(Almost) Everything Is Comin' Up Chase [closed post]

[summerdude]

Magnus, triumphant, has finally managed to make some old bamboo sprout. With Drosera fed recently enough that she's not complaining of hunger and resting in her new favorite perch (lounging on his shoulder tucked right against his neck, her beak tangled in hair that is once again getting long), he sneaks it into the Mansion, hides it in a large gift-bag a closet gives him, and hangs it on Claudius and Galahad's doorknob with a quickly-jotted note that reads Claudius, What next? - MAGNUS CHASE.

Then, since he's already inside, he figures, why not wander around until he finds someone to talk to?

Comments

[summerdude]

"So were you, like," Magnus screws his face up, trying to think of the term. "Communally raised?"

[lightbearinglord]

"To an extent. Uncle was our primary caretaker." And Lan Qiren loved them. Lan Wangji knows that he did. But there was such stark contrast between his demeanor, his strictness and his expectations, and their monthly respite in their laughing mother's company.

[summerdude]

It feels like there's maybe more to that story, so Magnus stays quiet for a little while, occupying his time by trying, carefully, to do a sort of push-up while still maintaining his handstand.

[lightbearinglord]

Unsurprisingly, then, Lan Wangji is quiet as well. He spares a glance for Drosera, to ensure she is still occupied and not destroying anything she isn't meant to destroy, and then returns to watching Magnus. This little demonstration of his strength is not exactly surprising after what he knows of Magnus, but he is silently both impressed and amused at Magnus' apparent inability to hold still.

[summerdude]

Okay, so Hanguang-jun isn't talking! "I'd like to know more."

[lightbearinglord]

Ah, apparently Lan Wangji has not escaped further questions about his childhood after all. At least Magnus already knows that his mother is dead. After a pause, and a little bluntly, he says, "Our mother died when I was six years old. We saw her once a month until then."

[summerdude]

"Only once a month?!" Magnus can't imagine that at all. He would have hated that.

[lightbearinglord]

"That is what the clan elders permitted." If Lan Wangji did not feel an obligation to keep watching Magnus, he would be looking away by now.

[summerdude]

"No offense, Hanguang-jun, but that sounds pretty fucked up," Magnus frowns.

[lightbearinglord]

Lan Wangji has absolutely no interest in passing any kind of verbal judgment on the situation between his father, his mother, and the Gusu Lan elders. He releases a very slow breath. "It is in the past," he says, somewhat shortly. Between her death and Wei Ying's arrival in his life, there was nothing. Books, qin, meditation, and more of the same. "Wei Ying came to study at the Cloud Recesses when we were fifteen."

[summerdude]

Okay! Message received loud and clear! "I technically met Alex when I was fifteen," Magnus offers. "At a youth shelter on Winter street. Um, that's in Boston, where I'm from. But Alex says it doesn't count because we didn't talk until she died."

[lightbearinglord]

Lan Wangji truly did not intend to be rude to Magnus, but even that short exchange stretched the limits of his ability to talk about his mother. He seizes this piece of information about Alex with some gratitude. "It counts," he says, quite sure of this, "if you took notice of her then."

[summerdude]

"I recognized her when she got to Valhalla?"

[lightbearinglord]

Lan Wangji nods, accepting that of course this corroborates his belief that their first meeting was meaningful. He pauses, then, his eyes still on Magnus, and manages to say, with some effort, "It is not easy for me to discuss my mother. Wei Ying learned of her situation from my brother rather than from me."

[summerdude]

Magnus lets this sink in for a second, and then kicks himself carefully out of his handstand. "Thanks for telling me about her," he says, sitting down next to Lan Wangji and leaning against him. "Like, it's obviously super different situations, but. I get that." He pauses. "My friends back home only know about my mom because Hel taunted me with her a few times."

[lightbearinglord]

In that case, of course Lan Wangji sits right back down alongside Magnus. He recognizes this name too, Hel, from the reading he did; as always, he is glad that he did it and does not need to stop Magnus there to ask for clarification. He does, however, frown and glance at Magnus. "That was cruel."

[summerdude]

Magnus shrugs. "She and Loki were trying to manipulate me," nonchalant. "Into giving up Jack and letting Fenris Wolf go free. It didn't work, which I guess is a bigger deal than them trying."

[lightbearinglord]

Not that Lan Wangji is surprised to hear this, but it still sparks a little rush of pride and fondness. "I did say that you are brave."

[summerdude]

A blush appears! "It's not bravery, just... I'm Middle Ground Guy. I guess I'm more impervious to that kind of thing."

[lightbearinglord]

"Middle Ground Guy?" Lan Wangji can make a reasonable guess about what Magnus means by this, but he would like to hear him explain it himself.

[summerdude]

"Yeah, like," Magnus says, and stops to actually think through how to phrase this. He goes slow, since Little John had told him he's prone to speeding through things. "Summer exists between the extremes of the fires of Muspellheim, which is the primordial World of fire, where all the fire giants live. Like Surt, the one who killed me and who's going to eventually kill my dad, too. And the ice of Niflheim, which is the primordial World of ice, so cold that even I almost froze to death there. Peace exists between the extremes of the kind of war-like-ness that the Aesir gods and most einherjar prefer, and inaction. Since Frey is the Summer-and-Peace God I'm, like, fundamentally Diplomacy Dude. I don't pick sides or go to extremes, usually. Hel rules Helheim, which is a completely cold and lifeless World where all the dishonorable dead go. She represents an extreme, in Ragnarok, because it's the dead of Helheim who the einherjar of Valhalla are fated to fight against until everyone's, like, dead for real and disintegrating into Ginnungagap. So I guess I'm probably at least a little resistant to her, um. Methods."

[lightbearinglord]

As he always does, Lan Wangji listens attentively to every word Magnus says. He doesn't actually need every explanation Magnus gives for the terms he is using, but he doesn't stop him, either. He likes listening to Magnus, the way he likes listening to Claudius or Wei Ying or even, occasionally, Crowley. The explanation does nothing to convince him that Magnus is not brave.

"Diplomacy is not my strong suit," he says, with just the faintest hint of wryness about it.

[summerdude]

"Really?" Magnus asks, incredulous. "But you're so--" he gestures, indicating all of Lan Wangji.

[lightbearinglord]

Lan Wangji raises both eyebrows just a little. He looks down at himself at Magnus' indication. He cannot imagine what Magnus is attempting to convey, so he only glances back at him and waits to see if he will complete the sentence.

[summerdude]

Sorry, Hanguang-jun! Magnus is pretty sure he's made himself abundantly clear. "You know?"