You Say Overkill, I Say Due Diligence [open post]

[summerdude]

Magnus copies the sign onto seven different pieces of paper. It reads:

WANT TO LEARN NEW SKILLS? ME FREAKING TOO. I (Magnus Chase) Will Trade Lessons In Any Of The Following For Something You Know:

• ASL (Alf/American Sign Language)


• Camping (pitching tents, campfire safety, celestial navigation)


• What To Do If You Find Yourself Lost In The World Tree Yggdrasil


• Pickpocketing (But only if you promise to use it for good (stealing ONLY from dickhead rich people) and ONLY if you have to!)


• Swordfighting for Beginners (I am intermediate but Jack is advanced and he can help!)


• What It REALLY Feels Like To Die (NOT ADVICE!!!)


• (Trans)Gender Identity and Fluidity (from the perspective of a cis guy) (Alex-approved content only)


• What To Do If The God You're Talking To Is Super Obnoxious Particular


• Why Falafel is the Best Food in the World

All skills welcome! But if you know any of the following I am especially interested: Cooking, Geometry, How To Declare Your Love To Your Partner, Hand-to-Hand Combat, Balancing a Budget, Writing Poetry, Social Studies, Codebreaking.

(Sorry but I will not learn pottery from anyone but ♥Alex Fierro♥. I hope you understand.)

PS if there's enough interest we can maybe do full classes where everybody gets to take turns teaching and learning?

He adds a note about the areas where he can most frequently be found and then posts one sign in each of the two kitchens he's encountered, one by the welcome table, one on the door to the greenhouses, one in the library, one on his bedroom door, and one by what he believes to be the most-populated lounge. Then, with a great deal of eager anticipation, he goes about his day.


[A note from Magnus's typist: Open indefinitely!]

Comments

[summerdude]

"I'm trying," Magnus says, with a quick grin. "Oh, here's something that makes me feel sixteen: I kinda wish I could go to school. I like learning things."

[timebethine]

"The prince of Denmark was at university when I was drawn here, and he has thirty years," Laertes says, grinning. "Thou shouldst speak to Nina--we have a sort of club for learning new things together. I think she'd welcome thee."

[summerdude]

"Oh, sick," Magnus says, pleased, and then: "Wait, dude, I've noticed someone else has been harvesting from the clay you told me about. Is that you? Or Nina? Or someone else?"

[timebethine]

"I've been working with it, ay," says Laertes. "Tress tells me that she collected cups, in her world, and so I've determined to make some for her. If nothing else, my mistakes might make her laugh. The clay I've gathered has been cleaned of impurities, and sand added in proper measure, and I've been planning a kiln to fire it in. Thou mayest use all of it--I had no wish to rob thee of it."

[summerdude]

"There's a kiln here?"

[timebethine]

Laertes sprawls back on his hands, laughing. "There are plans to build a kiln, ay. The kiln itself exists only in my imaginings."

[summerdude]

Magnus screws up his face into a thoughtful expression. "...Can I help?"

[timebethine]

"I'd be glad of it," says Laertes. "Sagramore's asked to help, too; with three of us, it will be light work."

[summerdude]

"Sweet," Magnus says, grinning. "Sounds like fun."

[timebethine]

"What words ought I to know? Was this 'kiln'?" He copies the sign that Magnus had used--an opening framed with one hand, palm-down, and a forceful palm-up shove into the space beneath that frame; a tickling flutter of fingers to represent flame.

[summerdude]

"Yeah, dude, that's it," Magnus enthuses. Talking, and signing, slowly, so that Laertes can follow along, he says, "I'm not experts on kilns or ceramics, but I've picked up a few things from Alex over the years."

[timebethine]

Laertes copies Alex, because he's fairly sure that's a sign he's going to be seeing a lot. "What of 'clay,' or 'cup,' or 'fire'?"

[summerdude]

Magnus signs each of these slowly, giving Laertes a chance to replicate it before moving on to the next one. "But a lot of people just finger-spell clay," he adds, thoughtfully. "I'm not sure why."

[timebethine]

"The shapes flow well together," says Laertes. He especially likes how the A transitions into the Y. "In Danish, it's--" and he signs L, E, R. "Close to mine own name."

[summerdude]

"Ler?" Magnus tries.

[timebethine]

"Yes," says Laertes with delight. "I feared that to speak it would make the word impossible to hear, but thou hast heard it and spoken it aright. The vowel is--" and he presses in on his throat "--more choked; it hath not its origins in Latin. In Norway and Sweden, though we share many words in common, they think my language unmusical. Ler," he says, emphasizing that strangled E. "In Norwegian, it means 'laughing.' I think in Swedish it means both?¹"

¹ Laertes is close--in Swedish, it's pronounced with yet another vowel sound, and is part of words related to smiling and earthenware.

[summerdude]

"I know some Old Norse," Magnus offers. "But only the swear words. Meinfretr, for example." He clears his throat and tries again: "Ler?"

[timebethine]

"Good!" Laertes sits forward with a grin. "That word, I don't know, although this place lays an unbeautiful gloss upon it."

[summerdude]

Magnus finger-spells it, in case Laertes is hearing it weirdly here. "It means, basically, stinkfart," he offers.

[timebethine]

Laertes can't help cracking up at that, clutching his stomach. "It is not--" he gasps "--not the first word of Old Norse I expected to learn."

[summerdude]

Magnus grins at Laertes and then laughs, too. "I have plenty more of that sort of thing," he says. "Perks of being friends with a 1200-year-old berserker from Norway." He laughs again. "He's sixteen, too."

[timebethine]

"How old does he feel, to thee?"

[summerdude]

"Somewhere in between that," Magnus admits. "It's partly the fact that he can grow a full beard, and partly that he has a doctorate in Germanic literature and speaks twelve languages fluently." He sighs, a little wistful. "Halfborn is a good role model for making good use of the time you have, I guess."

[timebethine]

"I should like so much to meet him." Laertes smiles a little. "I had few men I could look up to, in Denmark--but in France I met a Norman named Lamond. He was a towering champion on the field of combat, an unmatched fencer and a gentleman of most perfect graces and manners. I was faint to catch his eye, but I couldn't bring myself to speak a word to him. I feared too much that he would see the green, untried boy of me, and find me wanting. Now ... now I wonder if we might have been friends, or better than friends, if I'd been braver."

[summerdude]

Despite the ebb and flow of the conversation they've been having, Magnus is surprised to hear that Laertes gets nervous around other people. He seems so cool and together to Magnus. "It's always possible," Magnus says, gamely. He gives Laertes a look of great commiseration. "I know what it's like to get tongue-tied in front of someone hot and capable."