[He doesn't notice, caught up in his own head. Taako's gotten better at trust since the end of the apocalypse, since everything was laid out bare and Lup came back to him. But he's never been good at it, never golden at relinquishing all his safeties, putting his hand in another's. It was a protection when he was a kid, it was necessity when he had no one, it's the biggest strife he's felt since he figured out what Lucretia did. Even the people closest to him- even the woman second only to Lup- could control him anytime. It's violent, and messy, and something he'll likely never unlearn.

After all, how do you take something born into you? Or so he figures.]

Well, we were running.

[He isn't open, meticulous, careful like one of the other birds might be telling this tale. Taako is all about feeling, but he thinks Nate might understand.]

The Hunger. Thing so big it ate whole planes, universes right on up. It found a world a year after a relic dropped it wanted, and only we got to escape every year so long as one of us survived. If we found it, it'd chase us out, but wreck the world's shop pretty bad. If we didn't... world got taken. And we kept going.

[His sigh feels heavier, the breath in his lungs stuck with the rot of the room, with the cloying of this story, his place in it all.]

So it was show up. Get a year to make nice, get info, find the Light, and fight for our lives on the way out. And as long as one person made it... we all wake up again to go over on day 1. No matter what it took to make it through.

[Finally, Taako tilts his head down, the side of his eye peering towards Nate.]

We were responsible for the deaths of a lot of planets. Lot of species, Nate. Lots and lots that ended up dust.

[His gaze goes back to the host in the tank, feeling too still, his chest constricted. And he just shrugs.]

So this isn't anything new. Don't think this starts mattering now.