blades before babes

It's winter now, deep enough into the season that drifts of snow cover the grounds, marred only by the desire paths formed by the regular routes residents tend to take as they go about their days: between the Mansion's many doors and the greenhouses, the training ground, the stable, Magnus and Alex's camp (which is cozier than ever), the not-so-secret training clearing deep in the forest, his family's house, the regular archery range and the forest archery range, the pier, the beach... okay, there are actually a ton of desire paths cobwebbing around the grounds.

There is a large swath of unadulterated snow along the gentle hill to the left of the Mansion's main entrance, and it's here that Magnus is setting up shop. First he drags out a folding table. Then he goes to the kitchen for, like, so many carrots and powdered Kool-aid singles and Crystal Light packs and maple syrup and condensed milk and hot chocolate sachets and bags of tea. Then he goes to the arts and crafts room in the basement for popsicle sticks, buttons, and a box of dress-up clothes. Finally, he drags over his outdoor fireplace from camp, lights it, and sets his grill grates over it. Upon this he places a huge pot of water and a smaller pot of the maple syrup; the final pot (which has a bag of popcorn kernels, a bottle of oil, a salt shaker, and a bag of sugar tucked underneath the lid) he sets to the side.

Then, confident he'll soon have people stopping by to see what's up, he starts rolling snowballs.

Magnus knows his mom is coming, he just doesn't know when. So while he's always been a tidy guy, he ratchets up several levels as summer fades into autumn. (After all, the last vistor's day was in the fall!)

Camp is always spotless, or at least as spotless as an outdoor living situation can be. He organizes and reorganizes his cooler, and starts putting the stuff that doesn't need to be weather-protected onto the shelves he and Laertes have been building. There's a proper sort of lean-to shanty half-built on the far side of the clearing — the opposite side from Magnus and Alex's bed-and-belongings set-up. Mostly it's going to be space to store Alex's artwork and outfits — plus Magnus's few belongings — but there's a planned dedicated space on one side for Drosera to sleep now that she's gotten way too big for her dog beds and bird perches. With Alex and Galahad's help, he figures out how to build a big swing that hangs from the branch he'd climbed when Shen Yuan painted him; it doubles as extra seating. The trampoline is pristine; the makeshift shelter he built before Alex arrived looks more like a permanent outdoor camp than a cobbled-together array of tarps and canvases. It's perfect for the changing of the season and the cooling weather, though he does make a mental note to ask Dad(s) if he and Alex can come crash if there's another blizzard like there was at the end of Dark last year. (They'd survived, obviously, and mostly been cozy after the snow covered camp, but it was... a lot.)

It's a lovely autumn morning when Natalie does come. Magnus has, for once, not picked Sunny up for adventures bright and early — their plans are for after lunch — but he still wakes up at the buttcrack of dawn every day now out of habit, so he takes advantage of the time to do his and Alex's laundry back at the mansion. He's freshly arrived back at the camp, kneeling on his favorite patch of moss, folding one of Alex's fluffy skirts when—

"Hey, pumpkin."

Boxer shorts and t-shirts go flying. "Mom," Magnus cries, dashing headlong into a hug. He doesn't feel like pulling his strength, so he sweeps her up instead, spinning her around, laughing and laughing and laughing.

They take an hour or so to catch up. Magnus tells her all about his life —

"Pumpkin, I'm so sorry I left you alone to deal with all of that."

"It's not your fault, mom. I did my best. I didn't go to Randolph, I—" and he's crushed against her side again as she pulls him into a hug.

— and death —

Natalie's lips thin when he mentions Randolph's quest for the sword, and her face blanches when he tells her about Surt. There's a stormy look behind her eyes as he talks about the all-faith chapel, but the look softens when he tells her about Annabeth. Throughout, her hand is warm on his, her grip steady, unchanging.

—and afterlife. He makes a big show of ignoring her when she tries to apologize for not telling him about his heritage, and instead tells her about his valkyrie and his hallmates and his Alex. She tells him she's proud of him for stopping Loki and postponing Ragnarok, and when he tells her that Alex is sometimes his girlfriend and sometimes his boyfriend, she gives him a resounding kiss to his forehead. And she looks misty enough when he mentions meeting Frey that he doesn't complain for even one second about how useless Frey can be, just says that he managed to visit here once during the summer.

"And where's 'here,' pumpkin?" Natalie asks, glancing around. "It doesn't look like Valhalla..."

"It's not, it's some... pocket world," Magnus tells her. "Not one of the Nine. It's mostly totally separate."

"Mostly?"

"Sometimes stuff leaks through. Hanguang-jun's brother gets his letters. Frey heard a few of my prayers."

"A few of your—!" and she crushes him to her side again. "You? Praying?"

Magnus laughs, ducking his head. "I know. I know. I was surprised too. It's, um." He pauses, then admits, "Mostly snarky."

