YOU Get A Big Banana, and YOU Get A Big Banana, and YOU Get A Big Banana! [closed post]

[summerdude]

"Okay, just another minute," Magnus says.

It's a hot day out, so holding Galahad's hand is a sweaty affair... and Magnus's current use of his alf seidr isn't making matters any more comfortable. The grass is tickling at Magnus's back -- his shirt has ridden up while he lies, spread-eagle, in the middle of the lawn. Galahad is always so smart about his clothes, Magnus bets he's not getting the grass itches at all.

But he can put all that aside. Grass tickles are good tickles, and the heat of the sun is -- to Magnus -- always more refreshing than it is annoying. There's a trickle of sweat at the side of his neck, but even though it's hot out it's not really a temperature extreme, so as usual he feels regular about it.

All his attention is on the plants around them. Feverfew and milkweed, black-eyed susan and queen anne's lace, aster and boneset and flowering spurge and yarrow and tickseed and teasel and wild thyme and forget-me-nots and poppies and and and -- well. He's not sure what else is in the mix. He's been trying to get better at plant identification with Claudius's guidance, but the package he found earlier that morning only said FIELD SEEDS. He's doing his best! Right now, his 'best' is less focused on identification and more focused on growing them to flower, high enough that some of them are providing shade to both him and Galahad, in a very neat outline of the grass they've politely crushed between the two of them.

Eventually, he's done all he can without overtaxing the plants. "There," he tells Galahad. "Summer snow angels, check."

Comments

[summerdude]

Magnus shrugs. "I knew other kids who told me I was going to hell and who wouldn't play with me," he says. "For various reasons, I think. Partly because I kept insisting there was no such thing as god. Also because my mom was a single mom and I wasn't christian. Also also because I got into a lot of trouble pretty regularly, especially with teachers. So."

[onthewillowsthere]

He squeezes Magnus' hand by way of apology. The sea is in sight now, a distant shimmer like a heat mirage; Galahad can walk a long way now without getting tired, and the journey is immaterial except for everything it means to walk with his best friend towards the sea. Morwennol sits at his hip, as it does always now, its weight a reminder of the responsibilities he has.

[summerdude]

"You don't need to apologize!" Magnus says, at the squeeze. "It's, like, whatever. And you were fine."

[onthewillowsthere]

"I didn't know that anything else was possible." He glances over at Magnus. "I healed you."

[summerdude]

Magnus flexes his free hand. "You did," he says. Naturally the scar is gone, but that's because of the new body he got when he died. "I didn't even know you had healing."

[onthewillowsthere]

"Yes. Before. I didn't do it very much. God wanted me to fight."

[summerdude]

Magnus snorts, and pulls Galahad in for another little cuddle. "I know what that's like," he says. "I didn't even know I could heal and leave a scar on purpose until I did it for you. I've done more healing here than I ever did in Valhalla."

[onthewillowsthere]

Galahad nestles back against him for a moment. "We chose something else."

[summerdude]

"We did," Magnus says, leaning his head against Galahad's shoulder. "And now you know about other possibilities. And I'm at least, like, not insisting that there's no such a thing as a god."

[onthewillowsthere]

"I understand why you didn't believe. Because He spoke to me, I didn't have to have faith."

[summerdude]

Magnus laughs, taking Galahad's hand again. "No-Faith Guy, that's me," he says, and then hastens to add, "I know that's not what you mean. But alsooooo... did I ever tell you about the time I got kicked out of the only open youth shelter in Boston?"

[onthewillowsthere]

"Tell me."

[summerdude]

"I don't come out looking the greatest," Magnus warns, and pauses, thoughtful. He knows Galahad has a record player, but... "Do you know what a stereo is? Or a radio?"

[onthewillowsthere]

"I know what a radio is. Susan told me."

[summerdude]

Magnus is so good at not making a face when people mention Susan. He's like a Susan non-reaction expert these days.

"A stereo is something they can play the radio on. It's big, it's loud... anyway, it was right before Christmas, and they wouldn't stop freaking playing the Christmas songs radio station -- that's, like, every radio station in Boston in December, by the way -- and long story short, I broke the stereo. Like, completely destroyed it."

It's possible they would have let him back in eventually, but he never got the chance to find out... after all, he'd died three weeks later.

[onthewillowsthere]

Galahad has several thoughts in swift succession. The first is that he misses Christmas hymns. The Advent fast began four days ago, but he isn't fasting this year. It doesn't feel important the way it did last year; he's making new rituals and patterns. But he misses the music he had to be so careful not to feel passion for.

The second is that it's hard to imagine Magnus purposefully breaking something, especially in anger. Magnus' feelings are often so big, but Galahad isn't certain he's seen him in the kind of rage where things get broken.

The third is that Magnus was still mortal then, and he was ejected from shelter in the middle of winter. Galahad's mouth thins out as he imagines that.

[summerdude]

"I told you I don't come off great in this story," Magnus says, sounding a little grim about it.

[onthewillowsthere]

"I'm angry that they made you leave."

[summerdude]

"Those kinds of places have rules," Magnus says, with a half-shrug. "For a reason, I guess. I broke 'em. I knew the consequences." ...ish. The Chase Space has different rules. If a kid breaks something, Hearth or Blitz take them aside for a conversation. It's only if the bad behavior is persistent, without changing in some way or another over time, that it becomes a problem.

[onthewillowsthere]

"Not all rules are just."

[summerdude]

"They sure aren't," Magnus says. "I mean, at least my extreme temperature tolerance was one of the things I had, like, pre-death, but the shelter didn't know that." He'd also, at the time, maybe kicked a hole in the wall on his way out.

[onthewillowsthere]

His lips press even thinner. "I hate it," he tells Magnus.

[summerdude]

"We can blame the Little Drummer Boy for these atrocities," says Magnus, realizing as he says it that it's not a good joke. But the only way out is through! "Pa rum pa pum pum."

[onthewillowsthere]

He tilts his head slightly; he might as well say Explain like Lan Wangji.

[summerdude]

"It was the carol that broke this camel's back," Magnus says. "It's really obnoxious and it plays like two million times a day in December."