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[prestidigital]

PLAYER
NAME: Crystal
CONTACT: maledictions
ARE YOU 18 OR OLDER: Yep!

CHARACTER
NAME: Taako
CANON: The Adventure Zone
AGE: Early 100s + an extra century and some change due to time shenanigans preventing him from aging physically for that extra century (but not the change). He's the same age as Lup and also appears to be in his mid-20s!
CANON POINT: post-ep. 69

HISTORY: The wiki gives a pretty good breakdown for Taako pre-the campaign. This page will lead you to links for details on individual chapters.

PERSONALITY:

Immediately, folks will notice that Taako's devil may care attitude. It seems like nothing really matters all that much to Taako outside of himself seeing as how he's often the first to crack a joke (usually at the expense of someone who is taking the situation seriously) and is incredibly reluctant to involve himself in anything that has the potential to be dangerous or inconvenient without significant incentive. He's also not above pinching whatever isn't nailed down and hocking it later for cash money with little regard for others' potential sentimental attachment to what he's taken for himself.

Taako spent the majority of his life with temporary relationships. During his childhood, he was passed from one relative to the next and when he was old enough to be on his own, he drifted from one adventuring group to the next to the next to the next. In that time, Taako learned to take a pragmatic approach to his relationships with others. He didn't go looking for people for the sake of friendship, but a guarantee to his continued survival. He used charm and showmanship to draw them in and used his cooking to make himself indispensable, but he was always, always at an arm's length with everyone he traveled with regardless of how long it would last.

But even with all of his walls and his contentment with simple survival, Taako still has a beating heart. As much as he puts on a show of being unflappable and even selfish, he cares a lot about others. After he thinks he killed an entire village by accident with his magical cooking, Taako avoids cooking as much as possible despite it being an important passion for him. He hassles and teases boy detective, Angus McDonald, but he still takes him under his wing to teach him magic. He has no real incentive to continue building friendships with Merle and Magnus, his fellow adventurers, but he sees things through to the very end and most likely would have even if he never remembered their time together before the events of the main campaign. So despite all attempts at aloofness and scathing humor, Taako still connects with others even if it's a little slow-going on its own, such as when Taako didn't know where his twin sister, Lup, was or that she even existed in the first place.

Without Lup in person or in his memories, Taako's walls were far more solid and his ability to keep his distance was almost an artform. Lup tends to dive right in with the full force of her personality, dragging Taako with her while Taako keeps her a little more grounded. But only a little because when it comes to Lup, Taako is willing to do anything and let her do what she feels is best. Even in moments when he's afraid or uncertain she's making the right choice, such as when she made the decision to become a lich, Taako is more willing to swallow down his feelings.

That is not solely because of his strong desire to always be supportive of his sister, however. As one can imagine given that Taako tends to act aloof and pushes people away, he's uncomfortable with addressing vulnerable emotions with others. Sometimes he can't avoid it with people he loves and trusts (e.g. Lup), but he's quick to back off and change the subject or make a joke to take the attention away from his feelings. But even when it would be better for him to actually speak on what he's feeling, Taako relies heavily on jokes and distractions to keep attention as far away from his feelings as possible.

In short, Taako is someone who tends to keep others at an arm's length before slowly connecting with them if he is not given encouragement. This exterior developed after years and years spent floating from one group to the next with his only constant being his sister. Rather than a focus on maintaining close friendships, Taako leans towards a more pragmatic approach towards relationships and focuses on survival instead. But he does still have a heart beneath all of that, one that is capable of making friends (even if it takes a long time without Lup to pull him in that direction) and one that knows right from wrong. Taako may having a scathing sense of humor and appear to not take much of anything seriously, but when push comes to shove, he'll put down the loot and try to save the world. Just don't expect a heart-to-heart about it afterward because yuck. Feelings. Ew.

POWERS:

Due to being an elf, Taako:

+ ages slowly and will live a long time
+ has above average senses & night vision
+ doesn't need to sleep

Due to being a wizard, Taako can use magic. Taako's speciality is transmutation magic.

+ Transmutation magic involves changing the properties of creatures, objects, and environment. An example of this would be Darkvision, which would allow a living being to see in the dark. Another example would be that Taako can cast Blink and allow himself to temporarily leave whatever plane of existence he's on for the Ethereal, move, and reappear. For a list of example spells, see here.
+ A detailed list of his spells that he's cast (which go outside transmutation because those McElroys play fast and loose with the rules) can be found here!

Taako is also really damn good at cooking!

SAMPLES
1ST PERSON: Here!
3rd PERSON: Here!

MISC
PLANS:

Taako tends to just accidentally end up in the middle of these kinds of things. So. Here he goes again. Getting caught up in something he didn't necessarily ask for. Taako goes with the flow a lot and definitely won't kick up that much fuss with COST. But don't mistake that for trust or a lacking caring. Taako will be paying close attention to what he's being asked to do and how others are being treated. If his trust is ever broken or evaporated, he will probably be a bigger pain in the ass and less likely to go along with what he's instructed to do.

ITEM: If Taako could have the Hole Thrower, that would be groovy! The Hole Thrower allows Taako to throw a hole up to 10ft. in diamter into any non-living object (e.g. walls, ceilings, floors, furniture etc.) once per day.
CHARACTER @ID SUGGESTIONS: @themongoose for something more serious and @fromTV if you wanna go silly. I'm cool either way.
HOW DID YOUR CHARACTER JOIN COST? Taako has no memory of signing up, which is really a day ending in "y" at this point to him. He'll roll with it, but also be curious about how he forgot something like this. Again.