(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?

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[summerdude]

"Um." Magnus is definitely blushing again! "Yeah."

[onthewillowsthere]

Galahad just nods, watching him (he's so grateful for Magnus, with whom everything feels less dire and easier to bear, including his inability to express himself -- Magnus is like Percival in so many ways but in so many other ways he's something new and wonderful, and Galahad loves him).

[summerdude]

"That was one of the things I asked some of the, um. Seventeen people, actually," admits Magnus, who is glad that an adult-shaped adult like Sagramore said some of the things he thinks he might want are normal, but who would rather have the reassurance of his best friend. "If that's, like. Normal."

[onthewillowsthere]

"It is, isn't it?" asks Galahad, who is fairly certain that Magnus is normal, and thus, by transitive property, so are his desires.

[summerdude]

"To, like. Really like it?" Magnus shrugs. "I guess."

[onthewillowsthere]

He contemplates. "I really like it when Claudius does what I tell him to do," carefully -- he's trying to commiserate, which always makes him nervous; it's easy to get wrong.

[summerdude]

It works! Magnus visibly relaxes, slumping against Galahad's legs^* with relief. If Galahad is into it (albeit from the other side) then maybe possibly it's actually genuinely fine. "I think I want Alex to tell me what to do," he admits.


*This typist realizes they forgot to write Magnus sitting down at some point, but he did! On the floor next to Galahad.

[onthewillowsthere]

"I like to decide for him. It reminds me that he's mine, too, not just that I'm his. And-- I take care of him better than he takes care of himself."

[summerdude]

That sounds a little kinky, actually! Magnus had no idea that Galahad was a little kinky. "That's cool, man," he says, leaning back and propping himself up on his elbows so he can look up at Galahad. "I like... Alex has always kind of called the shots, with us. He knows what he wants and what he's comfortable with. And I like that. He says it's to help me live in the moment instead of worrying about the future, but I also, like." Oh, he's blushing again! He's not even talking about, like, sex, really, except for how Claudius had told him that regular relationship stuff can become sex stuff, maybe. So. He's been thinking about it. Musingly, sounding the words out as he says them: "I like when I feel like I have no idea what's coming or what he's going to do next and he laughs at how clueless I am but it doesn't matter because he wouldn't do anything I hate."

[onthewillowsthere]

"You trust him."

[summerdude]

"With my death!" Magnus says, hoping the joke lands.

[onthewillowsthere]

"With your death." Galahad reaches down and pets Magnus' hair.

[summerdude]

Magnus relaxes gratefully into the touch. "It's getting long again," he says, about his hair, and then: "What's new with you, dude?"

[onthewillowsthere]

He considers this question. He and Claudius pressed the flytrap flower in the press Magnus gave him for his birthday; it's waiting to dry before it can be opened. He chose Claudius' outfit for the first time. He's been spending more time with the record player now that it gets dark so early, and keeping a list of the songs he likes, to share with Magnus and possibly Laertes. But then something more pressing occurs to him.

"Are you angry with Lancelot because he struck me?"

[summerdude]

"Yeah, why?"

[onthewillowsthere]

"Claudius is too. I didn't realize. We had a fight about it." He pauses, gathering threads. "It's all right between us -- Lancelot and me. We spoke about it and it's settled. You don't need to be angry."

[summerdude]

Magnus thinks about this for a minute, and then thoughtfully gets up so he can move Drosera from Galahad's lap to the floor. He leans, half-sitting against Galahad's desk, angled so he can see both Galahad's face and his hands. This is partly to buy himself time, so that he doesn't just blurt out that he'll never stop being angry at Lancelot. Girl Code might dictate it, but The Other Best Friend Code* demands hearing your best friend out and giving his arguments all due consideration. This is also partly because he's pretty sure this conversation might go better if it's nonverbal. Once he's settled, he signs, Can you say more?

*Not to be confused with Best Friend Code which, as previously established, is about casting judgement on someone your friends love.

[onthewillowsthere]

It definitely will, and Galahad signs Thank you quickly. Then, after petting Dro for a few moments so he can think, he signs, He hit me because I hurt him and he didn't know who I was. That's what everyone does there. In Camelot. I was upset because I thought he should know me, but Shen Yuan figured out he was from a different time, and then he found me and said he was sorry. He doesn't need to do anything else for me. He gives Dro another stroke and then adds, I know you hate when fathers are bad, but he doesn't feel like my father. My father was a different person.

[summerdude]

Magnus hesitates. Different how?

[onthewillowsthere]

Always angry. Proud. Unpredictable. He hated me because of my mother. He hesitates; it's one thing to tell Claudius in a heated moment, and another to tell Magnus when he's sitting here, calm, trying to wind up the thread of his father's legacy. My mother raped him twice. The second time he went mad and wandered in the woods for two years. This was before I came to Camelot, but everyone said he was different before that. More like he is here, I think. When I knew him he was... he wasn't kind to me. Or anyone.

[summerdude]

There's a lot in that. It certainly helps contextualize at least one of the things Magnus saw in Lancelot's memories, and he shifts a little, uncomfortable. Partly because there's a small, loud part of him that's thinking 'this is BETTER?! But he's already so awful!'

He shoves that to the side for now. Girl Code. You can't hate the scrubs your friends like so much that they don't go to you when they need to talk about him!!! Do you want a relationship with him?

[onthewillowsthere]

This is a question he knows the answer to with far less need for consideration, although he thinks it should probably be harder to answer. It doesn't matter. I don't dislike him. I don't even know him. He's just here.

[summerdude]

So does it matter if I -- Magnus stops himself from signing 'hate.' -- don't like him?

[onthewillowsthere]

You don't have to like him. I just wanted you to know that it's all right between me and him.

[summerdude]

Magnus is quiet and still for another long moment, watching Drosera start to weave her way around Galahad's feet. Galahad should absolutely have exactly whatever sort of relationship he wants with everybody he knows. That's, like, a no-brainer. Thanks for telling me, he says, and then, because it's not like he's ever going to lie to Galahad, I don't think I can forgive him though.