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]

"What do you think, Sunny?"

[biteybaby]

"Probaly not last smartest. Maybe..." she tries to think of a good number. "Twelve."

[involuntaryturncoat]

"Why, that puts me firmly in the top half. I'm flattered and grateful, Sunny. Thank you."

[summerdude]

"Actually it puts you in the top quarter," Magnus says. "Hey, Sunny. Do you know the numbers that come before and after twelve?"

[biteybaby]

"Uh huh. All." Every number other than twelve comes either before or after twelve. There aren't any that come at the same time as twelve.

[involuntaryturncoat]

"Impeccable logic."

[summerdude]

"High five," Magnus tells Sunny, holding his hand out. Something about Asmodean rubs him the wrong way, like maybe he's being condescending or something, but Sunny likes him now so Magnus is on Team Not Ribbing Him All The Time Constantly. "Do you know the one number that comes riiiiight before twelve?"

[biteybaby]

She gives him a big high five! "Ten!"

[involuntaryturncoat]

He lets the accolades for the correct answer fall to Magnus in this case. If he is coming across as condescending, it really isn't intentional. Sunny is remarkably astute for her age and Asmodean can certainly recognize that. However, he is also less than practiced in talking to young children, and gaining that practice can be awkward, especially when he's already grossly misstepped with her once.

[summerdude]

"Good guess! Do you know the number that comes right after ten?"

[biteybaby]

She stares. "Not twelve?"

[involuntaryturncoat]

He listens with interest, confident that they'll get there eventually, but wanting to watch the journey.

[summerdude]

"Hmmm," says Magnus, setting his trashbagpipes to the side and picking up a stick. "Do you know what ten looks like when it's written down?"

[biteybaby]

"No."

[involuntaryturncoat]

Asmodean is somewhat curious about the answer to this himself, the translation of the mansion obviously interfering with any ability to learn other writing systems without a deliberate trip to the tower for the purpose which he's never felt a real need for. Still, this should be an interesting curiosity.

[summerdude]

"Okay," says Magnus, clearing away some grass so that he can work with a patch of dirt -- he'll grow it back when he's done, it's fine. "Ten is a one and a zero." He draws each number out as he digs it into the dirt. "Wanna trace 'em to learn 'em?"

[biteybaby]

"Uh huh." She traces Magnu's writing with her finger. "One... zero. Ten!"

[involuntaryturncoat]

Asmodean idly traces his own forms of the digits into the grass next to himself with his thumb as he watches the lesson.

[summerdude]

"Twelve looks like this: One... two." Magnus draws that out, as well.

[biteybaby]

"One... two." She repeats, drawing over Magnu's twelve. "One," she then says, pointing back at the ten, then points back at twelve, "One two! It next one." Zero means nothing, so obviously the zero in the ten gets to be ignored. One, one two. Makes perfect sense.

[summerdude]

"Do you know the number that comes between zero and two?"

[biteybaby]

"One." She points at one of the ones.

[summerdude]

"Very good." Magnus holds his hand up for another high five. "Now, what do you think goes between one-zero and one-two?"

[biteybaby]

...Oh, so it's not twelve then. Well gosh, why didn't he just say so? "What number one one?"

[involuntaryturncoat]

Asmodean, still perfectly content to be a spectator for this bit of instruction, just smiles a bit as the lesson lands.