I'm About As Organized As Ran, I Guess? [closed post]

[summerdude]

"And then we realized Frigg was knitting with clouds. Actual factual clouds," Magnus says, passing another box that, as it turns out, holds nothing useful down to Galahad. He climbs up another rung on the little stepladder and starts in on the next shelf. "How many boxes of Legos do we have so far?" He knows it's certainly not enough for a bachelorette party yet, but surely there's something they can go on. He'd kind of tonight that this far after Dark, there would be... more? "Do you think we should find another room to look in? Maybe the game room isn't the best choice."

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[summerdude]

"I don't think so," Magnus laughs. "It's a little big. And the top is a little tight."

[onthewillowsthere]

"Stand on one foot. Hanguang-jun instructs me to do so."

[summerdude]

"Boot foot or shoe foot?"

[onthewillowsthere]

"Boot foot," instantly.

[summerdude]

Magnus stands on his boot foot. He has pretty good coordination, but his foot slides in the boot and he wavers, throwing his arms out for balance.

[onthewillowsthere]

Immediately Galahad holds out both hands for him to steady himself.

[summerdude]

Magnus grabs his hand, long enough for him to find his own center of balance, and then releases carefully.

[onthewillowsthere]

He waits to be sure Magnus is steady, and then lifts his own knee. His balance is already better than it was before he started training with Lan Wangji.

[summerdude]

Magnus finds that, if he rests most of his weight on the ball of his foot and spreads his toes, he can more or less maintain balance even in this shoe. This extremely uncomfortable shoe. It looks fun, but it's definitely more Alex's color than his. As he slowly brings his hands back to his sides, he glances around -- maybe if he finds the other boot, he can bring these back to camp for her.

[onthewillowsthere]

"You hate it," Galahad observes after a moment.

[summerdude]

"It's the worst," Magnus says, cheerfully.

[onthewillowsthere]

"Take it off. We'll keep looking."

[summerdude]

Magnus eases it off and kicks it away, then thinks twice and retrieves it. "While we're looking for your scabbard we should keep looking for its mate," he says. "Alex would love 'em."

[onthewillowsthere]

"All right. More shoes? Try another door?"

[summerdude]

"Yeah," says Magnus. He pulls his actual shoe back on, place the boot carefully by the door, and heads back out into the hall. This time, he's the one to spin around, pointing, with his eyes closed. "That one."

[onthewillowsthere]

Galahad crosses over to the new door and pulls it open.

The room inside is more of a cave -- a hollow, dug into the earth beneath the mansion. The walls aren't stone, though; they're mushroom substrate and embedded logs and they're covered with mushrooms. King and golden oyster, shiitake, lion's mane, beautiful clusters of beech mushrooms and enoki, ruffled maitake, even, inexplicably, the thick glorious orange and gold splatter of laetiporus. At Galahad's feet, there are tiny red chanterelles.

[summerdude]

"Holy shit," says Magnus, immediately picking a mushroom and shoving it in his mouth. Hey, he's pretty good at identifying these suckers from his camping days, and anyway, it's not like any errant poisonous ones could kill him. Wait, are any of them magic? "I wish I'd known about this last month."

[onthewillowsthere]

"Would it have been here last month?"

[summerdude]

"Wouldn't it?" Magnus frowns. "I guess things change sometimes."

[onthewillowsthere]

"The sheds where we found Drosera appeared."

[summerdude]

"That's true," Magnus agrees. "I guess it just feels weirder for inside things to change a whole lot." He glances around. "Do you think we could get to the caves through here?"

[onthewillowsthere]

"Do you want to try?"

[summerdude]

Magnus shakes his head, then nods, then shrugs. "After we find your scabbard?"

[onthewillowsthere]

Galahad is silent for a moment, looking at him. "Are you all right?"

[summerdude]

Magnus is a little sad that Galahad has to be a Fighting Guy again, in all honesty, and he's not entirely sure what to do about it. He says, "I'm good, man. Just, like, indecisive today I guess."