listening to the donor bonus episodes is such an enlightening experience like

how i expected the boys to meet: 

none of them know each other beforehand, maybe magnus and merle did a couple jobs as a duo before they pick up taako, nothing known of dark histories

how it happened:

taako: ok you caught me im the famous cooking wizard. i killed like a lot of people on accident and im kinda messed up about it

magnus: oh cool, im a fan of your show! you should come adventuring with me

merle: hey

magnus and taako: he’s not with us