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

[onthewillowsthere]

For Galahad, who had been celibate well into his twenty-second year, this seems to display a pathetic lack of self-control. There were a thousand times he wanted to have sex with Claudius before he did, and although he would not choose to live that way again it doesn't require willpower so great that a god shouldn't be able to achieve it.

[summerdude]

"You're telling me," says Magnus, about the vibes Galahad is exuding. Then he shakes himself. "Wanna do something fun?"

[onthewillowsthere]

"Yes," promptly.

[summerdude]

"Have you ever tried bubble tea?"

[onthewillowsthere]

"No." He doesn't ask what is it because he's fairly certain he's about to find out.

[summerdude]

"You're either going to love it or hate it," Magnus says, thoughtfully. "I'm not sure which. But I think you'll have fun trying it." He tosses all of his assorted trash bagpipe supplies in a handy trash bag and shoulders it, then takes Galahad's hand. "Alex found, like, a straight-up bubble tea kitchen last night. Come on!"

[onthewillowsthere]

"A kitchen only for preparing tea?"

[summerdude]

"Bubble tea, yeah. It's this whole other thing. One of the kids at the Chase Space got a job at a bubble tea joint a couple years ago and gave me the tour."

[onthewillowsthere]

"Does it taste like tea?"

[summerdude]

"Some can," Magnus shrugs. "But the flavors get really creative. I like the ones with a nice fruity edge. You know, like me. Oooh, or taro milk tea with pudding and cheese foam... in some ways, they're kind of like a combination between a fun beverage and a fun dessert."

[onthewillowsthere]

"Pudding and cheese foam," Galahad repeats dubiously. As usual, Magnus' patter is half-incomprehensible and incredibly soothing. This is what he missed when things were weird, and he's grateful to have his best friend back.

[summerdude]

"Pudding," Magnus agrees, rapturously. "And cheese foam." He squeezes Galahad's hand and leads him inside and down to the basement bubble tea kitchen. Handily, all the ingredients seem freshly prepared, and behind the prominently-displayed menu, there are instruction sheets for each beverage. "Wanna pick, like, five different combos to make and try? Definitely the taro milk with pudding and cheese foam, and maybe a classic milk tea with boba, and then three more that sound fun? I kind of like herb jelly too, actually, but I won't force you to drink one with it."

[onthewillowsthere]

All of the ingredients Magnus is describing sound as if they have the potential to feel absolutely horrible, but Galahad likes trying things. It would be unscientific not to. He takes one of the instruction sheets and studies it: at least the fruit drink parts sound appetizing. "What is boba?"

[summerdude]

"Ah. Those are the androgynous bubbles." Wait, that's not the right word. "The, um. Epicurious bubbles. No. The entomological bubbles. No. Crap. The self-titled album bubbles... Eponymous!" He grins, proudly, pleased to have probably gotten the word right. "They're, like, big-ass tapioca pearls."

[onthewillowsthere]

"Is tapioca a vegetable?"

[summerdude]

Magnus squints into the middle distance. "May...be?" he says. "It's definitely a starch. Maybe a root? But they do this, like, couscous thing to it, so it turns into these little round balls. The pearls."

[onthewillowsthere]

This does help -- he prefers knowing what boba is, and now he's imagining it like a pasta, something ground to flour and then made into a dough and shaped. "What does it taste like?"

[summerdude]

"I think it's more texture than flavor?" Magnus guesses, after a minute or two of trying to decide what the flavor even is. "Kind of sweet, though. A lot are, like, cooked in some kind of special sugar syrup or something I think?"

[onthewillowsthere]

"All right. I want to try it."

[summerdude]

"Okay. One taro milk tea with pudding and cheese foam and one classic milk tea with tapioca bubbles coming right up," Magnus says, leaning in to squint at the instruction sheet to figure out how to actually start. "Wanna come back here and devise some vibes-based concoctions for us to try, too?"

[onthewillowsthere]

Naturally. "Yes."

[summerdude]

"Awesome. Okay. Um, I'll make the classic first." He's watched that one happen most often. He sets about combining the stuff the instruction sheet tells him to combine and puts it in the machine the way it tells him to.

[onthewillowsthere]

Galahad watches him closely, checking what he's doing against the instruction sheet in the interests of being able to do the next one himself. The boba pearls themselves look suspiciously like something Claudius would enjoy the texture of, but he's going to try them anyway.

[summerdude]

Magnus, of course, can guess what Galahad is thinking. "They're chewy," he says, as he takes the cup over to the little lid-sealing-machine-thingy and lets it do its thing. "But if you don't wanna chew them you can also treat them like oysters or blowjobs."

[onthewillowsthere]

He makes a face, although he does get the point. Thinking about oysters and blowjobs, however, inevitably makes him think of Claudius and his mouth, the generous smirking swell of his lips -- and Galahad flushes hotly.