New Plan, Step One: Provide For My Community [open]

[summerdude]

Magnus needs something to change, so when a Mansion calendar helpfully informs him that it's International Falafel Day back on Earth, he goes to the library for some cookbooks, and then to the kitchen.

He lays out ten different falafel recipes. He gathers the ingredients they list, as best as he can understand them. He has canned chickpeas and fresh chickpeas and dried chickpeas and chickpea flour and box mixes of falafel that say 'just add water!'

Cripes.

"I can do this," he says, peering at the assorted recipes intently for a good ten minutes, and then takes the dried chickpeas over to the sink to rinse and soak.

Comments

[summerdude]

"Well, there's the cooking food guys, like Laertes and Tress, and there's the growing food guys, like me and Uncle D, and then there's the hunting food guys, like Little John and Wei Wuxian. And the fishing food guys, like Mothwing and I think maybe Gideon is trying to be one, too?"

[onthewillowsthere]

Galahad nods. "Gideon likes it when things are worked for."

[summerdude]

"Yeah, I can see that." Thanks to Dark, Uncle D, and Claudius, Magnus is growing increasingly interested in farming here.

[onthewillowsthere]

"Is Drosera not a fishing food guy because she doesn't share?"

[summerdude]

"Yeah," says Magnus, smiling fondly. "Drosera isn't really a provider. Yet."

[onthewillowsthere]

Galahad considers. He'd been so busy with training that Claudius had treated the scratches Drosera left on his back instead of Magnus, and he still feels as though he's let Magnus down in some way by not asking him to heal them. He doesn't think Drosera herself cares that she hurt him -- he doesn't think she really realizes it. Even though she talks to Magnus, she's still mostly a wild animal. Galahad likes that about her. "Do you think she will be?"

[summerdude]

Magnus laughs, and a smile nearly as goofy as the one he gets whenever he thinks about Alex crosses his face. "By the time Sunny is done with her? I think there might be a nonzero chance."

[onthewillowsthere]

"Sunny?"

[summerdude]

"Sunny Baudelaire," Magnus says, goofy grin growing. "She's the best. You haven't met her yet? Dro loves her." So, it would seem, does Magnus!

[onthewillowsthere]

"I haven't met her. Tell me about her." He feels a strange wistfulness at not having known about someone Magnus loves so much.

[summerdude]

"Well, she's very cute and very smart. She has really strong and funny opinions about everyone she's met here. Her hair does this thing? It's fluffy, like yours, but it's, like... up. Like a little geyser. Um, her teeth are really sharp? She likes crunchy things."

[onthewillowsthere]

"Is she staying with you and Alex?"

[summerdude]

Magnus laughs. "Absolutely not," he says. "She asked, but I'm pretty sure babies shouldn't sleep outside like that, even with my summer. Also," and he glances around, as if checking for listening ears. In a stage-whisper, and tones of greatest confidence, he says, "I still haven't figured out how to change her diaper. Don't tell anyone. I just let other people do it for me."

[onthewillowsthere]

Galahad also does not know how to change a diaper, so he won't be much help there, but it makes him wonder whether Claudius knows, and he resolves to ask. He knows Claudius has a nephew. "Then who is she with?"

[summerdude]

"I think she rotates?" She said something about a lot of different people.

[onthewillowsthere]

For Galahad, who was raised by about thirty nuns, this seems not unreasonable. "Who is her favorite?"

[summerdude]

"Crowley, cuz he can turn into a snake and he takes care of her. And me." She hasn't said this, but Magnus wants it to be true so he's assuming. He hesitates for a moment, glancing sidelong at Galahad, and then carefully says, "She also, like, really likes your, um, uh, Lancelot?"

[onthewillowsthere]

He blinks. "Lancelot?"

[summerdude]

"She says he's nice and, like, insightful apparently? Kind of clueless about the, um, baby care stuff, but his girlfriend has that covered and he's otherwise, like... good."

[onthewillowsthere]

"Oh." He shells a few more chickpeas. "Good."

[summerdude]

Magnus reaches to help. "Yeah."

[onthewillowsthere]

Galahad keeps working in silence (working in silence is familiar, something he knows how to do. He used to have his chores in the nunnery) while he sifts through the grains of this. There is a small child here now, and she likes Lancelot among the best of the adults who have cared for her. Lancelot is good with children.

[summerdude]

Magnus is quiet, too, chewing on his lip while he shells more chickpeas. Should he say anything? Why does this feel so awkward? Like, it's an awkward topic, but usually he feels like he knows what to say with Galahad!

[onthewillowsthere]

"Do you think--" he begins, and then presses his lips together, changing his mind. A moment later he says, instead, "Do you like him now?"

[summerdude]

He studies Galahad for a moment, again sidelong, trying to figure out what he was first going to ask. Then he shrugs. "I don't know. He's not the worst guy here."