stretching and sat back down, turning his eyes on to repairing Taako's other arm./span/p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14.875px;"spanThroughout the day, the human talked to them as though he were venting to a stuffed toy, unable to reply but certainly real enough. He didn't say much interesting, mostly explaining what he was doing when he started on something new. Sometimes, he would talk about something that had happened recently, gossip that had made its way down the grapevine to him somehow./span/p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14.875px;"spanAround three o'clock, as his internal clock told him, Lup's motor processors must have finally kicked in, as she got up from her chair and began exploring the workshop. More often than not, the human would have to pause to snatch an item from her curious grasp, rubbing at his temples and pleading with her not to touch anything. After about two hours of milling about the workshop, she made her way into his private quarters and turned on a TV. The human looked exasperated at that, muttering something about anything that kept her out of his hair./span/p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14.875px;"spanAn hour after that, the man paused to eat, leaving Taako to lay on the workshop table. Experimentally, he began moving his limbs, testing them out. He hadn't had much use of them since he'd stumbled onto that garbage dump, after being beaten so badly by those gangers. Lup had just happened to be there, discarded by a scalper, and he thanked the gods he'd found her./span/p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14.875px;"spanAfter escaping from the house they'd awoken in— and burned down— they found they couldn't access their magic any longer. It wasn't as if they couldn't feel it coursing through their new veins— they could feel it stronger than ever— but trying to access it, it just fizzled at their fingertips, leaving them defenseless. Besides, who had ever heard of a bot who could cast magic./span/p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14.875px;"spanWhen the human returned, Lup trailed behind him, grabbing the chair and moving it so that she could hover above him. The human ignored them in favor of cutting open Taako's chest— which hurt like absolute hell, but he managed to keep it in— and pulling out broken components./span/p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14.875px;"emHow's my favourite brother doin'?/em/p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14.875px;"emOh, you know, same as ever. Just got a huge nerd excavating my chest cavity. How about you?/em/p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14.875px;"spanLup nodded, her demeanor turning serious. /spanemJust saw the news. They found the house. With the cultists./em/p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14.875px;"spanTaako made the best grimace he could manage. /spanemAnd?/em/p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14.875px;"emThey're calling it a cultist ritual gone wrong. The bodies are too burnt up to be identified, but they found signs of necromancy./em/p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14.875px;"emWell, that's obvious. We wouldn't be here gettin' fixed up by nerdlord if they hadn't./em/p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14.875px;"emNo, Taako. They found signs of a ritual for creating a lich./em/p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14.875px;"spanIf he still had blood, it would've run cold by now. /spanemSo why did they take our souls?/em/p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14.875px;"emI dunno. The militia captain refused to comment any further. They probably don't know much else./em/p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14.875px;"emMaybe if we're lucky, they'll get Agnes on the case…/em/p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14.875px;"emThey already have./em/p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14.875px;"spanHe let out a heavy sigh. The human glanced up at them with a curious look before turning back to his work. Lup ran a hand through his torn out hair./span/p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14.875px;"emAny word on our bodies?/em/p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14.875px;"emNone. They probably don't care enough about two vagrants in the Undercity being found in a dark hole. We'll be lucky if we have an obituary./em/p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14.875px;"emI'm sure /emspansomeone/spanem is still looking for us./em/p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14.875px;"spanLup pressed her forehead into Taako's. /spanemYeah. I'm sure they are. All those losers are probably falling apart at the seams 'cause we're not there to keep 'em together./em/p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14.875px;"spanWith one last tug, the human ripped something out of Taako's chest and muttered, "emFi/em/spanemnally,"/emspan before sitting him up on the table, covering him with a blanket, and returning to his bedroom./span/p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14.875px;"emTaako. Chill./em/p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14.875px;"spanThe human was making coffee; he could smell it from here./span/p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14.875px;"emTaako./em/p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14.875px;"spanHe was humming, stirring his coffee as he padded towards them. Did he not know who they were? Did he not know there were breathing, living beings inside these husks?/span/p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14.875px;"emTAAKO!/em/p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14.875px;"spanTaako jumped, his neck shrieking when it whipped towards Lup, who was rubbing her thumb along the back of his hand./spanem Chill, Koko. Just meditate, okay?/em/p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14.875px;"spanHe had no time to reply when the human picked his sister up bridal style and carried her to the chair he'd been in yesterday, and laid him out flat on the table./span/p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14.875px;"emYou can do this. You're Taako Tacco, for fuck's sake! /emspanhe thought to himself./span/p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14.875px;"spanOf course, that didn't stop him from letting out a tiny shriek when the human touched a cut on his arm. The human jumped and frowned at him disapprovingly, and Lup cackle-beeped from her chair./span/p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14.875px;"span"I just need to check if there's any torn wires in your cuts. Can you handle that?"