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

[lightbearinglord]

"The library is expansive." Lan Wangji pours the peas into a bowl. "I am no help to you." At least this is a somewhat more entertaining context in which to contend with the fact that Magnus was born more a thousand years after he was.

[summerdude]

It feels silly to go all the way to the library to find a food processor. Magnus goes instead to the pantry and starts poking around until he sees a machine that looks vaguely familiar. It has a blade and stuff. He takes it out and brings it back into the main kitchen.

[lightbearinglord]

The object Magnus has produced does bear some resemblance to the blender they used when they made tamales with Sagramore. Choosing to believe that Magnus has not erred, Lan Wangji begins depositing the ingredients within it, one by one.

[summerdude]

Magnus sorts out the plug and figures out how to get the blade situated with a little jiggling and trial and error, then helps Lan Wangji add ingredients.

Once they're all in, he pushes the button. It doesn't start. "Huh."

[lightbearinglord]

Lan Wangji watches this with no particular change in his expression. He looks at Magnus. Regrettably, he has no cultivation techniques that will recreate the abilities of a food processor, as far as he can tell.

[summerdude]

Magnus wracks his memory. His mom had one of these, he's pretty sure? She called it something else, though. A brand name, maybe? It had--

"A lid?" he guesses. "Maybe it needs the lid. I'm gonna find the lid." He goes to find the lid.

[lightbearinglord]

"The blender had a lid," Lan Wangji agrees solemnly. He awaits Magnus' return.

[summerdude]

Magnus finds a reasonable-looking lid and brings it back. After a few moments of fumbling, he figures out how to twist it on and lock it into place. In doing so, he also twists the handle of the food processor around. It's not on purpose, but it makes the same latching sound, so -- maybe that was what this needed? He tries the button again.

"It works!" he exclaims, looking over at Lan Wangji excitedly.

[lightbearinglord]

Lan Wangji gives him a warm look in return. It strikes him with that fondness every time, seeing Magnus smile -- always, but especially recently. He hopes that what he has to tell him shortly will not add too much additional weight to his shoulders. "We are instructed to pulse it eight times, then add the remaining ingredients and begin the chilling process."

[summerdude]

"Pulse," Magnus repeats. The button -- it's really more of a lever -- did a single little whir and then stopped. That's maybe a pulse? Experimentally, he flips it the other way.

It latches in and keeps going. Hastily he flips it down again. "Okay. Pulse." He pulses it six more times, then grins at Lan Wangji, proud of figuring out the food processor.

[lightbearinglord]

"Well done," Lan Wangji says to him. It did not appear overly difficult, but he couldn't have so much as identified this appliance himself, so Magnus' presence was certainly necessary. Summarily, he gathers the remaining ingredients -- flour, baking soda, salt, and spices -- and tips them into the mixture before replacing the lid. "Pulse a few more times," he instructs Magnus.

[summerdude]

Magnus pulses it three more times, then squints at it (what is he looking for? Who can say!) and pulses it a fourth.

[lightbearinglord]

The recipe asks for the mixture to be well-blended. Lan Wangji also considers it for a moment, then produces a bowl from a cupboard beneath the counter. "Place it in here and then cover it."

[summerdude]

"Yes, sir, Hanguang-jun, sir," says Magnus, obeying. He seems to have become sous chef in this endeavor, but he's not mad about it.

[lightbearinglord]

Lan Wangji watches as Magnus covers the bowl. He takes it and places it in the refrigerator, shutting the door with the refrigerator's characteristic little thump as it falls into place. Eight hours. Four shichen. That is more than enough time, he hopes. He turns back to Magnus with a slightly more serious demeanor -- a subtle difference, but one Magnus is likely to notice. "I have news to deliver while we wait."

[summerdude]

Magnus, of course, does notice, and his spine straightens automatically. "News?"

[lightbearinglord]

There is no use in circling the topic or drawing it out, now that he has Magnus' attention. "I was able to contact Shen Yuan's spirit. Claudius and I spoke with him at length."

[summerdude]

It's a good thing the bowl is in the fridge. Otherwise Magnus would have dropped it. "You made contact?" he asks, eyes wide, shining. "It's -- he's definitely there?"

[lightbearinglord]

Perhaps every flicker of irritation Lan Wangji has ever felt in answer to Shen Yuan's disrespect and callousness has been worth it for the light in Magnus' eyes at this moment. "His spirit is present," he confirms. "It was not the first time I spoke with him, but my memory of the prior attempts had been taken by his killer."

[summerdude]

"His," Magnus blinks. "What?"

[lightbearinglord]

"Shen Yuan's killer," Lan Wangji repeats. He has had a little time, if not much, to adjust to the idea of her existence, of some woman in the shadows of the mansion whose malice answers to the sound of her name. "She is also the woman responsible for the attack on you."

[summerdude]

Magnus freezes. He doesn't realize that he's shaking his head until he's also blurting, "No."

[lightbearinglord]

"Magnus." Lan Wangji tries to sound gentle. He couldn't say if he succeeds, not when his own thoughts are lingering on the memory of Magnus' injuries. "Yes."

[summerdude]

Magnus is still shaking his head. "No," he repeats. "I haven't pissed anyone off here." Well. Lancelot. Apollo. Maybe Asmodean? But Lancelot saved him, and Asmodean probably wouldn't risk Sagramore's affection, and Apollo wasn't even here yet. And also Hanguang-jun said it was a woman? Susan clearly doesn't like him, but she's also clearly not inclined to random acts of violence. "There's no price on my head here. No one was there when it happened. Either time."

[lightbearinglord]

After a moment's hesitation, Lan Wangji crosses from the refrigerator to take both of Magnus' hands in his own. He will need his hands free momentarily, he suspects, but not quite yet. He wants, as he has always wanted, to be a steadying force for Magnus. "This woman has abilities. They do not entirely work on you. That is why you were a target. She can steal memories and bend coincidence in her favor."