#god i need to watch that
i do very much want to write the “outsider perspective Jocasta Nightstrider” fic where
TaakoJocasta Nightstrider joins a, like, third level adventuring party as a ranger.
There’s a betting pool about whether it’s actually Taako – at least one party member is absolutelyconvinced that he is, and at least one party member is absolutelyconvinced that he isn’t.
On the one hand, Taako’s historically terrible at maintaining ANY kind of secret identity, but on the other hand, Taako commits to the bit, and he appreciates a good betting pool. He has a gruesome backstory. He’s given Jocasta some face scars, since, as someone very kindly pointed out on my other imbalance post, no magic means no disguise self, so may as well lean in to the hideous-ness, right? but it’s still fashionable, obvi. sometimes he fakes being bloodied or fainting.
Taako absolutely gets bored of a fight as some point and just nukes it from orbit with a ninth level spell, and invents an extremely buckwild story about what happened there. Maybe parts of it turn out to be true. He disappears literally every night, even when they’re deep in the cave of the evil dragon or whatever, to go watch some fantasy soaps with Kravitz and eat Thai. He does NOT invite any of this new party along. At some point he pretends both Garyl and Dupree are his animal companions. At some point the party runs into someone Taako knows who is not in on the bit, which is an extremely confusing few minutes for all involved. Taako refuses to admit anything. I’d say Angus but he’d figure it out instantly and probably play along so, like, Barry, maybe? Barry could be extremely funny.In the end Taako’s revealed not by anything obvious but by some inane little detail. I’m thinking like, Cloak of the fucking Manta Ray level bullshit. which is of course at an emotionally fragile moment for the party and FUCK Taako didn’t mean to start caring about ANYONE ELSE but he does. kind of. maybe like these loser babies. he obliterates the big bad in like one hit, losing his bet with Kravitz. (Listen, i don’t know why Kravitz knows about the magic this time, but he does for some reason, idk). The one person who vehemently didn’t think it was Taako is still in denial. their alternative explanation are very fun though taako enjoys encouraging them even more now.
there’s a baby wizard on the team and taako is NOT AT ALL emotional about them at all no-sirree.
someone they run into regularly, i’m thinking maybe tavernkeeper, is the BIGGEST taako fan and unfavorably compares Jocasta to Taako every time the party comes in. the party member who’s in denial was initially on pretty much the same page as the tavernkeeper, but over time they feel a little bad about it. Jocasta… is more than Taako, maybe. they still love taako but he feels a little shallow, in comparison with their friend? kid, who is too much like Taako for their own good, does noooot acknowledge this new self-knowledge to anyone. (this is definitely the wizard kid)
at some point they also run into angus. angus knows what’s up and ABSOLUTELY uses this knowledge to troll Taako. Angus is an adult and it’s very weird. he has a touching moment where he points out that taako definitely cares about this party, which he knows because he remembers all the ways taako did the same things to HIM. Jocasta instantly declares that he’s good out here and vamooses.
Kravitz is there at the finale because the big bad is some stripe of undead. emotionally tense moment with the party down to a few hp and at least one of them passed out, and then the villain arrogantly prods at “you’re taako i know because of your fucking cloak of the manta ray or something”, taako responds “welp guess the jig’s up!” and instantly incinerates them. emotionally tense moment then FULLY turns into kravitz heckling taako very a lot about losing this bet, and the rest of the party is just REELING. And Taako redirects back to the emotional turmoil of his party despite, y’know, how littlehe cares about them. definitely! definitely doesn’t care but are they, y’know, good?
