🔥 App; hadriel

[restinglichface]

A QUICK NOTE: I fixed up Lup's app to take her from an earlier canon point to adjust to the one month new canon rule. I took information regarding the most recent episodes out of her history, inventory, and abilities, but I left in everything for her personality, as I figure, even if it hasn't happened yet, she would still react the same way.

PLAYER
Player name: Mey
Contact: meyggy
Characters currently in-game: N/A

CHARACTER
Character Name: Lup Taaco
Character Age: Physically in her mid-twenties, but actually closer to 200 due to being an elf and wonderful timeline shenanigans.
Canon: The Adventure Zone
Canon Point: Episode 64, right after they leave the Legato Conservatory.
History: Here is a link to her wiki as well as to the Stolen Century arc that she makes her first appearance in. I'm also including a link to the TAZ transcripts right over here because reading through scripts instead of listening to over, like, 65+ hours of podcast is def easier.

To go into a little more detail, Lup is a newer character to the series, having only been recently introduced in the most previous arc. All memories of her were erased from the mind's of the main cast until episode 59, Reunion Tour--Part Two, where all of the memories of their previous life came crashing back. Which I will summarize here as concisely as possible:

The main crew of three (plus four others including Lup) originally were from a different universe entirely than the one that the podcast takes place on. All seven were handpicked by the Institute of Planar Research and Exploration (IPRE) to go on an exploration mission to see what was outside of their world. Immediately upon setting off in their ship, however, a dark presence known to them as The Hunger descended upon their planet and consumed it completely, leaving them nowhere to return to. The next one hundred years are spent being chased through different universes by The Hunger, popping in at random planets to try and figure out ways to stop the dark force pursuing them. During this century, the IPRE crew see many other worlds become consumed by The Hunger (which increases it's power each time), but they also make more strides in coming closer to defeating it.

It's here that Lup's personality shines through in her relationship with her twin brother and her close camaraderie with the rest of the crew.

Lup will be coming in after the 47th cycle, when her and Barry Bluejeans professed their love to one another, and the crew has been introduced to the Voidfish family, the jellyfishes with the ability to delete memories.

Personality: Lup and Taako may be identical twins with equally wicked senses of humor, but they are not the same elf and that shows so clearly in the actions they take over the course of the story.

Lup falls perfectly into place beneath the ‘trickster’ category beside her brother, a mischievous woman who loves scamming and hustling just as much as starting bar fights. Growing up the way she did, Lup is very distrustful of everyone she meets, always expecting the worst out of people and almost always getting proved right. Years of being passed on by relatives or being forced to bounce between moving caravans for shelter has taught her to rely on no one but herself and her twin. Due to this detachment from society, Lup takes great pleasure in scamming the people she meets. It’s explained in the first episode of The Stolen Century, that their last night on their home planet, the twins decide to hustle idiots in pool at the local bar, winning effortlessly. Instead of taking the loser’s money, they decide to take his shoes. Not because they are cool or useful or worth anything, but they do it simply to punish him, so that he has to walk home through the streets with no shoes in shame. It’s the little things like that, or her long-standing feud with Greg Grimmaldis (who only owes her fifteen dollars, but she continues to bring it up years after his death), that show just how aloof and distrustful Lup can be.

That attitude changes over the course of The Stolen Century, of course, if only because during the first forty-seven years, the IPRE crew all come together as family, learning to love and trust one another in a way that none of them had ever known before. For Lup, she has always just had Taako at her side and that was it. But suddenly she has five other people she can rely on, five other people who have stuck by her side for a half a century. She might not find herself being able to trust the rest of the world yet, but her circle is growing slowly.

Despite some of her other more questionable actions, Lup can also be seen to have a very fine-tuned moral compass when it comes to decisions that hold real significance. In episode 61, the IPRE find themselves on a planet full of powerful, but peaceful robots. Lup and her brother have absolutely no qualms with looting the bodies of dead robots for spare parts, but Lup draws a line at harming any that are still functioning. Fearing that The Hunger will swoop down and consume the automatons and become even more powerful, Davenport suggest that the crew kill all of the robots themselves instead, an idea that Taako is completely in favor of. However, Lup is quick to speak out against the others:

"Are we - are we just gonna burn every world that we can’t save? Just to keep the Hunger from getting its hands on it? How does that make us any better than them? [...] This - this is the point where we get to decide who we are. I refuse to let us be - the type of people who would destroy an entire world for any reason. This - this isn’t us! This can’t be how we do this!"

Even though her morals can often seem a bit shaky, Lup takes no delight in hurting the innocent, only those she sees as her enemies. A point that comes back to haunt her during their 99th cycle (in episode 66), when the powerful gauntlet she’s created has fallen into the wrong hands and leaves at least a thousand of innocent people dead. Lup is heartbroken and can’t quite shake the guilt looming over her head (“I just- I can’t help but ask… did we make the right decision?”). It’s this guilt that drives her to leave her brother and her friends without a word, deciding that her conscience can only be cleared by taking her gauntlet back and hiding it away forever.

