I Turn, Um... Uh... Sixteen? For The Tenth? Time???? [open post]

[summerdude]

It's Magnus's birthday and he is a man with a surplus of plans. And many, many plastic recorders.

He's still a little overstimulated from the birthday party Galahad got Claudius to throw for the two of them — he loves all his friends, but that was a lot of people in one space, most of whom were also feeling many, many things about their visitors — and so it's been a quiet few days. Sunny is still a little subdued, so they've been having muted hangouts in the mornings; Galahad, also overstimulated from their birthday party, has fortunately been on Magnus's wavelength about just sailing around aimlessly on the Big Banana with many snacks and very little conversation during their daily hangs for the past few days. He drags himself to sword practice with Lancelot once or twice, has his weekly dinner at Hanguang-jun's, spends a great solo afternoon cleaning out Little John's cave in case anyone else wants to use it at some point, and lets Alex tease him into wrestling and, um, other stuff after dinner basically every night.

But on this, the twenty-sixth anniversary of Magnus's actual birth, most of his energy has returned to him. He's made birthday dinner plans with just his immediate family (and also Alex and Hanguang-jun) at their house for the evening. He's had his liveliest morning of the week. And with his newly regained energy he's found critical supplies for his afternoon: a roll of duct tape, several trash bags, eight recorders, a handful of hollow pens, and a dream. He's sitting cross-legged in the middle of the Mansion's lawn, a look of grave concentration on his face, as he makes little holes in a bag, duct tapes two recorders and one pen here and there, and then seals it all up.

And then he takes a deep breath, fits his mouth to the hollow pen, and blows the bag up. When he places it under his arm and squeezes, he's gratified to find that his makeshift bagpipes work perfectly. And he still has supplies for a couple more!



I know everyone is still busy with visitor's day so feel free to take your time on this one... but I would love to ultimately have a ton of Chaos Thread Opportunities.

Comments

[summerdude]

"Yeah, I guess," Magnus allows, then brightens. "Do you wanna make one, too?"

[bymyheelies]

Mercutio shrugs. It is something to do, at least, to get his mind off recent events. “Ay, if thou wilt show me how.”

[summerdude]

"Yeah, totally." Magnus sits up straighter and gestures at his collection of supplies. "Pick out two recorders that you like. One will be for playing and the other for, um, more air to go through."

[bymyheelies]

He nods and goes on a hunt, emerging with a sparkly purple recorder and a white one. "What next?"

[summerdude]

Magnus waggles his eyebrows. "Next you pick a hollow pen to blow through."

[bymyheelies]

"Is it the pen thou wouldst like me to blow upon?" He lifts his eyebrows teasingly, but it's reasonably clear his heart isn't exactly in it. There is no smirk or laughter to follow that up.

[summerdude]

Magnus cocks his head, frowning. "Dude," he says. "You good?"

[bymyheelies]

“Is it so plain?” He manages a small, self-deprecating smile. “Do I pine like Romeo? I’faith, I hope not.”

[summerdude]

"I don't know, I feel like usually you'd say it like a come-on, and I'd be like, man, I'm sorry, but I'm still a one-Alex kind of guy, and you'd waggle your eyebrows and crack a joke. Your eyebrows aren't waggling. Wait, did you say pining?"

[bymyheelies]

“Mayhap I misspoke.” He definitely didn’t, but he’s going to be stubborn now.

[summerdude]

"Dude, did you get a, um, special someone for visitor's day???"

[bymyheelies]

He snorts. “If by that you mean a lover; I have none.”

[summerdude]

"Dude, if I meant lover, I'd say lover," Magnus says. "I meant, like... I dunno. It really freaking sucked when Alex came for the last visitor's day and then went home. I knew she was gonna try to come back, but the wait was the worst."

[bymyheelies]

He shakes his head with a frown. “He cannot come back. Thy Alex and thee have the ability to traverse worlds, I do not. Nor does the Capulet.”

[summerdude]

"Why not?" Magnus asks, cocking his head. He's pretty sure that Mercutio came here.

[bymyheelies]

"He is dead. Romeo slew him." Indeed, Mercutio did come here; but he is entirely certain that Tybalt will not.

[summerdude]

"Aren't you also dead?"

[bymyheelies]

"Ay. So is Romeo. He is not here, why should Tybalt remain?"

[summerdude]

"Tybalt, Tybalt," Magnus says, trying to put two and two together, before snapping his fingers. "Oh! Was that the guy who got mad when I offered to heal him?"

[bymyheelies]

"Ay, it could be. Taller than me, had a great wound in his chest?"

[summerdude]

"Yeah, that guy! He hated me." Magnus says this cheerfully. "That's your, um, not-lover?"

[bymyheelies]

Mercutio shrugs. Tybalt hates most people, in his experience. "He killed me," he offers as an attempt at explanation.<sup>1

1</sup> ????

[summerdude]

Magnus understands this completely. "Yeah," he says. "Alex has killed me at least a hundred times."

[bymyheelies]

“Some of us do not have that luxury,” he says drily. At least it sounds like he’s cheering up a little?

“It was a duel. He insulted my friend.”

[summerdude]

"Ah, so you have a consistently contentious vibe."