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]

"So you, like, want whatever kind of relationship he's willing to have with you, but you haven't told him that you want whatever kind of relationship he's willing to have with you?" If there's any tone to Magnus's voice, it's confusion; he's trying to get this straight.

[lanselos_du_lac]

"As I said," as patiently as he can, "I do not wish to make demands. I have told him I am here and will do what I can to make this place safe."

[summerdude]

"And in your mind, saying you're interested in whatever relationship he's willing to have is making a demand?" Magnus asks. "Dude, if I know my best friend at all, he's not gonna do something he doesn't want to just based on a statement of fact."

[lanselos_du_lac]

"It seems--" Lancelot pauses. He's not entirely sure what he means. After a moment he adjusts and says, "I will consider discussing it with him."

[summerdude]

"Okay," Magnus says, with a little shrug. It's really no skin off his nose either way. He starts to gather up more of the ingredients for the falafel, then pauses. "Where I come from, prophecy is, like. Pretty important."

[lanselos_du_lac]

He frowns again, "Prophecy? What's this about prophecy?"

[summerdude]

Patience, dude, Magnus is getting there! He's explaining himself! (Don't get used to it!) "Like, I know how the world ends, and how I die, and how Alex dies, and how my dad dies, and -- all of that. The prophecies are relentless. You can, like, postpone the inevitable but they say it's still inevitable. All the gods know exactly who is going to betray them and how, and which fight will be their last, and where they'll fall, and what weapon will kill them." He pauses. "My sword kills my dad. It's a whole thing."

[lanselos_du_lac]

"That's all very troubling, I find, but what has it to do with any of this?"

[summerdude]

"And then," says Magnus, blatantly ignoring the question. "I met Alex. Alex is... you know, just as fucked over by prophecy as the rest of us, but she's, like." He smiles, because he's thinking about Alex. "So given to change. You know? And you can't be with someone like him without just really learning how to live in the moment. Figuring out smaller ways to take control over your destiny, here and there. Prolong the inevitable. Then I came here, and I met Galahad. He's like me, you know? Screwed by fate, and all that. But..."

Here, Magnus makes direct eye contact with Lancelot. "There's another way. If I keep my sword here, he can't get back to the Nine Worlds to release Fenris Wolf and start Ragnarok and kill my dad. Neither me nor Galahad are, like, gods' pawns anymore. We're not... we're not fulfilling some prophecy we've been told is our future. Do you see what I'm saying?"

[lanselos_du_lac]

Slowly, very cautiously, "I understand your meaning in terms of yourself, and Alex, and even Galahad. But I see not how it relates to me, or my relationship with him-- aside from the fact of his birth."

[summerdude]

Without even meaning to, Magnus perfectly replicates the expression Lancelot gave him - the one that says he finds Lancelot just a little bit daft. "You come here, you're told these things about your future..."

[lanselos_du_lac]

"Magnus, that is not prophecy. It is not the same thing."

[summerdude]

"Obviously it's not an actual prophecy," Magnus says, rolling his eyes. "But tell me how it's, like, functionally different."

[lanselos_du_lac]

Flatly, resisting the urge to roll his eyes, "It has already happened. In actuality."

[summerdude]

"Not to you."

[lanselos_du_lac]

This much, he'll grant. "No."

[summerdude]

Magnus nods, satisfied. "So there."

[lanselos_du_lac]

"I still don't get your point."

[summerdude]

"My point is, like, fuck fate?"

[lanselos_du_lac]

He manages not to sigh. He does appreciate what Magnus is trying to do here, but he still feels there's an essential disconnect.

"Magnus, I don't believe I am fated to make the same errors. But I can't undo what's already happened, for them."

[summerdude]

"But it's close," Magnus argues, obstinate. He does wonder, a little, why he's fighting Lancelot on this. Like, he doesn't think Galahad wants a father to come through and deliver the same way Magnus does, and goading Lancelot into a place where maybe that might happen isn't, like, Magnus's job. (Unlike all the other things that are Magnus's job: making sure there's food; making sure Shen Yuan's body is okay and growing as quickly as it can without incident; making sure Sunny has someone to talk to; making sure Alex feels loved and supported; making sure Luo Binghe doesn't feel totally alone; making sure Claudius has a Sword Guy in close proximity when Galahad is training, which therefore also means making sure Magnus is keeping up with his own secret training; making sure he also keeps up with his own meditation; making sure he doesn't get overwhelmed or burnt out and therefore being unable to do any of the other jobs. Et cetera.)

Whatever. In some weird way, now that (most of) the heat has been taken out of it, sniping with Lancelot has become one of the things that actually makes Magnus feel more grounded. It's familiar. It's often kind of fun. He crosses his arms again. "Aren't you, like, friends with Sagramore?"

[lanselos_du_lac]

"Yes. He is one of my closest friends, here or anywhere."

[summerdude]

"Why?"

[lanselos_du_lac]

"What do you mean, why?" There's a little laugh, "He is kind, and a good advisor, and he encourages enjoyment. He knows me well, and understands me."

[summerdude]

"Why, when your alternate future self did bad stuff to him?" Magnus asks, pointedly.