"Oh, I wasn't calling you a liar!" Magnus hastens to clarify. "Or anything like Loki, beyond the very initial flattery." He guesses that Claudius and Loki are also two good-looking guys, but that's hardly the grounds for comparison. A lot of people are good-looking guys. "And trust me, I get having friendships that incline you toward particular ways of being."

He pauses to fix his hair -- it's falling out of the scrunchie, so he pulls the scrunchie out, runs his fingers through it to comb it out, and tries for a teeny ponytail, or something. "The flyting went... fine," he says, modestly. "I won and we trapped Loki in a walnut shell and gave him back to the gods. I'm pretty sure they let Sigyn go back to wherever they put him this time, like I asked. She's good people." And an unexpected ally, despite her weird devotion to Loki.

Then he smiles. "I've decided what emotion words are best to start with," he says.