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]

"Hims gotta agree cause it you birthday."

[summerdude]

"That's the hope!"

Magnus is definitely playing this up. He's cognizant of the fact that there's some kind of miscommunication going on with him and Laertes, sometimes, when he proposes projects and Dad thinks he's treating them like a foregone conclusion instead of suggestions that can be denied, but he isn't really sure how else to present things to him to overcome that miscommunication. Even so, he's really impressed by the boundaries Dad sets. Magnus likes boundaries, and that having them makes it clear where and how he fits places. He's noticed that Dad is quicker to tell Sunny 'no' when she wants to do something that could be dangerous, too, than he was at the beginning -- like he's gaining confidence in being a father. It's really cool to see. It's really cool to be able to be on the receiving end of some of that, too, and not just because it's helped Magnus move over the hump of being able to see Laertes as a dad without active effort. It's just -- it's nice, to belong, and to know that people (both of their dads) are actively trying to think about what's best for him, too.

[biteybaby]

"How many houses you think us need?"

[summerdude]

"I guess it depends on how many people here would be interested in buying them. You're the businesswoman here... what do you think?"

[biteybaby]

"Eleven," she answers with full confidence and zero mathematics involved.

[summerdude]

"Then I guess we'll need eleven houses, unless any of them will share them with each other."

[biteybaby]

"Oh I bet Claudi and Galad share house. Since they married."

[summerdude]

"Are they the only ones who are going to share?"

[biteybaby]

"No. Um. Sissy and Aire married too." This is what is, scientifically speaking, known as 'a misconception'. "Also Crowley and Aziraphale. Oh maybe Crowley house near plant house! Only gotta open hims window to yell."

[summerdude]

"Wait, they are?" Magnus asks, totally side-tracked. "I thought Sissy and Aire were just dating. Did I miss a wedding?" If Sunny says it's so, he'll believe it. She knows so much more gossip than he does.

[biteybaby]

"They not married?" Sunny asks. "But live together?" Sunny thought living together and dating was what married was.

[summerdude]

"Yeah, I thought they were dating, not married?"

[biteybaby]

"I thought they dating and married and that's why have same bedroom."

[summerdude]

"Oh. Well. You don't have to be dating or married to share a bedroom."

[biteybaby]

"No. Phelia share my bedroom, I not married to her," Sunny says, giggling because that would be so silly!

[summerdude]

"And you're also not married to our dads, even though sometimes you share their room instead of Auntie Phelia, right? And I'm not dating or married to Galahad, and we've shared a room together before, too."

[biteybaby]

"Don't marry Galad! Wedding too boring! Claudi make me eat jello cake again!"

[summerdude]

An extremely strange expression, that could very easily be described as 'constipated,' crosses Magnus's face. "Don't worry," he says. "Me and Galahad are never gonna get married."

[biteybaby]

"Good cause it too boring."

[summerdude]

Magnus tweaks her nose. "You never have to worry about me," he says. "I'm not getting married even to Alex, so you won't have to sit through my wedding."

[biteybaby]

"I think nobody else gets married here, everyone just date forever, no more weddings."

[summerdude]

"I have a feeling that if you made that a rule, people would probably break it pretty fast."

[biteybaby]

"Why? Everyone like weddings?"

[summerdude]

"A lot of people do. And a lot of people value getting married."

[biteybaby]

"Why?"