I Lived, Grinch! [open post]

[summerdude]

The first thing Magnus does -- with Alex's help -- after fully healing is board up the hole in the side of the greenhouse where the cheetah ran through. The second thing, once he learns the full scope of Dark (it's different at camp; he'd already taken out a ton of camp-appropriate food for when Galahad and Laertes couldn't make it out there, and so he and Alex have been fine on the eating front) is go to the greenhouse again to figure out what plants in there yield edible produce. (Also, he tries to scrub his blood off the table. It... partially works?)

Partly it's that he's still feeling weird after the whole affair. The season doesn't help, but he does feel closer to his own mortality than pretty much any point since he died for real the first time. Being around growing plants helps that. Mostly, though, it's because he doesn't want anyone to get, like, scurvy living on bushels of rice alone.

He doesn't want to overtax any of the plants, but some can be cajoled into fruiting. Right now, he's got his hand on a kumquat tree, and he's trying to convince it that it can speed up the growth process by a few weeks. Drosera is with him, 'helping:' she's found a dead leaf, and she's chasing it down the pathway between some plants. If anyone shows up -- either because they've heard of his near-death experience and want to check in on him, or just to hang out, or even because they're drawn by the way it looks like sunlight is coming from the greenhouse itself -- he'll be glad for the company.

Comments

[timebethine]

Laertes tries to straighten out the snarl of their conversation in his mind. What had they been talking about, before Magnus asked Laertes to teach him to dance? "Agility here means not deftness of foot and hand, but rather, a course of obstacles that a dog might run. A narrow beam, or poles that she might weave between, or a barrier to crawl beneath or leap over, or a plank upon a fulcrum--a test of all of her skills. We might devise such a course for men ... and another for einherjar," he teases.

[summerdude]

"I keep thinking about whether I should learn parkour," Magnus says, thoughtfully. "But I think it would be cheating, for me."

[timebethine]

"Thou wilt need not only a dancer's light feet to wield thy blade, but also a tireless strength," says Laertes. "Dance well suits the rapier. It's a light, thrusting weapon. The longsword and the greatsword are hewing weapons; they will wear thee down."

[summerdude]

"I'm familiar with the strength it takes," Magnus points out. "I mean, a little bit Jack is different, because he only goes, like, inert when he's trying to teach me something specific, and a lot of the time he draws my hand instead of the other way around, if he's not fighting flying around on his own, but also... that kind of stuff doesn't affect me. Personally. I'm like, really strong." He pauses. "The thing is, like, I had a weird day the other day? And now I'm like, I should practice, like. Dodging and blocking, mostly. But I still don't really wanna be Fight Guy, so I thought dancing might be a good, like, middle ground."

[timebethine]

More gently, "Wouldst speak on it? That weird day?" He can't help hearing the echo of wyrd in it.

[summerdude]

Magnus shoots Laertes a look. "How much have you already heard?"

[timebethine]

"Only that thou wert gravely wounded by a strange blade, and since recovered--for which I'm more glad than I can say."

[summerdude]

"Yeah. It was pretty... unideal."

[timebethine]

It isn't Laertes's place to prod Magnus, if he's reluctant to speak of his ordeal. Instead, he only says with all the warmth in him, "If it will set thy heart at ease, I'll be glad to teach thee to dance."

[summerdude]

"Thanks," Magnus says, trying for a smile and mostly succeeding. "I wasn't, like. Fast enough."

[timebethine]

"Who hurt thee?"

[summerdude]

"Nobody." Magnus pauses. "I mean, Hanguang-jun and Alex think it's somebody and that it was a targeted attack and when they figure out who, I kinda feel bad for the person, cuz it's probably going to get really bloody." He pauses, frowns, then adds, "Again." He shivers. "But nobody was there, and I don't think I've pissed anyone off? At least not enough to, like, attack me with a mystery sword. Especially since I, like, think I figured things out with everyone I've pissed off, like, before it happened."

[timebethine]

"Needst not speak on it," says Laertes--but then at once he asks, "Was it a sword like Jack or Bichen, attacking unwielded?"

[summerdude]

"It's more like it was falling really fast than it was flying. I was too busy ducking a falling ceiling fan to dodge the sword and the glass from its display case."

[timebethine]

"How horrifying!" But a frown is crossing Laertes's brow as he tries to envision it. He's been reading a fair bit about physics lately, and his reading has touched on acceleration due to gravity and the force equation. He can't imagine a sword in a display case accelerating sufficiently to gain enough force to impale someone to the floor, not even if it were a great massy blade like Sagramore's.

He understands now why Lan Wangji and Alex believe there was an unseen hand wielding the blade.

[summerdude]

"Yeah, it wasn't the best," Magnus says, wry.

[timebethine]

A faint smile. "What wouldst thou have me do? Turn thy mind to other pastimes?"

[summerdude]

Magnus shrugs. "I can answer more questions, if you have them," he says. It's okay to answer questions. He knows people have them because they care about him, which is, like, nice. If he thinks about it as helping out friends it's fine to dwell on the answers.

[timebethine]

Laertes hesitates, then asks, "The sword--how was it angled, ere it fell? How did it move, in falling? Did it shudder off of the wall and drop all at once, or did one end part from the wall before the other?" He makes a swiveling motion, his elbow the fulcrum.

[summerdude]

With a deep, careful breath, Magnus closes his eyes and tries to remember. "There were more swords. They were all propped up in glass display cases, like it was a museum. Like this." He gestures, holding his arm like it's a sword propped up for display. "One case was cracked. It, um. The crack looked like an M. It started to break further, and then the ceiling fan fell, and swung. It broke a case, and glass started to fall. I tried to dodge it. The case fell into another case, the one with the sword that got me. I was too busy dodging the fan swinging back to see exactly how the thing landed, but the way it did, it had the sword flying directly at me. Blade forward. I guess it was knocked into just right." He opens his eyes. "By the time Lancelot got there it was just the one sword and the broken glass. Everything else was, like, gone."

[timebethine]

"Like a dream." And ordinarily, that would mean nothing to Laertes ... but hasn't he been hearing stories of someone who can manipulate dreams?

[summerdude]

"I guess? But it definitely wasn't one. I was fully awake. It wasn't even like one of my special dreams."

[timebethine]

So perhaps unrelated to Galahad's dreams. "Is there anything thou needest?"

[summerdude]

"Actually, yes," Magnus says, eyes lighting up. "What makes a church a church?"

[timebethine]

This is such a wild swerve that Laertes actually takes a step back as he considers it. "Art thou asking because thou hast never seen a church before?" he asks. "Or because thou wishest to build one here?"