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]

Magnus gives the trashbagpipe one more squeeze and cackles. "Hanguang-jun!" he says. "What's up?"

[lightbearinglord]

"Is this a birthday tradition, too?" Lan Wangji asks. It is impossible to tell whether he is or is not joking.

[summerdude]

"Yes," says Magnus immediately. "You know how Galahad started the tradition of giving everyone gifts on our birthdays? I am giving everyone the gift of blessed sweet music."

[lightbearinglord]

Lan Wangji levels a very, very small frown at him. "And when will the sweet music begin?"

[summerdude]

"Hanguang-jun," says Magnus, widening his eyes pleadingly. "You mean you don't like my very eager and earnest attempts at beautiful music?"

[lightbearinglord]

"No," Lan Wangji informs him. "The music is bad."

[summerdude]

"What?" Magnus says, pressing a hand to his chest. "My beautiful music? The music I worked so hard on? The music from the instrument I created with my own two hands? That music?"

[lightbearinglord]

The corner of his mouth quirks, but it is gone so quickly that it would be easy to believe it never happened at all. "Mn. That music."

[summerdude]

"Made you laugh!" Magnus crows, triumphant.

[lightbearinglord]

Lan Wangji's surprise appears to be genuine. "I didn't laugh." He thinks he would have noticed, despite how much more common it is for him than it once was.

[summerdude]

"You were on the verge," Magnus says, comfortably.

[lightbearinglord]

Lan Wangji isn't certain whether that is true, but he can accept the general truth that laughter comes much, much more readily to him these days. He recalls the hushed shock in Guanyin Temple when he laughed at Wei Ying, as if no one present thought him capable at all. "Perhaps," he allows.

[summerdude]

"I'll take it!" Magnus blows his trashbagpipe full of air again and plays some triumphant notes that sound very much like Otis and Marvin every night when Thor kills them for his dinner.

[lightbearinglord]

The effect is sincerely unpleasant, and much too loud, especially at close range. Lan Wangji's wince is fairly subtle, at least.

[summerdude]

Magnus hides his expression of extreme triumph and makes a mental note to tell Sunny when they're preparing for their after-dinner concert. Which, speaking of... he does have a duty to his sister to practice her gambits and heists before they attempt to execute them. He sets the bagpipe to one side and says, "Weather today."

[lightbearinglord]

Lan Wangji, relieved at the exchange of a grating sound for the sound of Magnus' voice, blinks once at him. He glances upward, evaluating the topic in question. "Mild," he offers.

[summerdude]

Okay, so Hanguang-jun didn't say 'uh-huh, weather,' but then again, Sunny's prediction was about Dadgramore, so. "Yep," Magnus says. "Weather."

[lightbearinglord]

Lan Wangji narrows his eyes, just barely, almost imperceptibly. Something beyond his comprehension is happening. "Mn."

[summerdude]

'Mn' is kind of Hanguang-jun's version of saying blablabla. Magnus will take it. And now he has to work without a script. Sunny, please send help!!! "When do you think it's gonna start getting actually cold?"

[lightbearinglord]

"Later this month," Lan Wangji says, mildly baffled but willing enough to answer a question. "Once Melanippe has progressed further."

[summerdude]

"I know it's technically autumn now and it's probably getting chillier in the mornings," but not enough for Magnus to detect! "But it still mostly feels like summer to me. You know. In here." He slaps his chest.

[lightbearinglord]

"I know," Lan Wangji says, his expression shading slightly fonder. "I have felt your aura."

[summerdude]

"I have an aura???"

[lightbearinglord]

"Everyone does. Yours is very warm."

[summerdude]

"What's Galahad's aura?" Magnus wants to know. "What's Sunny's? What's yours?"