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]

"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.

[summerdude]

"Is that, like... not allowed?"

[lightbearinglord]

"Is it common in Boston?"

[summerdude]

Magnus shrugs. "It's common with Magnuses," he says. "I like, double-honorific you all the time."

[lightbearinglord]

"Mn. But rarely with consistency."

[summerdude]

"Dude, I'm so consistent they call me Bran Cereal," Magnus says, and then turns bright red.

[lightbearinglord]

"Magnus?" Lan Wangji asks with genuine concern, having no idea at all what has prompted this abruptly flustered reaction.

[summerdude]

Why did he make a poop joke like that????? "Sorry, sir."

[lightbearinglord]

"Why are you sorry?"

[summerdude]

"For the, um, potty humor. I blame Sunny."

[lightbearinglord]

Lan Wangji, bemused, only looks at him for a moment as they walk. "Would you rather refrain from explaining this one, then?"

[summerdude]

"No, I can explain it if you want, Hanguang-jun-dude-sir."

[lightbearinglord]

"Then go on," Lan Wangji prompts, valiantly saying nothing about the excessive approach to decorating his title.

[summerdude]

"It's really lame. It's just that bran cereal makes you, um, regular."

[lightbearinglord]

Lan Wangji frowns to himself, still keeping pace with Magnus as they walk, of course. After a moment of silence, he admits, "I still don't understand. Perhaps I was not meant to."

[summerdude]

"Your poop. I actually don't know if they're talking about, like, consistency or, like... schedule, come to think of it, but..."

[lightbearinglord]

Another solemn moment of silence passes, and then Lan Wangji says, "What cereal will make your approach to addressing me equally consistent?"