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]

Lan Wangji's suspicion fades just long enough for it to make a resurgence when he lifts one of the cups to his mouth and realizes there is no opening for his mouth. It appears to be a sealed container. He levels that mistrustful expression at Magnus again.

[summerdude]

Magnus swallows a laugh and hands Hanguang-jun a straw. "You stab the lid with the pointy end," he says. "It's one of the best parts."

[lightbearinglord]

Lan Wangji accepts the straw with trepidation. He has come to realize that plastic dominates the earth at some point a thousand years after his own life, but he still does not like its unnatural, tacky-smooth texture. He attempts to stab one of the lids, carefully; nothing happens. He attempts it again, with more force. Nothing happens. Upon the third attempt, he is arguably successful. The plastic is pierced, and the force with which it is pierced sends a significant volume of tea flying up around it.

[summerdude]

Magnus claps a hand over his mouth to keep from busting out laughing. "Hanguang-jun," he says, between his fingers. "What?"

[lightbearinglord]

"The necessary strength was not clear to me," Lan Wangji says primly. With as much dignity as possible, he shakes the green tea out of the edge of his sleeve.

[summerdude]

"I can see that... do you want, like, a towel?"

[lightbearinglord]

"I do. Thank you." Resigned, he eyes the slightly tattered hole he has made in the top of the sealed cup of tea. The straw is intact, however, so he takes a sip, another act without a great deal of inherent dignity.

[summerdude]

Magnus watches eagerly. "What do you think???"

[lightbearinglord]

Lan Wangji, whose sleeve is still dripping lightly onto the floor, takes a second sip, in which he receives a mouthful of grass jelly. Both flavors are familiar enough. The temperature of the beverage is still startling, but he doesn't mind the cold in itself. "Not bad."

[summerdude]

"I'm gonna take that as a glowing commendation."

[lightbearinglord]

"It is better than bad," Lan Wangji concedes. "Will you help me access the second one without spilling more tea?"

[summerdude]

"Better than bad is basically good," says Magnus cheerfully. "And yeah. You want me to talk you through it, or to just do it?"

[lightbearinglord]

"Show me," Lan Wangji says, something between an order and a request. He passes Magnus the sealed cup of oolong.

[summerdude]

"Yes, sir," says Magnus, unwrapping a straw and jabbing it neatly into the center of the lid. He... has no idea how to describe what he did with words, so he hopes the visual of his level of grip on both cup and straw and the careful amount of force he used to stab the straw into the lid was evident to Hanguang-jun.

[lightbearinglord]

"Thank you," Lan Wangji says, much more serious than anyone might expect from an expression of gratitude for what amounts to a demonstrate of stabbing a plastic straw through a film of more plastic.

[summerdude]

Except (even though Hanguang-jun is one of the funniest people here) Magnus always expect seriousness from him -- even if it's the seriousness of a man helping Magnus lodge a midair snow attack on his best friend. "You just can't squeeze," he guesses, passing the drink over.

[lightbearinglord]

"Mn." Again very solemn, Lan Wangji accepts his second beverage. He takes a careful sip with an expression of great concentration. After a little pause, he says, "Slightly better than the last."

[summerdude]

"Is that because there's less of it all over the place?"

[lightbearinglord]

"And because I like oolong. Why are the cups like this?"

[summerdude]

"I think it's so you can take them home and give them a shake without spilling anything, in case anything settles before you decide to drink them."

[lightbearinglord]

"Strange," Lan Wangji says, meaning this with absolute neutrality. The strangeness is neither good nor bad. He takes another sip, for a mouthful of grass jelly.

[summerdude]

"What do you think?" Magnus asks, even though Hanguang-jun just said. And then, as he takes the towel he definitely gave Hanguang-jun to wipe off the tea explosion with, to rinse it off in the sink, he adds, "Want me to make you my favorite so you can be, like, 'Magnus. Thank you. This is also strange.' but with a little twist to the corner of your mouth that tells me you think it's way too sweet and creamy and un-tea-like for your tastes? --Galahad liked the flavor of it. When he thought of it as a milkshake I think he liked the texture, too. But he has a bigger sweet tooth than you." This is what is colloquially known as 'an understatement.'

[lightbearinglord]

Lan Wangji huffs out a laugh understated enough to match Magnus' milquetoast assessment of his so-called sweet tooth. "Yes. I will try your favorite." As unlikely as he is to like most of the options, he will try as many as Magnus wants him to try.