Me and My Best Friend Put On A Show That Would Make Freya Totally Jealous [closed post]

[summerdude]

Magnus wakes up, normal again except for how he's in an unfamiliar room. Not Galahad's old room, either. A nondescript one that, as far as he can tell, just has a bunch of clothes and stuff. Also he's wearing silky pajamas he'd never pick out automatically on his own?

It doesn't take long for him to feel like the walls are closing in on him. It's out of respect for Aornis that he stumbles out of her room through the door (barefoot and in the silky pajamas) and goes outside the normal way. Once outside, he flops into the snow, calling summer and feeling the way the snow steams against his skin as it melts.

He's not feeling totally regular again when he sits bolt upright, remembering that Drosera is probably in Galahad's old room with two people that aren't Magnus or Galahad. Existential crisis over, there's a child to retrieve! And hopefully, he'll run into Galahad in the halls.

Comments

[summerdude]

"Whoa," Magnus breathes. "That was metal of him. That's the kind of thing that would land a guy in Valhalla."

[onthewillowsthere]

"In the end only seven men survived -- Brân Fendigaidd's brother Manawydan and Taliesin the bard were two of them. Branwen died of a broken heart because of her son's murder. Brân Fendigaidd was mortally wounded, and he told the survivors to cut off his head and take it back with them to Britain." He's still rubbing the band of his watch. "They first stayed in Harlech, and then Ynys Gwales, with the head speaking to them and telling them tales. They stayed for eighty years without realizing that time had passed, until one day Heilyn fab Gwyn opened the door facing Cornwall and they suddenly all realized what had happened to them. Everyone they loved had died in the battle or in their absence and they were alone. Brân Fendigaidd's head no longer spoke. As he had bidden them once, they took the head to Gwynfryn and buried it facing France. That's the end of the story."

[summerdude]

"Why do so many of these stories end up so sad?" Magnus wonders, and then, "I wonder if there's any connection between him and Mimir?" and then, "Wait, but why did he make ravens smart? Or was that because of Branwen's starling?" and finally, "Sorry, too many questions, I'll stop now."

[onthewillowsthere]

He laughs, mostly just at Magnus being able to tell on his own now when it's too many questions. "I don't know. But Brân means raven."

[summerdude]

"I once made a deal with a murder of crows to murder a giant with me," Magnus says, thoughtfully. "Crows are similar to ravens, right?"

[onthewillowsthere]

"Percival says they're cousins."

[summerdude]

"That makes sense," Magnus says. "I paid them with the freshly-sharpened silver scythes of some jotunn thralls I, um. Tricked into killing each other earlier." He makes a face. "Dude, I'm so glad to be done with killing." For now, at least. "But I think crows like trading gifts the same way ravens do." He looks up. "Hey, Dro, remind me to teach you about guest rights when you're older."

[onthewillowsthere]

Dro looks up from her preening. guest baby??? Rights food??? She's been doing this as she gets more new words, slotting them into her existing vocabulary.

[summerdude]

"If you claim guest rights, you can get food," Magnus tells her, fondly. "Guest rights means that the guest and host have to be hospitable and can't kill each other."

[onthewillowsthere]

kill food!!!!!! kill guest rights!!!! Her little shrieks have become very enthusiastic, and Galahad laughs.

"What did she say?"

[summerdude]

Magnus translates for her, then says, "We'll work on this again when she's a little older, I think."

[onthewillowsthere]

He nods. It does seem fair that guest rights might be a little advanced for a chick-kitten.

"Clothes?"

[summerdude]

"Clothes!" Magnus confirms. "What do you wanna start out with?"

[onthewillowsthere]

"Warm things," with a faint smile.

[summerdude]

"No string bikinis, check."

[onthewillowsthere]

"Check. What would you wear if you could get cold?"

[summerdude]

"Oh, layers, definitely," Magnus says, immediately. "I wore a ton of layers when I was homeless." He still didn't get as cold as most people, but his imperviousness to temperature extremes seems to be improving with time.

[onthewillowsthere]

"A shirt and a coat, you mean?"

[summerdude]

"No, like," Magnus says, and goes over to the closet. He pulls out a couple of different shirts and puts them on: a long-sleeve T over a t-shirt, with another t-shirt on top of that. Over all that, he puts his own hoodie, and then he pulls on one of Galahad's coats over the entire affair. "Like this," he says. "Maybe with long johns on under my jeans, too."

[onthewillowsthere]

It seems silly to admit he had never contemplated this as a possibility before, but-- he had never contemplated this as a possibility. He follows Magnus to the closet and begins taking things out; as if in some acknowledgement of his preferences, he's getting a lot of corduroy, velvet, satin, and cashmere, textures that are pleasing under his fingers. The closet gives him shirts, skirts, slacks, tunics, tunics that are more like dresses, a grey hooded dress made from alpaca wool: soft cozy things, tending more towards shades of blue and grey with an occasional heather purple.

[summerdude]

Magnus hesitates. "What kind of stuff should I try?" he asks Galahad. He's been T-Shirt And Jeans Guy for so long he barely knows where to start.

[onthewillowsthere]

"What do you like? Does it matter what things feel like?" He offers a cashmere sweater for Magnus to touch.

[summerdude]

Magnus strokes it. "That's nice," he says, smiling. "I guess I care more about color than texture? I don't want anything too... loud, you know?"

[onthewillowsthere]

Galahad nods, and reaches into the closet again; this time he gets a caramel-colored knee-length skirt made of suede, and gives Magnus a questioning look.

[summerdude]

"Yeah, sure, I'll give it a shot," says Magnus reaching for it. As he takes it, he says, "Dude, I wish you could meet Blitzen."