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."

Comments

[onthewillowsthere]

"What does that mean?" Sorry, Magnus, you need to explain more things again.

[summerdude]

"Percy told me about it," Magnus says. "Annabeth's boyfriend? He's the son of an ocean god. Poseidon, not Ran or Aegir or Njord. So he can withstand it. He was trying to teach me how to not die immediately if Ran attacked me when I was sailing to Niflheim. Um, there's a lot of pressure and it gets more intense the deeper you get in the ocean, and you need, like, protective gear to keep from exploding or whatever. And if you go up too fast to let the pressure changes happen gradually, you get really sick. It feels like there's no, like, gradation here." He pokes the water again.

[onthewillowsthere]

"So it's not safe to go into it because it would happen all at once."

[summerdude]

"Yeah. Or, like, we shouldn't risk it without the proper equipment, at least."

[onthewillowsthere]

"All right. Do you want to go next?"

[summerdude]

"I went like five times in a row, you can go again?" Magnus offers. "Wait, let's mark this door first."

[onthewillowsthere]

"All right." While he waits for Magnus to mark the door, he starts scoping out the hallway.

[summerdude]

Once the door has been marked and closed, Magnus rejoins Galahad. "Does the hallway seem even longer than when we first started?"

[onthewillowsthere]

"Yes," simply. As he leads Magnus down towards the next door, he adds, "Perhaps it wants to be explored. Perhaps it is pleased that we do."

[summerdude]

"Are we scratching an itch, you funny old house?" Magnus asks, knocking on a wall.

There's a thud from the other side, and he jumps. "Um."

[onthewillowsthere]

"That door," since there's one very near where Magnus knocked, and from whence the thud came.

Inside the door, it turns out, is another, slightly smaller door, and when they open that there's another; this continues until the door is only about a foot tall. When Galahad turns the knob, it swings open on a tiny kitchen, which is occupied by a hedgehog in a pink dress and an apron, washing dishes.

[summerdude]

"Nice to meet you," says Magnus, politely, settling down from that thud. "I hope we're not disturbing you."

[onthewillowsthere]

The hedgehog twitches her little black nose and blinks her twinkly black eyes at them, and goes to put on a tiny teakettle.

[summerdude]

"I'll, um, let you get back to it?" says Magnus, still polite.

[onthewillowsthere]

It isn't readily apparent whether it's the hedgehog, but someone is definitely singing,

Lily-white and clean, oh!
With little frills between, oh!
Smooth and hot – red rusty spot
Never here be seen, oh!

as the door shuts.

[summerdude]

"I can't tell if that was cute or cree--holy crap," Magnus breathes, as he pushes open the door right across the hall. "Dude. We gotta prop this one open."

Just through the doorway is a playground. One of those really cool ones he used to love as a kid, with enormous playsets with lots of levels and bridges and monkey bars and a mini climbing wall, stacked tires to wriggle up and clamber over, a jungle gym, and swings. There's a sandbox and a see-saw and a tetherball set with the ball actually attached. It's all adult-sized, not kid-sized. Magnus grabs Galahad's hand and pulls him out onto the mulch.

[onthewillowsthere]

"What is it?" as he follows Magnus in, gazing around.

[summerdude]

"A playground," Magnus says, grinning. "Come on. Do you wanna try the swing or the seesaw first? Or the slide?" He points at each thing as he names it.

[onthewillowsthere]

"Show me." He's confident he understands the purpose of the swing and how it works; the others, not so much.

[summerdude]

"Okay, sit down here," Magnus says, gesturing at one side of the see-saw as he goes over to the other. "Facing me. Hold onto the handles."

[onthewillowsthere]

Galahad obeys promptly.

[summerdude]

Like the rest of this playground, the see-saw is adult-sized. Magnus takes the opposing seat. "Now we... uhhh, bounce," he explains, and pushes off the ground firmly but gently to demonstrate. He and Galahad are roughly matched for weight -- it seems magical strength doesn't contribute to actual poundage -- and when Galahad is planted at ground level, Magnus's feet dangle in the air. "You go."

[onthewillowsthere]

Oh. Oh. It's a game, a completely pointless game. Galahad pushes off the ground and his stomach briefly flips as he's lifted into the air, and he likes it. He wonders if they could bring Shen Yuan here too, whether he would also recognize these things.

[summerdude]

"Fun, right?" Magnus shouts as he lands and launches again. "They're usually for kids. This is more, like, us-sized."

[onthewillowsthere]

When Magnus pushes off, Galahad hurtles back down to earth significantly faster; it's exhilarating. "I like it," he shouts back to Magnus.