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]

"Oh yeah, there's plenty of hunters. And fishers. Auntie Mothwing makes sure you're well supplied, doesn't she, baby?"

Drosera drops and rolls around on the ground at that, scratching her back against the ground and then tugging her tail up into her talons. mothwing!!! she shrieks. fishies!!

To Laertes, Magnus adds, "Wei Wuxian and Little John drop off venison and stuff, and sometimes Angus brings these measly half-eaten little rodents that she's obsessed with. Because someone's got a c-r-u-s-h."

[timebethine]

A pause, as Laertes recalls the meaning of the slang. "On Angus?" he asks. "Who is this Angus?"

[summerdude]

"Georgia's absolute unit of a cat. Have you met Georgia?"

[timebethine]

"I haven't--a unit is a very large cat, ay?"

[summerdude]

Drosera, obviously, is now excitedly chattering about Angus. Magnus smiles at her, and then tells Laertes, "An absolute unit is a large anything, yeah. Angus is a big tomcat. Huge frat bro vibes, but he's a surprisingly good babysitter."

[timebethine]

Frat bro is a little harder to parse, but frater is the Latin word for brother, so it must be emphatic reduplication--it's a little sad, he thinks, that Drosera has romantic feelings(???) for a cat who can only ever see her as a sister. "Perhaps, in time, she will come to see him as a brother, and this crush will fade."

[summerdude]

Magnus laughs. "Sorry," he says. "I mean that Angus is actually a womanizer and that if he was a person, he'd probably be doing, like, keg stands or whatever. Frat bros are this, like, stereotype I guess, of college guys who live together in a house and party a lot and are highkey sexist. Probably also lowkey classist and racist? Definitely judgy and drunk. Angus tried to flirt with Mothwing."

[timebethine]

Laertes understood about two words in three there, but the last point clarifies the rest--"With Mothwing?" he asks, aghast. "But she has such dignity."

[summerdude]

"Yeah... I told him not to." Magnus shakes his head. "But he is weirdly great with Dro."

[timebethine]

"... at least there's that."

[summerdude]

"Yeah..." Magnus tilts his head back, regarding Laertes. "Hey. You dance, right? And fence?"

[timebethine]

"Ay, I do, although I think thou art my better with a blade."

[summerdude]

Magnus shakes his head. "Would you say dancing and fencing are, like. Similar? At all?"

[timebethine]

"Very similar; fencing made me a better dancer, and dancing, a better fencer. Why dost thou ask?"

[summerdude]

"Well, like." Magnus fiddles with a leaf. "You know how I decided to, like, stop being Fighting Guy around the same time I decided that I was gonna be staying here? I think maybe that might've been a little, like, uh, short-sighted or whatever. So I've been trying to think of a way to, like, stay in form that..." Doesn't feel absolutely terrible and borderline insurmountable? "...is also fun? I don't know anything about dancing, though. Just, like. Killing, or whatever."

[timebethine]

Laertes pauses. Really thinks. Dancing will help with many things--balance, mobility--but for the kind of blade that Magnus wields, dancing won't be enough. If he is to remain in fighting trim, Magnus will need to develop strength in every muscle and wed grace to raw power. Slowly, Laertes says, "Dancing may be a place to begin, and Alex can help thee learn it, but ... in spring, Sagramore means to begin training Szarka on a kind of exercise for her mind and her body. An obstacle course that will test her on all of the arts that a dog is heir to. Hast thou ever heard of 'Agility'?"

[summerdude]

"I have. It's magically enhanced for all einherjar," Magnus says. He pauses. "I was gonna ask if you would teach me."

[timebethine]

"No, I mean not--" then the other half of what Magnus said catches up to him, and Laertes forgets to finish his thought. "If thou wouldst learn, I'd gladly teach thee. It's poor enough recompense for the lessons in sign."

[summerdude]

Magnus relaxes enough, at that, for it to be clear that he's been holding a lot more tension than usual. "Thanks," he says, fervent. "Didn't mean what?"

[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?"