Claudius looks up from reburying bulbs the squirrels had gotten into, as though they'd sensed he needed another chore to keep his hands occupied. He looks up to see Magnus with a bright smile, giving the small salute of hello before taking off his gloves to make his signs clearer. Too much, he signs, something he learned quickly from Galahad, though he also fits a droll eyeroll in between the sharp framing of his hands. Too much. Overwhelming. But ... He crosses his fingers and holds them out, holding that thought.
It's challenging. The things that are occupying his mind right now outstrip his vocabulary -- not just in signs. He's accepted that, with all the facts in evidence, it's simpler and more straightforward to accept his life was written and predetermined by an English playwright. It changes less than he thought, because he'd worked through so many ad hoc explanations beforehand. A play that revealed his worst sin, as relayed by a ghost, was shattering enough to accept. The realization that events continued to unfold in that play, and foretold a future he hadn't yet lived, was tricky, but Shen Qingqiu had the previous experience to walk him through it. Untangling how, exactly, William Shakespeare was able to capture the of his life already lived and his life to come from hearsay and legends, and how many diverging histories there were, and what that meant for any plan of God's ... that could've been a twenty-four hour mind project1. At the end of the day, he's still quite glad not to be in the play. And if characters escaping a play can ruin it, there's an appeal to plotting to ruin it as much as possible, and thus ruin the jurisfiction agency's day.
Anyway, Magnus knows about the play. He also knows about The Lion King being based on Hamlet, a fact Claudius was able to learn and pass on in the space of a single day. Happy to see you, Claudius decides on, chaining the signs for happy and see and you together. How are you?
1 Thank you to anyone out there who catches that reference.
no subject
It's challenging. The things that are occupying his mind right now outstrip his vocabulary -- not just in signs. He's accepted that, with all the facts in evidence, it's simpler and more straightforward to accept his life was written and predetermined by an English playwright. It changes less than he thought, because he'd worked through so many ad hoc explanations beforehand. A play that revealed his worst sin, as relayed by a ghost, was shattering enough to accept. The realization that events continued to unfold in that play, and foretold a future he hadn't yet lived, was tricky, but Shen Qingqiu had the previous experience to walk him through it. Untangling how, exactly, William Shakespeare was able to capture the of his life already lived and his life to come from hearsay and legends, and how many diverging histories there were, and what that meant for any plan of God's ... that could've been a twenty-four hour mind project1. At the end of the day, he's still quite glad not to be in the play. And if characters escaping a play can ruin it, there's an appeal to plotting to ruin it as much as possible, and thus ruin the jurisfiction agency's day.
Anyway, Magnus knows about the play. He also knows about The Lion King being based on Hamlet, a fact Claudius was able to learn and pass on in the space of a single day. Happy to see you, Claudius decides on, chaining the signs for happy and see and you together. How are you?
1 Thank you to anyone out there who catches that reference.