Natalie laughs, misty-eyed. "That's my boy," she says, fondly.

"There's, um, some people you should probably — I mean, would you like to meet some of the people here? The important ones? To me?" When Alex came, she wanted to wander and get to know the place on her own terms, because she's Alex; that's her way. But Magnus isn't letting his mother out of his sight until she gets yanked away by the powers that be. "They're, like. Sort of like my adoptive family at this point."

"Okay, kiddo," and when Natalie gets to her feet, she's as limber as he remembers, easily rising. She's so, so beautiful with her blonde pixie cut and sharp green eyes and the wicked smile — with its fledgling smile lines — etched into her mouth. She still looks the same as he remembers — forty-two, athletic, always ready to laugh — which he guesses does make sense.

He loves her so much. He rises, too, and as he's rising tells her, "I love you so much. I missed you so m—" and again, the rest of the word gets muffled in a hug.

(It feels, Magnus thinks, like there's a spell over her visit. Like if he asks her where she went when she died, he'll break it. (There isn't a spell. He still — he'll let her tell him, if she wants to, and he won't pry. He's just happy to have her.))

Eventually, she asks, "So who exactly are all these people?"

Magnus purses his lips. "Hanguang-jun is probably the easiest to find. He and Galahad will be done with training and he'll be doing his, like, sky patrol right about now. Alex is at the kiln, so we can make our way there. And then... well, you can come with me to lunch and meet Sagramore and Sunny and Laertes." He takes his mom by the hand and leads her from the trees, explaining who these people are to him as they walk.

( Hanguang-jun )
( Alex )
( Sagramore )
( Sunny )
( Laertes )+++
Lunch is a rambunctious affair, and Magnus's heart is so, so full throughout it. He wishes Alex was feeling up to joining them — especially since Sunny is still jealously subdued, and he really thinks they could do with talking to each other — but his mom gets along well with everyone, and he's teased within an inch of his life. He helps do the dishes after, trying to coax Sunny into a smile and letting Mom have a parent-parent conference in lowered voices with Dadgramore behind them, and then asks if Sunny still wants to keep their afternoon plans, since his mom would definitely be joining them.

She doesn't, and so his next order of business is leaving a note for Alex at camp about the whole affair, and then he and his mom are packing up for a night under the stars. "We could find our own camp spot," he tells her, "but also my Evil Twin gave Galahad Frey-dad's boat, so we could also do that. Oh, you have to meet Galahad, he's my best friend, he can sketch us! And take our picture! And if we run into Claudius or Uncle D or Shen Yuan or, like, I guess my sword teacher, I'll introduce you, too. And—"

"Honey," Natalie says, pulling Magnus into a firm hug. "Slow down. We have a full day ahead of us. We have time for everything."

Magnus takes a deep breath and doesn't argue that one day isn't long enough. He wants so much more time, but... he's also so thrilled to have any time at all. "Okay," he says, and gives his mom one more squeeze. "Okay. One thing at a time. Wanna hike?"

"Yeah, pumpkin," says Natalie. "I really do."



Single-tag reactions from other residents encountering them on their post-lunch walk are welcome - and ones from the characters Magnus specifically mentioned at the end are especially encouraged!

Magnus has a huge agenda planned for his Magnus-and-Sunny time today. Not riding Drosera, sadly, but he thinks probably the dads should be there at least at the beginning. And maybe Galahad too, since they found it for her together, even though that's maybe a little awkward, socially. But there's plenty of other big plans!

After lunch (with Sagramore and Laertes, too, of course), he takes Sunny exploring in some new rooms he and Galahad recently discovered in the basement, because they're (literally, temperature-wise) cool and he's noticed she can get overheated on hotter summer days. Then, he takes her deep into the woods to show her the secret garden he and Claudius have almost finished from Hanguang-jun, since she's great at keeping secrets and has unparalleled excellence of opinion. Finally, and with her consent, he puts her in a baby-backpack he found, and starts climbing the tallest tree in the entire forest, as high up as he can trust will hold them both. It's no Yggdrasil, but it is tall enough that they can look out over the tops of a lot of the other trees and see pretty much their entire world - the lake and her house stretching out to the left, the leaf-obscured path to his and Alex's camp in front of them, and the shining endless sea to the right.

"The deal is either I hold you or you're attached to the branch with a harness," Magnus warns, once he gets a sense of just how far down the ground is. "Just to be safe. Or else we climb down halfway. Okay?"

Across the next two days, the following individuals will have the following invitation hand-delivered to them whenever Magnus happens to run across them: Enjolras, Gideon, Gu Xiang, Laertes, Lan Wangji, Mothwing, SecUnit, Sunny, Susan, Tress, and Shen Yuan's growing plant body. Alex, who is a good chunk of the entertainment on deck, also gets one; Magnus gives himself one for good measure, too. The final invitation, of course, goes to Galahad.