Going hand-in-hand with her difficult childhood, Lup is more than a little hot-blooded and combative, quick to rise in anger and stubborn as hell. When the crew fell upon the 65th plane, they are held as captives and given a trial for their past sins, where they are read out their crimes. While the rest of the crew at least fights their sentences a little, Lup doesn’t even give the Justices a chance to read them off, deciding to do it herself.

Lup: Uhh wait, I’m gonna guess. I mean, definitely some lust, um… some gluttony in there, probably; pride, for sure—did I miss anything?
Taako: Wrath? Did you for—don’t forget wrath.
Lup: Oh, hella—hella wrath, yeah, definitely. [...]
Lup: Did I get everything?
Justice 3: Yes? H-how do you—how do you plead?
Lup: [laughs] Guilty, yeah.

Along with that, Lup is often rude, abrasive, loud, overly confident, and reckless. She curses freely and says exactly what she’s thinking, no matter how insensitive it might come off as. While Taako and Magnus at least try to be a little subtle about destroying the shitty gifts Merle gave them, Lup just smashes it to the ground at his feet (“Cool! I don’t— I don’t want that. [..] Mm, it’s a dead fish. I don’t want that on my head. Merle, you get that I don’t want that on my head, right?”). When it comes to confrontations, Lup will always be 100% on the side of fight over flight. But, on the opposite end, she’s also courageous, loyal, and selfless to an extent. She would do anything to protect the family that she’s made along the way, even technically giving up her mortal life for the chance to get a one-up on The Hunger by becoming a Lich.

For all of her detachment and faults, Lup is friendly and gregarious, an extrovert in the extreme. She’ll absolutely socialize with anyone and everyone, though she'll quietly be much more picky about the actual people she’ll let in close. She loves pranks and jokes of any kind (especially if she’s the one initiating them), but can also take a good goof from someone else like a champ. When it comes to emotions, Lup is a woman of extremes, feeling the whole spectrum of them intensely. It makes her happiness that much brighter to behold and her wrath that much more terrifying. She's still not as well equipped to deal with serious moments as others with more stable upbringings, oftentimes resorting to jokes to ease the discomfort she feels.

Lup is also a bit of a master of the arcane sciences by this point, having graduated at the top of her class (with Taako) from university and then having spent the last half a century studying the Light of Creation along with Barry. She's shown to be extraordinarily smart, the whole plan of creating the grand relics to hide from The Hunger coming from the two of them.

Inventory: Lup will have her red robes, her wand, and her spellbook. Coming in fresh besides that, no inventory or gold for her.

Abilities: Like the rest of the characters of TAZ, Lup is a DnD wizard (5th edition), which means everything is overly complicated to explain! In DnD, wizards cast their spells by using their acquired magical knowledge and experience. To do this, they have to prepare a certain number of spells daily that can be used, but once those have been used up, they are completely out until they are able to take a long rest (six hours) and recharge their spell slots. Though the show has not stated her level specifically, we know that Lup is at least level five as she cast a third level spell and that over the course of The Stolen Century arc, we have seen her "grow furiously in arcane power, studying the mystical secrets of the planes", so I'm just going to put Lup at level 12 with the rest of the crew. Which puts her at 5 known cantrips, 4 first level spells, 3 second level, 3 third level, 3 fourth level, 2 fifth level, and 1 sixth level.

Going a little further into things, Lup is specifically an Evocation Wizard, which is described as a spellcaster who "creates powerful elemental effects such as bitter cold, searing flame, rolling thunder, crackling lightning, and burning acid." Her full list of spells is right over here.

Like her brother, Lup can also speak six different languages, though it's unlikely those will be of much use. She's also a kickass cook, having learned with Taako growing up, but due to his whole celebrity and cooking show, I'd put her on a lower level than him there.

Not necessarily an ability, but as an elf, Lup does not require sleep, instead going into a trance-like meditation for about four hours a day. She's also resistant to charms and cannot be put to sleep.

Flaws: Flaws? Lup? Naaaw. As stated above, Lup is rude as hell, oftentimes stepping over the boundaries of what is considered socially acceptable to deliver the harsh truth she believes someone needs to hear. Don't like a gift? Smash it on the ground. Some loser at the bar gets under your skin? Hustle 'em out of their shoes. Lup gives no fucks and just never feels guilty for telling someone like it is.

Lup also has a temper that is just as fiery as her evocation title would suggest. She loves destruction and mayhem when lives aren't involved, delighted to spend her 'best day ever' blowing up a DMV just for the hell of it. When asked if she could blow up a mountain, Lup sounds fairly nonchalant in saying she could, so that's probably something she's tried in at least one of the other cycles.

Lup keeps others at a distance, despite her friendly nature, needing a very long time to let anyone in to a place where they might actually get to know her. She struggles immensely when it comes to dealing with serious, emotional topics. Even with the people she's closest to, Lup still attempts to wave off things with a joke instead of taking it seriously. (Until the guilt of deaths are involved, then she turns morose and quiet.)

She also thinks she is better than everyone else, but let's be real. It's probably true.

