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

[summerdude]

"So it has churchy vibes?"

[timebethine]

"No," Laertes admits. "But it feels like a place where one might be alone with God."

[summerdude]

"Wait, then what's the point of a church? If not to hang out with god?"

[timebethine]

A faint smile. "That is a question that no two Christians will answer alike. Ay, some think a church a place to be with God; others, that God is in all places. Some think a church glorifies God, and thus it must be made with all the richness that mortal hand can devise; others, that God smiles most upon the poor and downtrodden, and a tabernacle in the wilderness is no less a church than all the cathedrals of France. Some believe--I believe--that a church is a place to be among the faithful, and to learn the precepts of faith, and to take part in the sacraments that mark the faithful. Others believe that only an anchorite can sup continually from the wellspring of the divine. On this, though, all agree: a church is a place where one might seek salvation from damnation ... and I think that Galahad no longer seeks salvation. I think ... I think that, in the secret parts of his heart, Galahad hopes that God will seek his forgiveness."

[summerdude]

"I mean, yeah," Magnus says, to that very last bit. "What's an anchorite? And what constitutes damnation? The street preachers back home made it sound like it was everything, pretty much." Being among the faithful, he thinks. Oh gods. Does that mean I'll need to find more churchy people? That's gonna be a lot harder than growing Galahad a church.

[timebethine]

"An anchorite is a monk or a nun who lives a solitary life of worship and contemplation of the divine," says Laertes. "And as to what damnation is ... that's a matter of great turmoil, in my time. One is damned if one dies unshriven, with sins still writ upon God's ledger--but to repent, and to ask God's forgiveness, erases those sins and once again opens the steep and narrow path to salvation." Laertes lets his rolling, didactic tone fade back into wryness. "For my part, I cannot repent my sins. If I must choose between my husband's love and God's, I will gladly suffer torment unending, and never reach up a hand to be saved."

[summerdude]

"I think it's so stupid that the christian god is homophobic," Magnus says, rolling his eyes. The Norse gods leave a lot to be desired, but at least they're indifferent-to-positive on the sexuality front.

[timebethine]

"As do I--for there is nothing that is to me more sacred than the love that we bear one another."

[summerdude]

"Are you sure the god himself is homophobic? Maybe it's just how people twist his words to suit their own purposes." Magnus has heard a lot of competing opinions, so unless there's actually a bunch of different christian gods, this seems as plausible as anything.

[timebethine]

"That, thou wilt have to ask of Galahad, for I know no other here who's spoken to God directly."

[summerdude]

"I don't actually believe in god, personally," Magnus admits. "Even though Thor insists he has beef with Jesus."

[timebethine]

"Then what has Galahad been speaking to, if not God?"

[summerdude]

"In my world, I don't believe in god," Magnus clarifies. "Maybe he was still around in Camelot."

[timebethine]

"Here ... I think God is absent," says Laertes. It feels hugely blasphemous; an inward part of him cringes, awaiting the crushing hand of the divine.

Nothing happens, of course. He unclenches.

[summerdude]

"Well, yeah. The only god here is Dionysus. Usually my dad will answer at least some of my prayers sometime, but I haven't gotten zilch from him since I got here." This is also the real reason Alex came here, Magnus knows. No Loki with bonus Magnus, rather than Magnus with bonus no Loki. He's not upset; he'd make the same choice if Loki was his mom.

[timebethine]

"It's ... more difficult to understand, for Christians," says Laertes. "There is no place that God is not, for us. Nothing that can be hid from Him; no stain upon the heart that He does not see. God ..." He thinks. He is, he feels acutely aware, probably about to speak some kind of heresy because he flat-out does not understand doctrine well enough to speak it correctly. "... God is not like a man whose life is fixed, and who travels through the world doing deeds and seeing sights. The gods of my ancestors were such gods; there were things they wanted and had not, or things they did not know and had to learn. God does not have to learn. When He contends with mortals, He does so like a playwright grappling with his characters--they can do nothing that He does not author, make no choice that He does not in some way know and ordain. And now ..." He gazes up and up, into the crown of the tree where it stands silhouetted against the blank grey sky. "... now, it is as though some other author holds the pen."

[summerdude]

"This place is outside of all other worlds," Magnus agrees. "So it makes sense even a monotheistic-ish guy like a christian god couldn't be here. I trust Galahad's take on the situation, obviously, but I also kinda wish I could ask my valkyrie about god, too. She's Muslim, she knows things about monotheistic guys."

[timebethine]

"Perhaps, one day, she might join thee here."

[summerdude]

"That'd be nice," Magnus say, wistfully. "She's Alex's sister and she's one of my best friends. But I don't want her to. I mean, I do, but she has a really great fiance, and she wants to be a pilot, and there's not enough room here to fly a plane."

[timebethine]

"A pl--oh, an airplane," says Laertes, comprehension lighting him up. "I've read of those. An illustration of Bernoulli's Principle."

[summerdude]

"Say what now?"

[timebethine]

"An articulation of the relationship between speed and pressure in fluid dynamics," says Laertes earnestly.

[summerdude]

"I think I know what each of those words means individually," Magnus admits, a little embarrassed.

[timebethine]

Laertes scratches the back of his neck. "I may misspeak regarding the application of the principle to flight, for I have only read of such things in books here, and never observed them directly," he says. "But the principle is that fluids--like air--exert less pressure when they move at great speeds, and more pressure when they move at slower speeds. Thus, airplanes fly because they are contrived to push air over their wings at greater speeds than the air moving beneath them. The wings, answering the greater pressure from beneath, raise the airplane into the sky."

[summerdude]

"Air is a fluid??! I thought air was a gas!"