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.

Comments

[onthewillowsthere]

The waging of war on Denmark by a king who may or may not have been Magnus' ancestor is so fully abstract (and, he thinks, probably doesn't matter to Claudius) as to be insignificant. You don't like your name?

[summerdude]

Magnus purses his lips, thinking about this. My mom gave it to me, he decides. With a laugh -- this is one of his favorite jokes, even though no one else has ever found it funny -- And it rhymes with s-w-a-g-n-e-s-s.

[onthewillowsthere]

What does that spell?

[summerdude]

"Swagness," Magnus says aloud, with another laugh. It's a slang term. It means cooler than cool. He laughs again. I want to be clear that this is a super lame joke. Everyone rolls their eyes. I'm the least cool person most of my friends know.

This last is signed fondly, with a smile and another roll of his eyes.

[onthewillowsthere]

Cool? That's good?

[summerdude]

Cool is good. Cool means... swag. Magnus laughs again. If you had told him two months ago that he'd be defining 'cool' to a knight... well, actually, he'd probably believe it; his life has been weird for years. But he's happy to be doing it. Since he's starting to use signs he hasn't specifically taught Galahad before, and he's not sure they're in the books he knows Galahad has been reading, he speaks quietly along with his next set of signs. It means a lot of things, I guess. Awesome. Kickass. Interesting. Excellent. It can also mean acceptable or all right, depending on how it's used. When I say all my friends are cooler than me, I mean they stand out or make things look effortless or whatever. I'm just some guy, and I have to work hard. He grins at Galahad. This doesn't bother him at all; he knows he's still okay at a bunch of stuff, and he loves his friends. Falling silent again, he adds, In my book, you're very cool.

[onthewillowsthere]

I think you're cool too. Galahad hesitates, and then makes a letter M and uses it to make the sign for sunlight, circling it over his temple and then throwing his fingers open.

[summerdude]

Magnus stares for a minute before he fully makes the connection, and then he launches himself at Galahad. It's only his einherji reflexes that keep him from toppling them both off the branch, but he braces one hand against the trunk of the tree as he pulls Galahad into a hug and stabilizes them both in time. "Sorry," he says, once he knows neither of them are going to fall, and then: "I love you so much, man. Thank you."

[onthewillowsthere]

Galahad hugs him back tightly, and murmurs, "I love thee too."

[summerdude]

It must be said that, in this moment, Magnus is feeling a lot less conflicted about the prospect of averting Ragnarok forever by just staying here. "You wanna get out of this tree?" he asks Galahad. "I wanna try that thing you made before the squirrels realize it's there. And," he gestures down at the fire pit. "Mothwing keeps bringing me fish, if you're hungry?" He knows it's not the most appealing of prospects -- fish badly seasoned with some stuff he's pilfered from the kitchens, cooked over an open fire -- so he's not committed to pushing it.

[onthewillowsthere]

A beat, and then he says, in a testing voice, "I hate fish," as if he expects to be struck down by God's hand from on high for saying it; when this doesn't happen, he says again, "I hate fish," with a faint smile. "Thank you, though."

[summerdude]

Magnus laughs. "Good," he says. "Frankly it's terrible, but it's all I -- oh wait, no it's not, hold on."

He leaps from the branch, landing neatly on his feet, and then goes to rummage through his backpack, carefully lifting the pastry Galahad left there out of the way. There are some protein and energy bars tucked away into a side pocket, for when he gets peckish and doesn't feel like putting in any effort. He grabs them, and then, bars and pastry in hand, circles back to look up at Galahad still on the branch. "Wanna try?"

[onthewillowsthere]

Galahad carefully slides off the branch, with none of Magnus' assured physicality, and lands in a crouch. "Yes," giving Magnus a faintly amused look, because he knows by now that Galahad likes to try all new things.

[summerdude]

Magnus grins. "I knew you would," he says, and offers Galahad the fistful of bars. There's a decent assortment of brands and flavors; he'd been most excited when the Mansion yielded his mom's favorite carrot cake clif bars on a recent dive through the kitchens, but there's at least six other types in his hand, including a couple he'd never heard of before the Mansion. "Any of these sound good to you, man?"

[onthewillowsthere]

He sorts through the different flavors with interest -- what he'd really like, obviously, is to do a tasting like they did with all the drinks back when they first met, but if Magnus is planning to stay outside for a while then it won't be easy for him to just get the kitchen to generate more. With that in mind, he finally selects a German chocolate cake flavor.

[summerdude]

While Galahad sorts through the bars, Magnus samples the pastry. "Oh my gods, Galahad, this is amazing," he says, licking his fingers clean. It's going to be so hard not to house the entire thing in three bites. "I should probably warn you that protein bars are terrible compared to this kind of thing."

[onthewillowsthere]

Galahad shifts a little closer to Magnus' fire -- he's starting to get cold again -- and opens the wrapper on the protein bar before taking an experimental bite. Then he makes a face at Magnus.

[summerdude]

Magnus laughs. He leans forward, adding some more wood to the fire, and then moves closer to Galahad. It's a chilly day, and he doesn't want to drain himself by calling too much summer, but he can share his body heat. "Sorry, dude," he says, and taps the carrot cake one with the back of his knuckle. "Try this one? It's less awful. It was my mom's favorite."

[onthewillowsthere]

He makes another face, but he's always willing to try, and he takes it. "Why does it exist? Is it a food for penance?"

[summerdude]

"Nah, it's like, really calorie-dense or something," Magnus says, laughing. He really likes how funny Galahad is. "It's good for if you're, like, hiking, or rock climbing, or doing anything else active where you could use more energy or protein. I mostly associate them with camping."

[onthewillowsthere]

"So it doesn't matter whether it's good or not," breaking off a little piece of the carrot cake bar to try. It's not nearly as bad -- thanks different brand entirely -- but it's still not something he'd actually try to eat again, and he resolves to bring Magnus food more regularly so he doesn't have to either.

[summerdude]

"It doesn't," Magnus agrees. He grins at Galahad. "Some people really love these things, though. I have a friend back home who is obsessed."

[onthewillowsthere]

"Really?" It's about as openly dubious as Magnus (or anybody, really) has ever heard him.

[summerdude]

"Yeah. One of the Eriks. He can't get enough of the stuff." He shrugs. "Probably because he went on tons of really long voyages when he was alive and these are better than whatever he ate on the boats."

[onthewillowsthere]

"It must be easy to fast on boats."