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

[biteybaby]

"Oh." Then she looks over at Asmodean. "It eleven." In case he was wondering.

[involuntaryturncoat]

"Eleven," he echoes with a nod. "Thank you."

[summerdude]

"Good," says Magnus. "And what number do you think comes after twelve? If ten is one-zero, and eleven is one-one, and twelve is one-two."

[biteybaby]

“Three!” she says excited, then corrects to, “One-three!”

[involuntaryturncoat]

"And the dawn arrives, illumination in its wake," Asmodean murmurs with a slight smile, probably quoting something that nobody on his world has been familiar with for millennia.

[summerdude]

Gods. Asmodean is such a weirdo. Magnus continues ignoring him, focusing instead on his own excitement, which mirrors Sunny's. "Yes!" he tells her triumphantly. "Yes, yes, yes! One... three," writing them in the dirt, too. "Thirteen!"

[biteybaby]

"Smodean, how say thirteen?"

[involuntaryturncoat]

"Ah. In my language, it changes a bit depending on what you're counting. For an object, something you can hold or touch, it would be treyat'pi. For something more abstract, like thoughts or ideas, treye'pi."

[summerdude]

Magnus, of course, just hears this as thirteen and thirteen. Like, okaaaaaay, dude.

[biteybaby]

Sunny repeats treyat'pi and treye'pi to the best of her ability, and then starts wondering which word would apply to various different Things. Sippy cups and cheerios and toys and dirt are things you can touch so they'd probably be the first one, but clouds are really far away so you can't touch those, they'd be the second category, right?

[involuntaryturncoat]

"Well done." He smiles. "I wager you will know everyone's languages better than the house itself does in no time at all. Everyone will come flocking to you the next time it stops translating."

[summerdude]

Wait. Really? "Do you wanna learn some Old Norse?" Magnus asks Sunny in Old Norse.

[biteybaby]

"Uh huh!" She wants to know all of the words.

[involuntaryturncoat]

"You will be quite the linguist."

[summerdude]

"I mostly only know swear words," he warns her. "Remember the one I already taught you?"^*

*earlier in this very conversation in fact!

[biteybaby]

"Meinfretr!"

[involuntaryturncoat]

That, of course, isn't precisely what Asmodean hears, but the meaning comes through loud and clear and he can't help but let out a small burst of laughter.

[summerdude]

"Yes! Very good, bug. And who do we call meinfretrs?"

[biteybaby]

"Butthole Cops!"

[involuntaryturncoat]

Asmodean smiles, admittedly fondly, and straightens a bit. "I should probably leave the two of you to your language lessons."

[summerdude]

Magnus grins at Sunny. "Can you show Smodean your best farting noise before he goes?"

[biteybaby]

"Uh huh!" She sticks out her tongue and blows, while shaking her butt back and forth, then practically falls over laughing.

[involuntaryturncoat]

"Incredibly accurate. Well done." As Sunny's laughter starts to die down just a bit, he's about to stand but then recalls the trashbagpipe still in his lap, and he holds it out to Sunny. "Would you like this back?"

[biteybaby]

"Oh uh huh, thanks," she takes the trashbagpipe. "Gotta concert later."

[involuntaryturncoat]

He nods and stands. "I hope tickets will be available."