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]

"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."

[summerdude]

Magnus has already been doing all of that. He nods. "How long will it take?"

[lightbearinglord]

"I am not certain," Lan Wangji admits. The thought of summoning Shen Yuan for a second Inquiry session is wearying. He will need to spend some time with his qin simply playing quiet and beautiful music in a silent room to make up for all that it has suffered. "Would you have me ask?"

[summerdude]

Magnus can see the weariness in Lan Wangji's face. "It's not urgent," he says. "Like, I can tell we're not, like, days away. Did he have a, um. A message for me?"

[lightbearinglord]

Lan Wangji goes slightly more still, struck with a pang of guilt. He should have asked. He was tired, rattled from the revelation of his missing memories, and letting Claudius direct most of their questions -- but he should have thought to ask. As little as he cared for Shen Yuan, he knew that he and Magnus were important to one another. The only two times he has seen Shen Yuan set aside his disrespect for him, it has been for Magnus' sake. "I neglected to ask. I'm sorry."

[summerdude]

Magnus nods, expression resolute. That's okay. Presumably Hanguang-jun only asked the essential questions -- Magnus knows they're not close. Certainly if he asked if Shen Yuan had a message for anyone, he'd definitely include Magnus in that list, so it's fine. Magnus has been talking to Shen Yuan's future body when he's alone with it, just sharing all of his fears and hopes and other feelings; Shen Yuan can answer when his spirit is inside of it. That's enough. "It's okay. He told you what array you need?"

[lightbearinglord]

"I presumed the Evocation array would work," Lan Wangji says, slowly. Perhaps he should have asked that, too. He is not accustomed to interrogating spirits to this extent -- Inquiry is typically used for a handful of questions, pointed ones that will determine the nature and the cause of a death, not as an open conduit between the dead and the living.

[summerdude]

"We should probably double check that," Magnus says, thoughtfully. He's shifting his focus, setting aside his feelings and honing in on the task at hand. He's good at this, even if he hasn't done it in a while. Figuring out the next few steps and letting everything else fade into the background used to be pretty easy, especially in his years on the streets. "Before the time comes. He only keyed one body to himself. I don't want to, like, risk messing it up in the final-inning stretch or whatever. And I'd like to know how to tell when the body is ready, at least. I don't want to, like, overripen it."

[lightbearinglord]

Again, Lan Wangji nods. He is certainly not escaping at least one more session with Shen Yuan's spirit. That much is clear. "I will ask all of your questions," he promises. He has troubled Shen Yuan several times already; in a literal sense, he doesn't know how many times, only that he must have tried at least once every day since the death.

[summerdude]

Magnus sighs. "I should have asked him. When he showed me the bodies." Then he frowns. "Maybe I did. I don't even know why I forgot..."

He blinks and lifts his head. "Hanguang-jun," he says. "Shen Yuan showed me the plant bodies on the day he was in Ragnelle's body. And you were in Gu Xiang's." He shakes his head, trying to clear it. "Was I...?"

[lightbearinglord]

"I--" Lan Wangji manages to freeze again. It should be growing easier as he navigates his way around the reality of it. He has memories that are missing. He knows that. He reaches for the memory of that day. It is easy to recall the feeling of inhabiting Gu Xiang's body, everything almost painfully wrong and askew. He knows that he spoke with Magnus, that he admitted to the depths of his anger at Luo Binghe, that he explained that Claudius is his first friend. Magnus embraced him, and--

He pinches the bridge of his nose, hard, between his fingers. "I can't remember."

[summerdude]

"Hanguang-jun," says Magnus, carefully, putting a hand on his arm. "I didn't mean do you remember. I meant, like, do you think it's possible that I... with her... ?"

[lightbearinglord]

Lan Wangji is quiet. Magnus' hand on his arm is grounding. He doesn't think around the memory itself, but around the circumstances. He knew Aornis at some point. The letters referenced her by name, as if taking it for granted that he and Claudius would know her identity.

"Yes," he says, again slowly, and then he lets that hand settle instead atop Magnus'. "Shen Yuan will know. His memories have returned to his spirit. We should speak with him."

[summerdude]

"Are you sure?" Magnus doesn't want to make Hanguang-jun do something he hates.

[lightbearinglord]

"Yes." Lan Wangji is tired, but not so tired that he cannot do this -- for Magnus, but also for additional answers. He gives Magnus' hand a fortifying little squeeze. As with breaking the news, there is no need to waste additional time. "Would you rather do it outdoors?"

[summerdude]

"We can do it wherever you're most comfortable."

[lightbearinglord]

Truly, it doesn't matter. Lan Wangji has some preferences, but he has played Inquiry in crypts, in cramped farmhouses, in misting rain. "Outdoors," he decides, for Magnus' sake, and makes promptly for one of the mansion's side entrances.

[summerdude]

Magnus trots along next to him.

[lightbearinglord]

Outside, it is a crisp and lovely day. The lake glistens in the distance. By the time Lan Wangji pushes through the door, he has Wangji out, balanced across one hand and its wrappings stowed in his sleeves, but he does stop and give himself one and then two breaths to take in the landscape and let appreciation soften the edges of his urgency.

Subsequently, he sits on the steps, legs crossed, and settles his qin in place. He retrieves the spirit attraction flag and, for once, has only to plant it in the soft earth. He waits for Magnus.

[summerdude]

Magnus sits down next to him, automatically assuming the position he does when he meditates. He breathes, and watches Lan Wangji like a hawk.