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]

"Oh, awesome! A quarter-sichen is, like, half an hour, right? That's a good chunk of time." Magnus laughs. "Maybe I should try harder. Hanguang-jun showed me how but I keep forgetting to do it on my own."

[thepurpledanger]

"You have to do it outside somewhere so that you don't get distracted by moon cakes or pretty clothes or pictures of men who aren't wearing anything," says Gu Xiang earnestly. "It was really hard until I figured that out! I mostly meditate on the roof. And maybe now that I've been practicing, I can start looking for places with really concentrated qi so that I can get powerful like Lan Wangji!"

[summerdude]

"Like that one part of the cave! It's empty now, by the way, Little John -- wait," waggling his eyebrows. "Gu Xiang. How many pictures of naked men do you tend to, um, encounter when you're trying to meditate? Are they part of a collection or do they just... show up?" And if they just show up, can he get them to just show up if he ever meditates with Galahad and Hanguang-jun?

[thepurpledanger]

"They're in the library," says Gu Xiang. "I went there because I wanted to meditate like a scholar, but there were all of these floppy books full of pictures of pretty clothes and makeup and naked men!"

[summerdude]

"Do you think we could move those books to where Hanguang-jun and Galahad meditate every morning in a totally unsuspicious and normal way?"

[thepurpledanger]

"Why, do you want to distract them?"

[summerdude]

"I want to see if they can get distracted. And they both like naked men," probably, presumably, given that they're both gay, "so. I bet it would work better than moon cakes for them. Not sure about pretty clothes though. They're both pretty fashionable."

[thepurpledanger]

"We can do that! Where do they meditate?"

[summerdude]

"On the training field basically every morning."

[thepurpledanger]

"That's stupid." Gu Xiang frowns. "There's no spiritual energy there. I thought they were trying to develop their qi!"

[summerdude]

Magnus blinks. "How do you tell where there's a lot of spiritual energy?" he asks. "I mostly know only when you tell me a place has a lot of spiritual energy."

[thepurpledanger]

"You can't feel it? But you have so much!"

[summerdude]

"I don't think I know how to feel it."

[thepurpledanger]

"Wow, didn't they teach you anything in your dead guy sect?" She sits back, straightening her back, settling her hands lightly on her thighs. "Sit straight! I'm going to teach you!"

[summerdude]

Magnus immediately copies her posture, his spine straightening, his hands on his lap. "Okay," he says, eagerly.

[thepurpledanger]

"Relax!" she scolds him. "You've got to be straight but relaxed. Like your spine is a pretty necklace made of amethysts, you know? It wants to hang straight. You don't have to pull it straight."

[summerdude]

"Your spine might be a pretty amethyst necklace," Magnus says, trying to picture himself hanging loosely from the top knob of his spinal column. It's not a pleasant image. "You're a sparkly amethyst. Can mine be a vine?"

[thepurpledanger]

"Fine," she says, making a huge concession. "Then you breathe. Not high in your chest--all the way down to your lower dantian. And you feel how your breath moves through your whole body. Can you feel it?"

[summerdude]

Magnus cracks one eye open. "Remind me where the lower dantian is?"

[thepurpledanger]

She leans all the way in to sock him right in the dantian.

[summerdude]

"Okay," Magnus wheezes, doubling over and breathing heavily through his teeth as tears prickle in his eyes with the shock and sharpness of the punch. "A of all, good right hook. Gods. I sure can feel it now." He takes another few deep breaths, willing his body to adapt to the pain -- a feat it's pretty good at, generally speaking. "B of all... Let me sure I got this right. It's here?" And he leaps into the attack, aiming for a tickle rather than a punch, almost like he's trying to physically grab her dantian and/or qi and/or an amethyst on her spine-string. you know, in a friend-respecting way.

[thepurpledanger]

Gu Xiang grabs his wrist and flings him over her shoulder with all of her strength. Seated as she is, she doesn't have great leverage, but she's spent her whole young life learning how to use it.

[summerdude]

Technically, Magnus has the strength and dexterity to wiggle out of this one, but it's been a while since he's been thrown over any shoulder but Alex's and he has enjoyed fighting with Gu Xiang since the day they met, so with the passing thought this might as well happen, he lets himself go airborne. In the last moment, he gives an almighty yank, trying to pull her after him.

[thepurpledanger]

"See!" shrieks Gu Xiang as she goes flying. "This is why you can't meditate!"

[summerdude]

"Because I get distracted?" Magnus asks, bracing himself for whatever impact she might bring to bear.