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]

"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."

[summerdude]

Magnus goes back into the room and flops down next to Sunny. "Did you and Win's drone have fun while I was gone?"

[biteybaby]

"It didn't do anything."

[summerdude]

"But it hung out with you?"

[biteybaby]

"Yeah. Win very nice like that." She waves at the drone again.

[summerdude]

"Win is the best," Magnus agrees, firmly.

[biteybaby]

"Uh huh I love Win."

[summerdude]

Magnus can't help himself; he simply must deposit a kiss on the top of her head. "Do you wanna explore a little more, or do you wanna start carrying this all back home?"

[biteybaby]

"Maybe should carry home." It's a very large pile at this point.

[summerdude]

"Good call. What do you think the sturdiest way to stack all of this is?"

[biteybaby]

Sunny looks at the pile intently for a moment before suggesting, "Box on bottom?"

[summerdude]

Magnus wiggles the box free and sets it on a little side-table. "Then what?"

[biteybaby]

Good question. Sunny looks at all of their items. There are so many, even more than the typist can remember! Stacking these things up sounds incredibly difficult.

"Maybe us find a big box to put all in."

[summerdude]

"Most of it is already in boxes," says Magnus, surveying their three games, one teddy bear, two sets of bear-and-doll clothes, camera, and walkie talkies. "What if you carried the bear, his sweaters, and the doll clothes, and I carried the games and the walkie talkies? We could put your walkie talkie and your camera in your pockets." The other alternative he can think of is he carries everything and Sunny at the same time, and Sunny bodyblocks the pile from tumbling out of his grip.

[biteybaby]

"Hmm. That work, but next time let's bring wagon."