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]

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."

[summerdude]

Might as well call Magnus a living bobblehead; he's still shaking his. "That doesn't make any sense."

[lightbearinglord]

Very well; Lan Wangji will persist in his explanation. "She killed Shen Yuan, then took the memory of herself from the mansion. When her name is spoken, she senses it. That is how she knew to take my memory of speaking with Shen Yuan's spirit."

[summerdude]

And Magnus, without realizing what he's doing or why he's doing it, stops shaking his head, pulls a hand free from Lan Wangji's grip, and slaps the back of his neck.

[lightbearinglord]

Startled, Lan Wangji lets Magnus' other hand go, too. He hesitates, then remembers the words of Claudius' note to him: Remember that Aornis senses whenever her name is spoken as a shiver on the back of the neck, and thou saw’st this thyself with a man who is like a son to thee. "Yes," he says. "Like that."

[summerdude]

"Like what?" Magnus asks, frowning, which is when he realizes what he's just done. He pulls his hand away from his neck and looks at it, frowning.

[lightbearinglord]

Tamping down his ongoing frustration with the absent spaces in his memory, Lan Wangji says, "I can't remember learning it, but you were the one who discovered that she can feel her name. That is all I know."

[summerdude]

"What?"

[lightbearinglord]

"She can steal memories," Lan Wangji repeats, as patiently as he can. "I know what I know only because of a letter Claudius wrote me documenting our findings. I have forgotten writing the letter I gave him in return."

[summerdude]

"I found it out?" Magnus is scratching the back of her neck again!

[lightbearinglord]

"Yes. I don't know how." But he trusts Claudius' word completely.

[summerdude]

"I don't like this."

[lightbearinglord]

"Nor do I," Lan Wangji says promptly. He hesitates, then says, "Her name cannot be spoken without attracting danger, but--" And he signs it instead, just as Claudius showed him, A-O-R-N-I-S for Magnus' benefit.

[summerdude]

Memory tugs at Magnus, but when he tries to follow it down, he only gets half-shapes. A-o-r-n-i-s, he signs back.

[lightbearinglord]

Lan Wangji nods, confirmation and approval. "Be careful," he says -- it is likely unnecessary, but he can't help it. Magnus has already been targeted. Magnus is precious to him. "Claudius asked Shen Yuan about care of the plant that will become his body. Will it help you to hear it?"

[summerdude]

Magnus nods. "Yes, please."

[lightbearinglord]

For Magnus, Lan Wangji promptly repeats the precise words he said to Claudius, passed on from Shen Yuan: "Maintenance is minimal. Do not change the balance of sunlight and moonlight. Keep the soil moist, especially in the morning. Keep the lattice clear and open and allow nothing to block it. Additional qi may speed growth, but too much haste will warp the final product."