SAMPLES
Action Log Sample: Test Drive Meme

Comments

[restinglichface]

i; you were so young, young and dumb [Child]

[One moment you’re strolling through Hadriel alone, but the next, you suddenly have a shadow.

Wherever the unfamiliar face is headed, Lup seems intent on following along, her tiny hands curled into fists at her sides, eyes darting up and down the stranger's back.

For those who have come to know Lup in Hadriel, this young elf may not be difficult to identify. Though her hair is dark and her usual sharp cheekbones are obscured by baby fat, she still has the trademark long ears, the tan freckled skin, and the same defiant look in her eyes that her adult self sports. And despite being dressed in dirty clothes that look a little too small on her skinny frame, she holds her chin up haughtily like she's royalty instead of a street urchin, eying the figure in front of her with a frown.

When Lup finally speaks up, her voice is childlike with just a hint of a squeak, but it still manages to hold a surprising amount of indifference for her young age. She sounds bored.]

Why do you dress like that? It makes you look stupid.


ii; you were the baddest, the biggest, the bestest, burned out one [Adult]

[Nothing in Hadriel could ever just be normal, now could it?

There's always been a handful of kids running around Hadriel, usually all way too mature for their age, but still just a few among the sea of teenagers and adults that seemed to make up the population of the city. But now, overnight, that balance seems to have mysteriously shifted for the worse.

And Lup wants absolutely no part of it.]

Go away. [It doesn't matter how big and sad their damn eyes are, the elven woman gives a little wave of her hand towards the first kid that tries approaching her, making a shooing motion.] I'm way too hot to be your mom. Now skedaddle.


iii; you filled a bill, you kept it fun [Wildcard]

[OOC: Hit me up at meyggy or at my plotting comment if you want to do anything else! I'm up for ANYTHING. I want baby Lup to make all of the friends and for adult Lup to become an unwilling mom to like everyone.]


[Double!]

[No one is safe.

Anyone returning home for the afternoon may quickly realize that something isn't quite right with their place. For one, nothing seems to be where they left it. It looks like a living room-sized tornado came twisting through, knocking books off of shelves and dragging chairs from one side of the room to the other. The cushions on the couch have all been pulled to the floor and that nice throw that had been hanging off the back is mysteriously gone.

And secondly, well, there's a pair of high-pitched, squabbling voices floating down the hallway from the nearest bedroom.

Upon closer inspection, the culprits appear to be two young, identical elves, one of which is perched on top of the dresser and tearing through the top drawer, sending the owner's clothes flying as she searches for anything valuable or shiny to add to the twins' collection. The other elf is deep into the closet, making faces at a pair of bland-looking shoes.

Lup throws a pair of balled up socks at her twin brother's head.] Hurry up, dingus! We don't have all afternoon. Get in, get out, remember?

[restinglichface]

i. June 15th; soon i'll come around, lost and never found

[Upon waking, nothing had seemed out of normal.

Lup's heard whispers of the fog coming, to best prepare herself for the rest of her painful transformation into a naga. For the loss of her legs, the agonizing growth of her new tail. She's woken up almost every morning this week expecting to feel the start of it, a sharp pain that just doesn't go away. The slow stretch of her spine elongating, the shift of her organs downwards, the flesh of her legs beginning to meld together...

But Lup wakes up and it seems like today isn't going to be that day. She peers at the figure of her sleeping husband, catching the gentle rise of his chest with each breath, before the elf slips forward to curl up against him, eager to catch more sleep before the sun rises. Yet moving forward, she feels something hard and bristly brush against her leg.

Pulling the blanket off to find her once scaly legs completely bare, her glittering scales instead scattered across their bed sheets, was not at all how Lup expected to start the day.

Nor was she expecting the sudden and unquenchable hunger that would hit her.

It's later that afternoon when Lup can be found leaning up against a random building wall within Bavan, her long legs scale-less and an arm wrapped tightly around her middle. This feeling of hunger is just insatiable no matter what she consumes, the ache of it enough to leave the woman groaning there in public, her head flopping back against the wall.]


ii. June 22nd; buried underground, but i'll keep coming

[And that's just the start. For how slow a process it was to become a naga, turning into a wendigo comes in a painful, but swift rush.

The woman's already lanky form seemed to stretch and lengthen, turning the elf from slim to gaunt overnight, her dark skin pulled tightly over bones. As if that wasn't enough, then came the antlers, stag-like, bone growing out of her skull and splitting off into various points, covered in a soft velvet.

And then her heart stopped.

It's a few days after that Lup finally emerges from her home to venture into the city, though she waits until the sun is low in the sky. Her gait has temporarily lost all of her natural elven grace while she tries to adjust to having hooves, to the new bend of her legs. So maybe it isn't a surprise when she trips, the new weight of her antlers throwing the new wendigo off balance and right into whoever happens to be in her path.]

Shit! Shit--!!

[Hopefully she doesn't, like, poke your eye out with those things.]

iii. wildcard

[I am absolutely up for anything! Hit me up at meyggy for any plotting purposes or if you'd like me to write you a specific prompt!]