summerdude | I Lived, Grinch! [open post]

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.

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"Like, if you close yourself off from the world and stop participating in it. You don't keep yourself busy, you fade out of existence. I think they return to Ginnungagap."

It sounds like the precise opposite of the ideal for immortals in Lan Wangji's experience. That is why he increasingly doubts his ability to cultivate to immortality -- the fact that he cannot release his attachment to or participation in the world. "I cannot imagine you fading."

"No, me neither," Magnus sighs. "Especially since Alex is here now! But forever is a really long time."

"Mn," Lan Wangji agrees. Forever is unfathomably long. He looks at Magnus with a little frown. "You need not face all of it now."

"Yeah," Magnus agrees. "But I'm thinking about it. Did I ever tell you that the guy who killed my buddy TJ also went to Valhalla at the same time? Since they died killing each other? To become an einherji... it doesn't matter if you're a total shitstain or not, just that you died the right way. But because that guy was a total shitstain, he did end up fading after a couple of decades. Still over a hundred years before I got there."

Lan Wangji's general opinion of the Nordic afterlife and the workings of Valhalla remains miserably low. His frown remains in place as he digests this information. "That will not happen to you." For one thing, Magnus is not a total shitstain.

"I'm not worried about fading," Magnus explains. "I'm worried about reaching a point where it seems like the best option. Isolation is, like, torture, Hanguang-jun."

The idea of Magnus in isolation is intolerable, like imagining some great fruiting tree withering for lack of sun and water. Lan Wangji can withstand significant aloneness himself, but it is far, far less to his tastes than he once believed it was; he only didn't know that he was lonely until he no longer was. He nods, tightening his grip on Magnus' shoulder. "I would promise to stay with you if I could."

Magnus slumps, a little. The sentiment is nice to hear, even if he wishes Lan Wangji could stay. "Thanks, da--Hanguang-jun."

This time, Lan Wangji is paying enough attention to catch the slip of the tongue, but he says nothing about it. He hesitates, because of how little he likes to make empty promises, but then says, "You will find your way, whatever that entails."

"Yeah," Magnus agrees, trying hard to believe it. "And no more weird sword attacks."

"Not if I can help it." The fervor of the statement may or may not be matched by the reality of Lan Wangji's abilities, but he is stubborn and determined.

Magnus takes a deep breath and lets it out slowly. "Thank you," he says. "Sorry I'm so, like. Moody or whatever."

"Do not apologize to me." This isn't the first time Lan Wangji has said those words to Magnus, but it is the most gently he has ever said them to him.

"I'm, like, gonna though," Magnus admits with a sigh. "I'm a polite guy that way. It's hard to break the habit."

Magnus is such a good child. Lan Wangji is overpowered with fondness, thinking of how well he and Lan Sizhui would get along. It's another of those fanciful thoughts, but such a pleasant one. "Then do not apologize unless you have erred."

"Sorry, Hanguang-jun," Magnus says. It's a poor attempt at a joke, but like, someone has to introduce some levity after all those intense emotions he'd been feeling! "I'll try."

It may be a mediocre joke, but it is enough for Lan Wangji to externalize that rush of fond feeling. He squeezes Magnus one more time, hard enough that it would certainly hurt a mortal.

As it is, it only partially knocks the breath out of Magnus. He grins at Hanguang-jun. Even if Hanguang-jun can't actually protect him from everything -- even if Magnus himself is better able to withstand whatever weirdness the world throws at him than Hanguang-jun probably would be -- he's so unspeakably grateful that Hanguang-jun cares enough about him to want to try.

For Magnus, Lan Wangji manages a glimmer of a smile in return, warmth that shines through all his doubts and fears for that fraction of a moment. As he takes his arms back from around Magnus at last, he says, seriously, "You mentioned okra."

"Oh! Yeah. I've been growing a lot of it," Magnus says, and shows him the mixing bowl full of the stuff.

Lan Wangji examines this with silent amazement. Magnus is truly a wonder. "I was unaware you could do this."

"Another perk of being the son of Frey, I guess," Magnus says. He reaches for the okra plant he's been working with and concentrates. He is, yeah, showing off a little bit as he focuses, pulling it through a few weeks of growth. Buds form and flower and then seed pods emerge. He snaps them off with glowing fingers before they can get too tough.

Any showing-off currently occurring is entirely effective. Lan Wangji is quiet, thinking of how close all of this warmth and light and growth came to extinguishment. He picks up the bowl of okra and holds it for Magnus so that he can add to his collection.

"You can have whatever you want, obviously," Magnus adds, looking up. "I don't know how to cook 'em."

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