I Lose All Sense Of Reason [open post]

[summerdude]

Magnus is walking down the front steps of the Mansion, freshly-loaded bag of food in tow, ruminating on a few of his most recent and devastatingly embarrassing conversations, when he hears footsteps behind him.

Well. He did tell Galahad he'd ask everyone. Might as well start now. "Can you explain the birds and the bees -- I mean, sex -- to me?" he demands, even before he sees who it is.

Comments

[sagramore]

"This is an irritating answer, I suppose, but there aren't any I can't stand. I don't like Ernő Szép, but that doesn't mean he's a bad poet. I just don't find his verse particularly meaningful. I find the Edda interesting, but it doesn't strike at my heart the way the poems I read at the talent show do. It's all relative, I'm afraid. To each his own, and so on."

[summerdude]

That's so measured! Probably that's the kind of thing you think when you're an actual adult-shaped adult-type grown-up and not just an almost-twenty-five-year-old sixteen-year-old. "My least favorite is Snorri Sturluson," he says. "He's such a dick."

[sagramore]

"On the other hand, there's something to be said for hating things forthrightly. Why is he a dick?"

[summerdude]

"Well, he's a thane in Valhalla," Magnus says. "They're like... the guys in charge when Odin isn't around. They decide if someone is worthy of becoming an einherji. We don't really get along. He was one of the guys who tried to fire Samirah from being a valkyrie." He pauses. "He did more with the Prose Edda than the Poetic Edda but he wrote poetry too. He leads some of the Poetry Recitation to the Death classes at Valhalla but if you don't do one of his poems he gets really pissy and sometimes he kills you. So." He thinks for a moment. "Also his poems have, like, super edgelord vibes."

[sagramore]

"It's vitally important that you explain to me what edgelord is."

[summerdude]

"An edgelord is someone who, like, tries to shock people with their extremist and -- a lot of times, offensive -- takes. Um, opinions." Magnus scratches his head. "Shen Yuan could probably explain it better."

[sagramore]

"I'll ask him next time we account. I do think Agravain might be an edgelord." Talking to Magnus and Shen Yuan does make him appreciate what Laertes sees in new languages. He's begun bouncing on the trampoline again while they talk, not quite letting his feet leave the surface; it feels good to have some movement in his body.

[summerdude]

Magnus bounds up and starts jumping with Sagramore, taking his cue and being gentle with it. "Who's Agravain? Another poet?"

[sagramore]

"No, my brother. Well," he amends, "not my real brother. When I came to Britain my friend's family took me in."

[summerdude]

"My uncle was -- well, he wasn't really an edgelord. But he had edgelord qualities," Magnus offers.

[sagramore]

"Go on."

[summerdude]

"Oh, you know. Obsessed with the Norse gods and the afterlife even though he had no personal connection to them besides, like, his sister; big fan of trying to sacrifice his nephew for personal gain wherever he could... spurned his living family for his dead when given the chance." Magnus shrugs. "The ush."

[sagramore]

"Of course, the uzh." His gaze is a touch more tender, but the matter of fact way that Magnus relays his history makes Sagramore think he'd prefer not to have much made of it. "He sounds less like an edgelord and more like an asshole, if I'm honest."

[summerdude]

"Oh, he was definitely both," Magnus says. "If I could, I'd show you a picture of his study before we turned his house into the Chase Space, and you'd be like 'Wow! What a fucking edgelord this guy must be!'"

[sagramore]

"You're well rid of him, then."

[summerdude]

Magnus isn't so sure about all that, but he also doesn't really want to get into it. Still, he squints at Sagramore suspiciously for a moment. Oh, he knows Sagramore's a lot older than he is, even with the lack-of-aging thing factored in, but mostly until this point he's been thinking about Sagramore as friend-shaped. Which he is! But Magnus has a sneaking suspicion that Sagramore might also be an adult-shaped adult. It's weird that there's such a concentration of them here... at least three? Huh.

"Edgelords aside," he says, "I think you know a lot more about poetry than I do. Any recommendations? In Valhalla they really just leaned into the skaldic stuff."

[sagramore]

If Sagramore knew what Magnus was thinking he would be extraordinarily touched. As it is, he takes out the other two books in his pack. "I prefer a poem without a narrative as such, so less like the Skaldic poems, to be honest. I like something that's evocative of a moment, or an experience. If you like, you can borrow these books."

[summerdude]

"I would like," Magnus says, enthusiastically. "You don't mind?"

[sagramore]

"No, not at all, I brought them on the chance you'd want to."

[summerdude]

"I would." Magnus is a little overwhelmed, actually, between this Sagramore being an adult-shaped-adult revelation and the entire sequence of their conversation. He looks over at the guy. "Can I give you a hug?"

[sagramore]

He looks surprised for a split-second, and then his expression turns warm, and he slows his bouncing to a stop. "Absolutely. Come here."

[summerdude]

So Magnus makes his way across the trampoline. He's getting a sense of who can and who can't withstand the full force of his hugs, here, so when he throws his arms around Sagramore's middle he only gives him about 25% of his strength.

[sagramore]

Sagramore would protest that he could stand more, but with the lack of balance the trampoline causes it's probably best that Magnus dials it back. Regardless, he wraps his arms around Magnus' shoulders and pulls him into a solid hug.

[summerdude]

"Thanks, dude," Magnus says, after a minute, moving back. "Wow, you're like, as tall as Hanguang-jun, huh?"

[sagramore]

"I'm tall," with a laugh. "Not quite as tall as he is, but only by a few centimeters."