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 thanks," she says and places it in the box. Eventually Sunny can't see any more balls that escaped, so she announces, "All done!"

[summerdude]

Magnus rolls another ball he'd picked up directly at her.

[biteybaby]

"Oh! Hiding." She puts that ball in the box too.

[summerdude]

Magnus rolls his last ball over, and then turns back to his box, finally yanking it open. Then he gives a victorious shout. "Sunny! Check it out! Walkie-talkies!"

[biteybaby]

"Let me see! Let me see!" Sunny says as she runs over, dropping and ignoring that last ball entirely in her excitement.

[summerdude]

He pulls out five walkie-talkies from the box. "There's so many."

[biteybaby]

"EEEEEEEEEEEEE!," Sunny squeals. "They dinosaurs! Raaa!"

[summerdude]

"Yeah! Aren't they super cute?" Magnus says, switching one on. "Wanna give it a shot? I can go into the hall and we can try talking."

[biteybaby]

"Uh huh! How work?"

[summerdude]

Magnus fiddles with some dials to make sure they're on the same channel and checks to make sure they have batteries. "You push the button here to talk," he says, showing her which one. "And you let go to listen. And you tell the other person it's their turn to talk and that you're letting go of the button by saying 'over,' like, 'Hey, what's your favorite kind of ice cream? Over.'"

[biteybaby]

"Oh! Say 'over' cause talking is over!" She thinks that makes sense. "Give me, I go hall and we practice."

[summerdude]

Magnus loves her enormous little personality soooo much. "Here," he tells her, handing her a walkie talkie in her favorite color (many) with an elaborate flourish.

[biteybaby]

Sunny does not go hall to practice, instead getting to excited about it that she presses the button immediately when Magnu hands her the talkie talkie, and screams directly into it.

"Oh," she says after she is done yelling. "Over. Sorry, forgot."

[summerdude]

Magnus, who deserves a medal for keeping a straight face through all that -- the screams he's used to and fine with; the feedback from the walkie-talkies is another matter altogether -- digs into the funny of the situation and laughs. "Very good first attempt," he says. "Why don't I go into the hall so we can keep practicing? Over."

[biteybaby]

"Okay! Don't go too far though Magnu, cause I not 'pose to be alone."

[summerdude]

That's a great point, and Magnus is committed to following their dads' rules. He glances around the room and then grins. "Look," he says, pointing. "One of Win's drones is up there, which is basically like it's here, right? And I'll be only a few feet away." And then -- because he knows that Sunny's adherence to the rules isn't just because of her respect for their dads -- he adds, "Do you think that sounds okay?"

[biteybaby]

Sunny thinks it over, then nods. "That okay. Cause Win's drone here so I not alone either way." She waves at it. "Hi Win Drone! Got talkie talkie!"

[summerdude]

"Okay," Magnus says, after a wave of his own. "Can you count to ten really loud? When you stop, I'll be in position and you can try the walkie-talkie again, okay?"

[biteybaby]

"Okay Magnu!" She immediately starts counting, using her Outside Voice even though they are Inside.

[summerdude]

Magnus grins at her and gets into position -- far enough that the walkie-talkies should actually work as intended, but close enough that he can hear Sunny when she's yelling. Then he keys the button. "I'm ready. Over."

[biteybaby]

"I HEARED YOU MAGNU!" Sunny yells, so that Magnu knows she could hear him over the talkie talkie. Then, she presses the button on her talkie talkie and says, "You can hear me too?" And then she remembers she has to say 'over' when her talking is over so that Magnu knows her turn to talk is over, so she presses the button again and says, "Over!"

Approximately twenty-three seconds later she remembers to stop pressing the button.

[summerdude]

Luckily, Magnus knows his little sister, specifically that she gets excited about things and learns and remembers steps as well as anyone her age, so he's been saying "I can hear you, over," and then releasing his own button regularly since she said 'over.'

[biteybaby]

"Yay! Over."

[summerdude]

"Ready for me to come back in? Over."

[biteybaby]

"Uh huh over."