Jack Puts Me Through My Paces [open post]

[summerdude]

"Señor, you really should practice more," Jack says, as Magnus rearranges his mental notes and sighs.

(Anyone else might think Magnus is just lying back on a bench on the grounds, staring at the sky, lost in thought. And technically, he is. But he's working hard!!! He's trying to sort out everyone he's encountered so far!!!)

"You're right," Magnus groans. Being in a weird Mansion with no way out, no established Battle Practice, and no pressing quests to go on is not an excuse to let his limited fighting skills fall by the wayside. He hauls himself upright and shoves his (still largely blank) notebook into his backpack.

Twenty minutes later, he's secured a practice sword from some random closet or another in the Mansion. It's dull steel, not sentient, and heavy in his hands.

"Perfect," Jack decides, so Magnus tramps back out to the spacious lawn, one sword in each hand. Checking to make sure no one is directly in harm's way, he releases Jack and brings the dull training sword up, ready to parry whatever attack Jack decides to throw at him.

Comments

[onthewillowsthere]

Galahad lets go, even as he continues to watch with a fascination that might actually be apparent, even on him.

[summerdude]

"So this is happening," Magnus observes to Galahad, as Jack bears the Sword over to a nearby bench and then settles them both down. He immediately starts flirting with her in earnest. "I'm so sorry. I have no idea how long this is going to go on."

[onthewillowsthere]

He lets out a short laugh. He doesn't laugh particularly often, and it sounds like the laugh of someone who's out of practice, but it's sincere. "I didn't expect it."

[summerdude]

"I'll make sure to turn him back into a pendant at night so he doesn't wake you up trying to romance your sword," Magnus promises. "Jack is a huge flirt though. He, um. Dates a lot of weapons, apparently? At least according to him, he does. He seems to like enchanted weapons the best, but frankly they all look inanimate to me."

[onthewillowsthere]

Galahad glances over at him. "How does he know?"

[summerdude]

"That they're dating?" Magnus shrugs. "It's a Sumarbrander thing, I guess. He can cut holes between worlds and kill a giant without really any effort at all and even fly me up the World Tree in a pinch. Honestly, the dating other weapons in a way I super don't understand is less surprising to me than his music preferences. Maybe there's a secret blade-language or something."

[onthewillowsthere]

"I never thought of swords so much before," he tells Magnus. "And what they would think or desire."

[summerdude]

"Me neither," Magnus admits. "Before I met Jack, that is. I didn't even know swords had genders."

[onthewillowsthere]

"No," he agrees. His mouth quirks for a split-second.

[summerdude]

Magnus grins back at him. "My girlfriend laughed at me when I told her that," he says, tone fond. "I guess she's right. At a certain point, when enough weird shi -- uh, weird stuff keeps happening all the time, why would that be the thing that throws me off?"

[onthewillowsthere]

"That's true. Everything is always strange. This is just strange in a different way." He is finding it isn't as hard to talk to Magnus as most people -- Magnus is unperturbed in face of Galahad's awkwardness and the things that people generally find off-putting, and that makes it easier to say the things he'd usually just think.

[summerdude]

"Yeah! You get it," Magnus says. It's so nice to have a buddy he can just vibe with who also seems to get it? He misses his friends back home a lot, and this helps.

He laughs a little, suddenly. "I guess it's good that I had all that strangeness start before I ended up here. Imagine how confusing that could have been."

[onthewillowsthere]

Galahad laughs. It doesn't feel dangerous; it feels like laughing in front of Percival (Percival is, unfortunately, his only touchstone for friendship, so it's he only comparison he can make, but we promise he doesn't want to kiss Magnus). "Very," he agrees quietly.

[summerdude]

"Was it a shock to you?" Magnus asks, carefully. "Coming here? Or are you more used to weird?"

[onthewillowsthere]

A little shrug. "Things happen all the time. Tests and trials. Some of them are strange. This is like coming from the nunnery to Camelot. It's not different because of the magic."

[summerdude]

"I feel that," Magnus says. He decides to take a seat on the grass. A moment later, he lies down entirely, head propped up on his arms. "Honestly, sometimes I'm like, it's kind of nice to be here? I've been on so many quests over the past few years in so many weird places that now, being here? It's like... a breather." He sighs. "I just wish some people from back home were here, too."

[onthewillowsthere]

Galahad doesn't lie down, but he does sit. "Me too," quietly.

[summerdude]

"If you want to talk about your people, you can," Magnus says. He means it, but it also feels like the only decent thing to say, since he hasn't really shut up about Alex once since arriving at the Mansion. "You don't have to though."

[onthewillowsthere]

He draws his knees up to his chest and puts his arms around them. "There's only Percival. He came a year after I did. We were always together."

[summerdude]

"Percival, huh?" Magnus asks. Off in the distance, Jack starts singing, to try and woo Galahad's Sword in another way. He ignores this and twists his head so he can see Galahad. "Alex came a year after me, too." He blinks once, slowly. With a self-deprecating little laugh, he says, "I miss him so much. What do you miss about Percival?"

[onthewillowsthere]

"He always understood me." It's the first time he's talked about Percival in the past tense, as if he might not see him again. "He always knew what I meant. He didn't mind that I'm-- like this. Me."

[summerdude]

"Like what?" Magnus asks, genuinely confused. "Awesome?"

[onthewillowsthere]

This time Galahad looks over at him, blankly. "What?"

[summerdude]

"What?" Magnus asks, also blankly. "Do you prefer 'cool'?"

[onthewillowsthere]

He studies Magnus, as if by staring intently at him he could figure out whether this is a joke at his expense. It feels like it might be. After a long cautious silence, he says, "I'm not well-liked."