/span/p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14.875px;"spanTaako nodded as best he could./span/p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14.875px;"span"/spanemThank /emspanyou."/span/p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14.875px;"spanThe human pulled back the skin from his cuts, prodding around inside them with a weird stick thing. More often than not, he would frown and mutter an incantation, and Taako could feel magic surge through the stick thing and then feeling would return to a small portion of his arm. By the end of an hour, the human got up to stretch, and Taako could move his right arm again./span/p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14.875px;"emSee buddy? /emspansaid Lup. /spanemIt's not so bad!/em/p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14.875px;"emCan it. Besides, you screamed so loud I could hear dogs barking./em/p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14.875px;"emMy joints were dislocated!/em/p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14.875px;"spanThe human finished stretching and sat back down, turning his eyes on to repairing Taako's other arm./span/p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14.875px;"spanThroughout the day, the human talked to them as though he were venting to a stuffed toy, unable to reply but certainly real enough. He didn't say much interesting, mostly explaining what he was doing when he started on something new. Sometimes, he would talk about something that had happened recently, gossip that had made its way down the grapevine to him somehow./span/p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14.875px;"spanAround three o'clock, as his internal clock told him, Lup's motor processors must have finally kicked in, as she got up from her chair and began exploring the workshop. More often than not, the human would have to pause to snatch an item from her curious grasp, rubbing at his temples and pleading with her not to touch anything. After about two hours of milling about the workshop, she made her way into his private quarters and turned on a TV. The human looked exasperated at that, muttering something about anything that kept her out of his hair./span/p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14.875px;"spanAn hour after that, the man paused to eat, leaving Taako to lay on the workshop table. Experimentally, he began moving his limbs, testing them out. He hadn't had much use of them since he'd stumbled onto that garbage dump, after being beaten so badly by those gangers. Lup had just happened to be there, discarded by a scalper, and he thanked the gods he'd found her./span/p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14.875px;"spanAfter escaping from the house they'd awoken in— and burned down— they found they couldn't access their magic any longer. It wasn't as if they couldn't feel it coursing through their new veins— they could feel it stronger than ever— but trying to access it, it just fizzled at their fingertips, leaving them defenseless. Besides, who had ever heard of a bot who could cast magic./span/p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14.875px;"spanWhen the human returned, Lup trailed behind him, grabbing the chair and moving it so that she could hover above him. The human ignored them in favor of cutting open Taako's chest— which hurt like absolute hell, but he managed to keep it in— and pulling out broken components./span/p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14.875px;"emHow's my favourite brother doin'?/em/p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14.875px;"emOh, you know, same as ever. Just got a huge nerd excavating my chest cavity. How about you?/em/p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14.875px;"spanLup nodded, her demeanor turning serious. /spanemJust saw the news. They found the house. With the cultists./em/p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14.875px;"spanTaako made the best grimace he could manage. /spanemAnd?/em/p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14.875px;"emThey're calling it a cultist ritual gone wrong. The bodies are too burnt up to be identified, but they found signs of necromancy./em/p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14.875px;"emWell, that's obvious. We wouldn't be here gettin' fixed up by nerdlord if they hadn't./em/p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14.875px;"emNo, Taako. They found signs of a ritual for creating a lich./em/p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14.875px;"spanIf he still had blood, it would've run cold by now. /spanemSo why did they take our souls?/em/p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14.875px;"emI dunno. The militia captain refused to comment any further. They probably don't know much else./em/p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14.875px;"emMaybe if we're lucky, they'll get Agnes on the case…/em/p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14.875px;"emThey already have./em/p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14.875px;"spanHe let out a heavy sigh. The human glanced up at them with a curious look before turning back to his work. Lup ran a hand through his torn out hair./span/p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14.875px;"emAny word on our bodies?/em/p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14.875px;"emNone. They probably don't care enough about two vagrants in the Undercity being found in a dark hole. We'll be lucky if we have an obituary./em/p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14.875px;"emI'm sure /emspansomeone/spanem is still looking for us./em/p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14.875px;"spanLup pressed her forehead into Taako's. /spanemYeah. I'm sure they are. All those losers are probably falling apart at the seams 'cause we're not there to keep 'em together./em/p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14.875px;"spanWith one last tug, the human ripped something out of Taako's chest and muttered, "emFi/em/spanemnally,"/emspan before sitting him up on the table, covering him with a blanket, and returning to his bedroom./span/p