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]

"I'm pretty sure the kumquats are mad at me," Magnus says, with an aggrieved sigh. "Or, like, overtaxed. Either/or. Anyway, kale has vitamin C too."

[futaille]

"Vitamin C?¹ Is that what's in lemons that fights scurvy, then?"

¹Discovered in 1912!^2
2Unless you mean the singer, who was born in 1969.

[summerdude]

"I'm pretty sure, yeah," says Magnus, and grins. "Trust me. I'm a sailor. I'm very wise about this sort of thing."

[futaille]

He laughs and shrugs his coat off, as it's more than warm enough in the greenhouse. "I bow to your sailing wisdom, then."

[summerdude]

"My boat was bright yellow, could turn into a handkerchief, and we took it from Boston to Jorvik to Norway to Niflheim and back and it only ended up on the the bottom of the ocean once," Magnus says, solemnly. "And that was only because the ocean god I'm not related to was doing a mead tasting." Sort of. And he and his daughters were trying to kill them, but like, why dwell on nearly dying? Seems dumb!

[futaille]

"Whereas I've never been sailing and I grew up on the shore. So you definitely have an advantage over me on that scale."

[summerdude]

"Dude." Magnus blinks in mock-surprise. "You've never been to a mead tasting on the ocean floor with a bunch of gods who hate you? What have you been doing with your life?"

[futaille]

"Maybe my invitation got lost in transit. Very unfortunate."

[summerdude]

"Sorry 'bout your luck."

[futaille]

"Can't always be lucky, I suppose. Maybe I've been spending it all on keeping my pinball high score."

[summerdude]

Magnus perks up at that. "There's pinball here? Or do you mean back home?"

[futaille]

"Oh, it's in the game room. I think my back home predates pinball entirely, so I've discovered it here."

[summerdude]

"Huh," says Magnus, thoughtfully. "There's one in a jotunn bowling alley so I just kind of assumed they'd been around for hundreds of years. Jotunns like old things."

[futaille]

"I think I can work out at least partially what games it grew out of, but it's almost certainly after me."

[summerdude]

"Oh yeah?" Magnus moves the kale to the side. "Like what?"

[futaille]

"Bagatelle, for one. Likely billard japonais. Just from what I know about."

[summerdude]

Magnus laughs. "I don't know why I asked," he says. "I don't know what those are at all."

[futaille]

He laughs. "Do you want me to explain them?"

[summerdude]

"Heck yeah, my dude, fire away."

[futaille]

"Bagatelle is like an inclined billiards table where you fire small balls at particular scoring targets, with pins in the way obscuring a direct shot."

[summerdude]

"Oh, so like skeeball?"

[futaille]

"Possibly? If you'd be kind enough to explain skeeball, I could make a judgement."

[summerdude]

"Well," says Magnus. "There's this ball, you see? And you, uh. Skee it?"

[futaille]

He blinks. "That did not translate at all."

[summerdude]

"Yeah, cuz it's not a word," Magnus says. "I think. There's, like, a bunch of tubes on an incline you gotta try to land the ball in."