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

[summerdude]

This, frankly, shocks Magnus. A good shock, but totally unexpected nonetheless. "Really?" he asks.

[onthewillowsthere]

"If you want me to," with a touch of shyness now -- he's second-guessing whether he read the situation right.

[summerdude]

"I'd love that," Magnus says, thinking of the easy comfort he felt when they were curled up around each other right after the zombie attack. "I think it would really help. You really wouldn't mind?" He had it in his mind that Galahad really likes the fact that he lives with Claudius. Not that Galahad would be moving in, really, but still.

[onthewillowsthere]

He's fairly confident Claudius will understand this -- Claudius likes Magnus, he's said so at length, and it won't be a long time. Galahad can think of ways to make that easier. "Thou art my best friend."

[summerdude]

"You're mine." Magnus is fiercely grateful to know Galahad. "I'm not ready yet, but when I am -- I'll take you up on the offer. Thank you."

[onthewillowsthere]

He nods: that's fine. Whenever Magnus is ready.

[summerdude]

After a companionable stretch of silence, Magnus says, "I wish I could show you Boston." It's a new thought, not something he's been ruminating on, but it hits him like a brick, how much he wants this.

[onthewillowsthere]

"Tell me about it."

[summerdude]

"It's the center of the universe," Magnus says, with a half-laugh. "By which I mean, it's at the trunk of the World Tree. Most people not from Boston would argue it's not the center of the world at all. It's, like, fine? As a city? I don't actually have a lot to compare it to. Lots of buildings, lots of bridges, lots of angry drivers. But it has some of my favorite things in the world. Fadlan's Falafel, for example, the best restaurant in Midgard. My friend Blitzen has a clothes store. The Chase Space is there. It's -- it was my uncle Randolph's house. He left it to me and my cousin Annabeth in his will, and when I stopped Loki the gods did some magical paperwork so that I could turn it into a better shelter for kids. Alex helps me run it. Hearth and Blitz help out, too."

[onthewillowsthere]

"You made something good there. It's your home."

[summerdude]

Magnus is quiet for a long time. Eventually: "It's one of them."

[onthewillowsthere]

It's Galahad's turn to be quiet, waiting. Although his hands tend to be cold, the rest of his body is a warm weight against Magnus'.

[summerdude]

"Do you want to stay here? At the Mansion, I mean."

[onthewillowsthere]

He's still quiet; that bears thinking over properly. "I want to be where Claudius is, and you, and Shen Yuan," finally.

[summerdude]

Magnus nods. As they're talking, he registers the chill in Galahad's fingers, where they're tangled with his own, and sends the warmth he's feeling in his chest at what Galahad's saying down along his arm and into their joined hands. "I was talking to Hanguang-jun out here earlier," he says. "About Ragnarok."

[onthewillowsthere]

"Your fight?"

[summerdude]

"Yeah, the apocalypse battle." Magnus is quiet for a moment, swinging his legs, grateful -- not for the first, or second, or even tenth time that day alone -- that Galahad is the kind of guy who lets him gather his thoughts. He loves his friends back home, but Mallory in particular loves quick, witty banter. He can keep up, but this is... nice. (He doesn't want to think 'nicer.')

"I had this thought. About the prophesies."

[onthewillowsthere]

Galahad waits for him.

[summerdude]

"Jack has another name," Magnus says, touching his Jack-pendant, which hum sleepily at him, and then moving his hand to hold Lan Wangji's jade token, instead. "Sumarbrander. The Sword of Summer. I forget if I've told you his story before."

[onthewillowsthere]

To be honest, Magnus tells him so many things, of which he understands only a fraction, that Galahad can't actually remember, so he just says, "Tell me."

[summerdude]

"He was Frey's sword, first," Magnus says. "They were together for centuries. Then Frey fell in love with the frost giant, Gerd. He had to give Sumarbrander up to his servant, the god Skirnir, as payment for Skirnir entreating Gerd on his behalf. Or kidnapping her? Legends vary, and I haven't exactly asked him if he was cool about consent." Magnus is clearly embarrassed by this. "Anyway, Sumarbrander was so upset that Frey gave him up for love that he vowed never to be his sword again. One of Skirnir's demigod kids was maybe Leif Erikson? Or maybe some other explorer, who bore Sumarbrander on a ship to America -- um, it's across the ocean from England; it's where I'm from. The ship went down; Sumarbrander got lost under the water for centuries. Only a child of Frey can call him, so he was lost in the water until my uncle made me rescue him." He makes a face. "That's how I died, actually. Surt -- a fire giant -- is destined to bear Sumarbrander during Ragnarok. He wanted to take Jack the second I got him out of the river. I didn't let him."

He's quiet for a few minutes, partly to let Galahad digest the information, and partly because it's harder, now, to talk about his own death than it was when he first arrived in the Mansion. Then he says, "Surt is destined to kill Frey with Sumarbrander at Ragnarok, because Sumarbrander is the strongest and sharpest sword in the Nine Worlds, and Frey gave him away for love. Frey will only get these wicked sharp antlers to defend himself. He's going to kill a lot of giants with them first, but. Well. You know."

A shrug -- a careful one; he doesn't want to dislodge their mini-cuddle. "But Sumarbrander is supposed to kickstart Ragnarok, basically. Like, there are other events, too: a worldwide winter, the World Tree dying, certain mythological animals will trumpet the alarm -- but nothing can really kick off until Surt takes Jack and frees the Wolf, and Surt leads the giants into attacking Asgard, the world of the war-y gods. So I've been thinking. What if Ragnarok can't happen at all, because Jack isn't in the Nine Worlds and can't fall into Surt's hands? At the very least, my dad..."

He trails off.

[onthewillowsthere]

Galahad listens to all this in silence, attentively, holding Magnus' hand in his. He thinks he actually understands this. Claudius sometimes says that he would never go back to his own world because of his fate there -- that it's better to remain here, knowing that without him the outcome can't be achieved. Galahad thinks he can't be the only one. He himself wants Percival to be the Grail Knight instead, because Percival is so brave and luminous and holy, and he deserves to be the one who heals with it; he doesn't want to die, and he would ask God for some better reward. He would surely do more than Galahad has. He should be loved and honored and maybe if Galahad isn't there he would be.

If this place removes them from their worlds and doesn't replace them, then it's possible. It's possible that if Magnus brings Sumarbrander here where Surt can never find him to lift against Frey, Ragnarok can never happen, and the world can never end. Magnus' friends and father will never truly die. And Magnus can stop preparing for the end-of-the-world war, because it isn't coming. He would truly be free to choose something else.

Galahad nods, squeezing his hand.

[summerdude]

"My only thing is," Magnus says, squeezing back. "Really, even more than my -- my friends, who I miss so much, but not enough to doom them all to Ragnarok... is the Chase Space. I hate feeling like I've abandoned it."

[onthewillowsthere]

This, too, makes perfect sense. The Chase Space is something Magnus built for children like he was, to address the limitations of the shelters he avoided when he was homeless. It's his boon from his Gods. But the word abandoned raises some protective instinct in Galahad, the same thing that bared its teeth when Claudius spoke of killing himself. "You didn't choose to come here," a little sharply.

[summerdude]

Magnus looks at Galahad, a little surprised. He's only sort of heard Galahad sound something like this, once, when Claudius was injured. He always listens to Galahad, both the things Galahad says and what Magnus can make out of the things he doesn't, but he really makes himself internalize this particular statement. "You're right," he agrees. "I didn't." He's quiet for a moment, thoughtful. "It's hard not to feel responsible though, you know? Especially since..." a little guilt infuses his tone. "I'm happy here."