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

[lightbearinglord]

"Subjectively," Lan Wangji agrees. "As when we were asked to rate the cakes at your last birthday."

[summerdude]

"Yeah!!! That was a kind of spreadsheet. The rankings at Galahad's bachelorette party, too."

[lightbearinglord]

"I am willing to share a tea spreadsheet with you and Galahad."

[summerdude]

Best. Day. Ever!!!! "I'm gonna take that as a second birthday present, Hanguang-jun," cheerfully.

[lightbearinglord]

Lan Wangji slings a small smile in Magnus' direction, although it may go unnoticed in the activity of their shared walk. "You are welcome to."

[summerdude]

Magnus grins up at him; it widens when he catches the return smile. "This is going to be so much fun," he enthuses. "Galahad can probably put it together for us, he's very sciencey and his handwriting is the best I've ever seen."

[lightbearinglord]

"I will be interested to see how he takes to calligraphy," Lan Wangji says, warmed by Magnus' clear happiness at his acquiescence.

[summerdude]

"Probably really good, he's good at writing and at art."

[lightbearinglord]

"Mn. He has reproduced my likeness before, and the rabbits', and done it well."

[summerdude]

"And Alex's," Magnus says, signing frog moment.

[lightbearinglord]

Lan Wangji watches Magnus' hands as they move. "What did that mean?" He is still mediocre at the sign language at best, and he wants to be certain he knows what he is seeing.

[summerdude]

"Oh. Frog moment? It's, like, a meme. Memes are--" Shen Yuan described them really well. What was the phrasing he used? "Like, jokes that a community shares that can be a shorthand for another feeling. When Alex visited for the day, you know, before he got here full time, Galahad did a ton of drawings. Alex as a boy, Alex as a girl, Alex as a poison dart frog... and then he was like, hey, I drew Alex! And showed me the frog picture first. So we decided frog moment means, like, a bait-and-switch thing. Except," he adds, "Alex is a beautiful poison dart frog, so I was happy with that picture. The others were just a nice bonus."

[lightbearinglord]

Understanding softens Lan Wangji's expression. "Frog moment," he repeats dutifully. "Thank you." He does his best to copy the signs Magnus was just making, too.

[summerdude]

"Yeah, no problem, Hanguang-dude."

[lightbearinglord]

"What did you just call me?" he asks, bemused and mildly alarmed.

[summerdude]

"Hanguang-dude?"

[lightbearinglord]

"Light-bearing... dude?"

[summerdude]

"Yeah! Hanguang-dude!"

[lightbearinglord]

"Is my current title insufficient?"

[summerdude]

"You don't like it?" Magnus asks, only a little disappointed. He obviously won't use it if Hanguang-dude doesn't like it. "I thought it was, like, respectful, but in a familiar way. You know. A fun nickname."

[lightbearinglord]

"I don't know whether I like it. I don't have good understanding of the connotation of dude. Respectful yet familiar?"

[summerdude]

"'Dude' is just a catch-all descriptor of a person. Generally a guy, but it can be gender-neutral. Except I wouldn't call Alex dude when she's a girl, because she doesn't like it, so it's not, like, the most gender-neutral of potentially gender-neutral terms. But anyway, so you might say, like, what's up, my dudes? if you're greeting a bunch of your friends. Or you can say, like, dude, what the hell? if someone is ticking you off. It's all in the tone, you see?" Magnus looks up at Hanguang-dude. "It's in the tone. Like a lot of things are, I guess. But when I say Hanguang-dude the tone is respectful. Like 'this dude is a cool dude who is important to me and I respect him' in flavor."

[lightbearinglord]

Lan Wangji nods, slowly, trying to digest this information. He has to choose to trust that Magnus is reporting this accurately. "Then I don't mind it, if you prefer it."

[summerdude]

Yes!!! Special privileges unlocked! Take that, Lan Sizhui!

(Magnus actually mostly liked Lan Sizhui, except for all that weird jealousy nonsense and the part where Lan Sizhui kept pretending like he wasn't Hanguang-jun's adoptive son or whatever. But it's chill. Magnus is totally chill.)

"Thanks, Hanguang-jun-dude."

[lightbearinglord]

"That is two honorifics," Lan Wangji points out mildly.