I Embrace My Inner Tarzan [open post]

[summerdude]

There's a massive old oak about fifty yards west of Magnus's favorite clearing. It has thick, sturdy branches; he can climb nearly forty feet up it before he starts to worry about them holding his weight. There's a family of squirrels that lives nearby -- good squirrels, nothing like Ratatosk -- and Magnus likes to listen to them discuss their acorn deposits. Sometimes, when they're not looking, he'll grow and stash more acorns for them to discover; he's not sure how long the winters here get.

He's pretty sure it's cold outside, but it's not cold enough to affect him, and so he's still barefoot and in a t-shirt pretty much all the time.

Today, he's been scrounging in some of the out-buildings. There's a portable outdoor fireplace. While he doesn't feel the cold, he finds (contained) fires comforting, and it'll be nice to have some hot food, so he shoulders it and a makeshift grill surface, and lugs them to the base of his oak tree. Now he'll have an easier way of preparing the fish Mothwing sometimes leaves him than trying to summon the right amount of summer into them so that they cook and don't explode, at least.

He lights a modest fire, feeding it with fallen sticks. Then he shoves an apple, picked from another nearby tree, into his mouth and a book he'd pilfered from the library into the waistband of his pants, and climbs up an easy ten feet to his favorite branch. Things don't seem so bad, living out here.

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[summerdude]

"That's cool," Magnus says. The comb feels so good. Hanguang-jun is so gentle and nice. "Why not?"

[lightbearinglord]

"Hair is a gift from one's parents," Lan Wangji says evenly. "Cutting it is disrespectful to that gift." Already, Magnus' hair is beginning to look much neater and more comfortable, which is immensely satisfying.

[summerdude]

"Mom always kept her hair super short," Magnus remembers. "But she liked mine longer. I don't know if it's because it was closer to my - to Frey's hair, then, or because... There was this Midgardian musician named Kurt Cobain before my time that she used to really like, and she got a kick out of how much I apparently looked like him. So I mostly kept it long, until we had a quest and Blitz had to cut it so he could use it as thread for a crafting. Alex got really into being my personal hairdresser after that, and I mostly let him."

[lightbearinglord]

It's a comfort to listen to Magnus, and Lan Wangji continues to comb out his hair, closer now to the crown of his head, as he speaks. There is a smear of sap stuck nearly to where the hair parts, and that takes the longest time of all to work out, because Lan Wangji is utterly determined to stay gentle, not to hurt him. "Alex," he repeats, thoughtful. He can identify a significant name, especially when it is uttered twice in one conversation. "You told me that Alex's parents were unkind to him."

[summerdude]

Magnus freezes. "Yeah," he says, slowly. "Very. I shouldn't have said that, though, even if I was upset at the time. The Loki stuff is common knowledge, but the other stuff... Alex is a really private person." Tone apologetic, he adds, "If he ever shows up here I won't ask you to pretend like I didn't say anything, but I probably shouldn't say anything else about her life before she was homeless."

[lightbearinglord]

"Mn." With some triumph, Lan Wangji flicks the half-hardened sap away, watching it soar into the air and then drop to the forest floor. He switches the hand holding the comb so that he may run his fingers through that portion of Magnus' hair, confirming that it is no longer sticky, then switches back to resume his work. "I would not ask you to."

[summerdude]

"I know you wouldn't," Magnus says, appreciatively. "Suffice to say, then, that Alex's mom is Loki, but she doesn't like to be defined by that particular relationship."

[lightbearinglord]

"I read of Loki," Lan Wangji says with another small and fleeting frown. He committed to memory every detail that he could of the gods who seem to define Magnus' world. "I understand." Finished at last, he runs the comb through each section of Magnus' hair one final time, top to bottom. Once he is satisfied that there are no knots remaining, he returns the comb to his qiankun pouch and secures it afresh to his waist.

[summerdude]

"Yeah," Magnus nods. "Bad news bears." When it become clear that Lan Wangji is done with his hair, he twists back and leans against him again. "I'm trying to think of the best way to tell Alex that I love her, next time I see her."

[lightbearinglord]

It is clear that Magnus is unlikely to fall, and equally clear that he would not sustain significant damage if he did. Lan Wangji fits his arm back around his shoulders anyway.

Magnus is young, but Lan Wangji was younger still when he fell in love. He never fell out of that love. As such, he considers this, and takes it seriously. "Can you not say it plainly?"

