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

[sorrowandsorrow]

"Well, you can do it a lot all at once, have a good time in the short term, and then regret everything in the morning. Or you can take it slow. For you, I recommend the latter, but who am I to tell you what to do?"

[summerdude]

"Oh, I've been drunk," Magnus says. "A few times, like ten years ago." Then he wrinkles his nose. "I don't even know what einherji metabolism would do if I drank like that again. I still can't even really figure out if Valhalla mead has alcohol in it or not. I know Shen Yuan's weed wore off a lot faster for me than for him or Galahad."

[sorrowandsorrow]

"Thank you," Janet says to him firstly, "for the hilarious knowledge that you, Shen Yuan, and Galahad smoked weed together. If the question is about how to like alcohol, it's an acquired taste. Unless you go for garbage like Mike's Hard Lemonade."

[summerdude]

"It's more, like," Magnus pauses and takes another sip. It still mostly tastes cold. He does like the salt, though, and licks some off the rim of the glass. "I forget what I told you about myself when we talked before?"

[sorrowandsorrow]

"You fell into a river and died, and you've been sixteen for -- I guess almost nine years now. Summer, healing, and peace. Valhalla, alf seidr, Boston," Janet recites. She caps that off with another sip of margarita.

[summerdude]

"Okay, I guess I did give you all the major highlights," Magnus says, a smile quirking across his lips. He wraps his hand around the stem of the margarita glass. It doesn't sound like he mentioned this part of things, but: "When I was homeless before I died, most of the time if someone was drunk they were probably being stupid and obnoxious, maybe even dangerous. Me included, the few times I tried it. So I think it's more of a mental block than a flavor one."

[sorrowandsorrow]

"Jesus," Janet says. "Yeah. I get it." She tips her glass to shake some of the slush loose. "My best friend was pretty much an alcoholic at one point. I like a drink -- obviously. But I don't blame you for the mental block."

[summerdude]

"I don't hate this though," says Magnus, sincere, trying another sip. "You know what this is making me realize that I miss, though? Slurpees."

[sorrowandsorrow]

"Oh my God," Janet says. "It's been probably twenty years since I had a Slurpee. My parents packed me off to boarding school when I was a kid. No Slurpees at boarding school."

[summerdude]

"What?!" Magnus stares for a second, then tries for a joke. "That definitely sounds worse than being homeless."

[sorrowandsorrow]

"So much worse," Janet says in a total deadpan. "Yeah, sorry. Lawyer parents. Rich bitch."

[summerdude]

"My condolences," Magnus says, solemnly.

[sorrowandsorrow]

Honestly, there are about a million things Janet could say about her parents. Especially her father. But she's got a margarita in her hand and zero inclination to get into any of that, so she pulls out a chair at the kitchen table and sits instead. "Thanks for your sympathy," she says dryly.

[summerdude]

Magnus raises his margarita in a silent cheers to her, and takes another cautious sip. He thinks he's starting to figure out the flavor of it, now; the sharpness of the lime with the alcohol is no longer making the back of his throat feel like it's curdling with the flavor. He finds a seat, too. "So how have you been, Janet?"

[sorrowandsorrow]

"I might finally be in the acceptance stage," she says, "but that kind of makes me want to circle right back around to the anger stage." She huffs a slightly insincere laugh. "How about you?"

[summerdude]

"About being here, you mean?" Magnus asks, just to make sure.

[sorrowandsorrow]

"Yeah. There was a lot of important stuff I wanted to do back in Fillory. And then, poof."

[summerdude]

"That sucks," Magnus says, emphatically. "I get that."

[sorrowandsorrow]

"It does suck." Janet glares down into her margarita, then has to relax and take another sip. "I'm not the best at magical theory, but I've torn apart every textbook I can find trying to figure this place out. Zilch."

[summerdude]

Magnus leans forward. "What about this place are you trying to figure out?"

[sorrowandsorrow]

"Everything." She shrugs. "Why we're here. How we got here. Who the hell is keeping us here and how to get out. If it's a magician, it's a magician with power like nothing I've ever seen. And I know a guy who made an entire world from scratch."

[summerdude]

"Whoa," Magnus says, blinking. "A whole world? That's pretty cool." He studies the slowly-melting blended ice in his drink and takes another tiny sip. "Sometimes I kinda hope this place is, like, inescapable," he admits.

[sorrowandsorrow]

"Inescapable? You don't want to leave... ever?" Janet asks this with an incredibly healthy dose of incredulity.

[summerdude]

"I don't really think it matters what I want," matter-of-fact. "My sword is going to be instrumental in the end of the world, someday, and so if he's stuck here, I figure maybe the world doesn't end."

[sorrowandsorrow]

"Gee." Janet eyes him over the rim of her margarita glass. "That's a lot of pressure."