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]

"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."

[onthewillowsthere]

"It's a modern hymn?"

[summerdude]

"I... don't know that I'd call carols hymns," says Magnus, thoughtfully. "What makes a hymn a hymn?"

[onthewillowsthere]

"A hymn is a song of prayer. Usually there is rhyme, unlike the Psalms, and many verses and a chorus."

[summerdude]

"Yeah, I don't think a lot of carols have a lot to do with prayer."

[onthewillowsthere]

Galahad draws his brows together. "What else is the point?"

[summerdude]

"Annoying the shit out of me?" Magnus guesses. "Like, they're about Christmas, but most of them aren't about, like, god or the christ my-- story, either. Lots of stuff about Santa Claus"

[onthewillowsthere]

"Santa Claus?"

[summerdude]

"Yeah. He, like, brings presents for every good kid. Allegedly."

[onthewillowsthere]

"The three wise men bring gifts to honor the Christ child. Is it because of that?"

[summerdude]

Magnus shrugs. "Heck if I know," he says, apologetic. "I think I'm probably the worst person here to ask besides, like, Sunny," who is a Jewish baby, "and the people who aren't from Earth."

[onthewillowsthere]

"What else is done for Christmas in the future?"

[summerdude]

"Well," says Magnus, as they reach the edge of the beach, "Mom and I would always get Korean food from the place downstairs and watch movies, and she'd usually get me a present or two so I wouldn't feel left out when the kids at school all bragged about theirs. Or sometimes, if the weather was right, we'd go snow-camping. Most people would do, like, a tree though. With lights. And I think stockings? They're supposed to be by the chimney so Santa can fill them. I guess some people go to church. Maybe a lot? Some kids would talk about going to church for Christmas and Easter and I think that's it. And there's the songs, obviously. Lots of people decorate the outside of their houses with, like, twinkling lights."