[summerdude]

"Yeah, but," Magnus says. "Like, I think she probably knows. I'm not a cagey guy. But I want it to be special, especially since I've been gone so long."

[lightbearinglord]

"I am more qualified to teach you painting and handstands," Lan Wangji admits, just the tiniest bit dry about it. "I have loved one person all my life and did not speak of it until recently." This is not quite accurate. He confessed once, at length, and it was forgotten entirely, Wei Ying's mind breaking under the qi backlash along with his body and spirit. That Lan Wangji is the only one who remembers makes it easy to feel as though it never truly happened.

[summerdude]

"But you did speak of it," Magnus says. "If you don't want to get into it, though, that's fine." He considers something, though, and doesn't drop the topic: "I also don't want to scare him off by being like, Alex, you're the love of my life, PS I've decided to try and quit fighting, I hope that doesn't make things weird, because I really mean it."

[lightbearinglord]

Lan Wangji is quiet for a time, gazing out at the trees around them, their bursts of autumnal colors. Magnus is very warm against his side. He thinks of Wei Ying, whose wants are often in conflict with his needs. "If Alex loves you, he will know that you require peace, and he will want it for you as much as you want it for yourself."

[summerdude]

"Yeah," Magnus says, thoughtfully. "She's really good at fighting, though. Hey, did I ever tell you that she's a shapeshifter?"

[lightbearinglord]

That is, in fact, a surprise, and Lan Wangji gives Magnus a glance of muted but interested curiosity. His expression should speak for itself, he hopes.

[summerdude]

"It's unrelated to her gender," Magnus clarifies, because that seems to be a fairly common misconception at the Mansion. "But yeah. She can do any animal. She has a really good flamingo. And a great elephant. And cheetah; she was a cheetah when I met her."

[lightbearinglord]

Lan Wangji is not certain what Alex's gender has to do with any of this¹, but the shapeshifting aspect of Magnus' beloved seems to be more interesting regardless. He struggles to imagine this, which only serves to make him more interested. "I hope to meet Alex." He wonders, not aloud, how he might feel if Wei Ying could do the same, then becomes very briefly distracted.

¹For those playing along at home, this is because he and she sound the same aloud in Mandarin, so Lan Wangji has not noticed that Magnus is switching back and forth.

[summerdude]

"I hope you do, too," Magnus says. "She beheaded me the day we met, too." This is said happily, in tones of great reverence, but it occurs to him that the statement might alarm Lan Wangji. "It was to keep her mom from exploding my brain," he clarifies. "There was a whole dream-traveling situation."

[lightbearinglord]

Indeed, predictably, Lan Wangji shoots a startled look down at Magnus, and tightens his arm around him. He settles at Magnus' reassurance and explanation, but uneasily. If this beheading was ultimately to protect Magnus, he won't object, but even the thought of it is distressing. After a moment, though, he says, "Great skill can be very charming."

[summerdude]

"They are," Magnus agrees. "Alex is good at basically everything. Pottery, fighting, wearing cool clothes, k--" He blushes. "A lot of stuff. One time we had to fight a giant in a weirdly ceremonial way, and she made a ceramic warrior overnight and brought it to life and it kicked ass."

[lightbearinglord]

There truly is a comfort, and an uncomplicated sweetness, in the unabashed admiration with which Magnus describes his Alex. Lan Wangji sincerely would like to meet this person. He gives Magnus' shoulder a gentle squeeze, to show that he is listening, and duly impressed, if Magnus would like to continue enumerating Alex's virtues.

[summerdude]

A strange thought crosses Magnus's mind: he can't introduce Alex to his mom, so he would like to introduce him to Lan Wangji. He snuggles closer to Lan Wangji about it. "She wears really loud clothes," he says. "Pinks and greens, but they look great on her. She's snarky and sarcastic and sweet. Since Loki is Samirah's dad, sometimes when Alex is a guy, since he's technically a male relative, he'll chaperone Sam and her fiance. He always gets so funny and so serious about that."

[lightbearinglord]

At this point Lan Wangji does, in fact, become aware that the matter of Alex's gender may be more complicated than he realized. It doesn't sound like anything in his experience, but then, he has encountered several things outside of his experience at this mansion. It also sounds like something that does not invite prying, so he won't. He thinks on this latest information, and then asks, "Samirah?"

[summerdude]

"My valkyrie," Magnus clarifies. "And best friend, outside of Galahad. Wait, do you know what that is?"