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]

Magnus cackles, too, laughter growing harder -- one might even say it has a hysterical edge to it -- as a little clump of bad falafel teeters on Lancelot and then tumbles down slowly. "Sorry," he gasps, sitting down heavily on the floor. "Sorry--"

And then... well. He's not entirely sure if he's laughing or crying.

[lanselos_du_lac]

Lancelot, still laughing, crouches beside him, though he doesn't touch Magnus. He says nothing, just waits, quiet and patient.

[summerdude]

This is actually super embarrassing!!! Magnus decides that he's just laughing. "Sorry," he said. "If you'd bothered to read Odin's Plan when I told you to, you'd know all about falafel-to-the-face." This is a lie!

[lanselos_du_lac]

He wants to point out that he still believes Odin's Plan is fake, but instead he says, easily, "You can blame the library for that. I could not find it."

Lancelot gets to his feet and finds a paper towel, which he starts to do his best to use to clean up. He gives Magnus a minute to right himself.

[summerdude]

"I have no idea why. I've been gifted a copy for every single quest I've completed in the past, like, eight years."

[lanselos_du_lac]

"You should have brought it with you," as he finishes cleaning up. (Well, mostly. It is pretty oily.)

[summerdude]

"Next time I accidentally stumble through a portal to a weird little pocket dimension, I'll be sure to have a copy on hand," Magnus says, climbing off the floor. He is, somehow, feeling slightly more normal.

[lanselos_du_lac]

"I'm sure that would serve us all well."

[summerdude]

"I'm gonna take it at face value though," Magnus decides. "Even if you were trolling me. So you're welcome."

[lanselos_du_lac]

"Very well," stifling a smile, "Do as you will."

[summerdude]

"You should read comics next."

[lanselos_du_lac]

"What are comics?"

[summerdude]

"Graphic novels," says Magnus, fully aware that Lancelot probably also doesn't know what a graphic novel is, going to dump the entire colander full of falafel sludge into the trash. "It's, like. Stories told with drawings. I think you'd like them."

[lanselos_du_lac]

He makes a thoughtful noise, picking one last chunk of falafel from his shirt, "Perhaps I will look into it."

[summerdude]

"My favorites are Sandman, Saga, Watchmen, and Scott Pilgrim," Magnus says, ticking them off on his fingers. "And Joe Hill's stuff. And Avengers. Volume 3 specifically. They get Thor and Asgard really wrong though." Thoughtfully, "They probably got Camelot really wrong, too. That was a different run, though." Maybe Lancelot shouldn't read Black Knight. "But anyway. There's, like, a million different genres and story types. Something for everyone."

[lanselos_du_lac]

This brings him up short, "Camelot is depicted in these... graphic books?"

[summerdude]

Magnus shrugs. "The Boston library only had one issue of the run with Camelot. They're really old. And I think it was only in, like, I dunno. Ten out of literal thousands of comic books. Thor was in a lot more." He shrugs again. "I think my dad is in some books, too, but I really specifically haven't looked up what they did with him. It's all, like, fiction anyway."

[lanselos_du_lac]

A half-shrug. Lancelot is still uncomfortable about much of this. "I see. I suppose it matters not. I shall see what the library has."

[summerdude]

Magnus squints at him for a long moment, then sketches a bow. "You can call me Bookmaster Magnus. I got all the good recommendations."

[lanselos_du_lac]

"I won't be doing that," Lancelot says. But he is grinning.

[summerdude]

Magnus rolls his eyes. "Everyone's a critic."

[lanselos_du_lac]

"I shall take your recommendation," moving to elbow Magnus gently, "but 'Bookmaster'? I think not."

[summerdude]

Magnus rolls his eyes at him extravagantly. "Okay, dickface," he says -- it's cheerful, and his tone is friendly.

[lanselos_du_lac]

"I am glad we agree."

[summerdude]

"You definitely shouldn't change clothes before, um, practice." Magnus switches to a stage whisper for that last word, then back to his normal speaking voice. "That grease stain gives me something to aim at."