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

[sagramore]

"Mm. I owe him a life debt."

[summerdude]

"Is that how you become a blood brother?"

[sagramore]

"It's one way."

[summerdude]

"I thought it was about bleeding on each other."

[sagramore]

"That's also an option. Swearing a blood oath. It's done. We did bleed on each other, of course, but it wasn't intentional."

[summerdude]

Magnus considers this. "I think I prefer my method," he decides.

[sagramore]

"Which is?"

[summerdude]

"I just tell a guy that he's my brother now. No blood necessary."

[sagramore]

"That does sound efficient."

[summerdude]

"You can do it too, if you like. Much cleaner."

[sagramore]

"I'm not sure it would be authentic enough."

[summerdude]

"What, you gotta go through the horrors of battle with a guy before you can declare brotherhood?" Magnus does get it, actually, sort of. He brother-zoned Hearth around the same time he ate Hearth's dad's heart, after all.

[sagramore]

"In theory, the idea is that we'd die for each other."

[summerdude]

Magnus blinks. "That's a pretty low bar," he says, forgetting for a half-moment that this isn't Valhalla and people don't die for each other three times a day.

[sagramore]

"Is it?" asks Sagramore, who doesn't have this context.

[summerdude]

"In Valhalla, at least? Yeah."

[sagramore]

"All right. I'm not sure you need to be dying for me here."

[summerdude]

"Yeah, I'm off dying for the moment," Magnus (who has died for a ton of guys he wouldn't call 'brother') says, and waggles his eyebrows at Sagramore. "So whaddya say? We waive that one?"

[sagramore]

"I think we can do that."

[summerdude]

Magnus is quiet for a moment. "It's a big deal where I'm from," he says. "Being a bastard. Which is actually so stupid, because technically actually every demigod is. But a lot of people I know have really struggled specifically because of that."

[sagramore]

"What's the cause, in your time?

[summerdude]

"Well, for one, not a lot of people are super thrilled when a god shows up with a baby that they say is yours and leaves it with you. Especially if you already have a family, or if you're part of a religion that's particularly down on single moms. Like, more than people are already down on single moms, which is a lot. A lot of people I know suffered because of that."

[sagramore]

"Ah. Yes. In my time I wouldn't say the mothers are necessarily treated well, although some men do decently by their mistresses."

[summerdude]

"Gods don't," Magnus sighs.

[sagramore]

"No, I suppose we hardly matter enough for that. A mortal life must seem relatively insignificant."