[closed post -- a readiness of things]

[onthewillowsthere]

Galahad has assumed a regular schedule of checking on Magnus -- the protein bars were dire, and Magnus deserves better food, to say nothing of the other pleasures of indoor life (changes of clothes, Ticket to Ride (the Europe version), updates from Claudius' Mansion gossip that seem like they're be interesting to Magnus and not so personal that Galahad would feel bad sharing them). He comes out to the woods daily now.

It's one of the coolest days they've had at the Mansion so far, and he has a long coat on over his clothes. Today's collection of needful things includes a book full of different waffle recipes, the spicy lamb Magnus conjured from the refrigerator on his first day, two bottles of Mountain Dew Code Red, and an assortment of jeweled barrettes that immediately made him think of Magnus' overlong hair.

Comments

[summerdude]

"Cool." Magnus takes the spare sketchbook, and flips through the guide again. "I guess I actually did used to draw a little when I was a kid, but it was like, really nerdy. Nothing like this." He thinks back, again, to the sketches Galahad has shown him. "And not nearly as good as what you do."

[onthewillowsthere]

"I've practiced so much," pleased at the compliment. "And done the exercises. You can be good too."

[summerdude]

"I do like learning," Magnus agrees. "And practicing things." He actually kind of misses training with Jack. He wishes there was a way he could do that that didn't involve fighting or using swords.

[onthewillowsthere]

There's no set amount of time for him to be here, so he's unhurried. He flips the book back to the beginning, so Magnus can read the introduction if he wants to, and begins another sketch of him.

[summerdude]

Magnus does start reading, but he looks up after a few minutes. "Hey," he says, and hesitates. "Do you think you could draw something from a, like, verbal description?"

[onthewillowsthere]

"I can try." Trying is easy with Magnus.

[summerdude]

A quick glance around -- Magnus wants to get (even more) comfortable, but he doesn't want to get in Galahad's way -- and then Magnus moves Galahad's messenger bag right next to Galahad and lies down, using it as a pillow so he can peer at Galahad's sketchbook, albeit at an angle. "If I described Alex, would you be willing to try to draw her?"

[onthewillowsthere]

This time he laughs. "I'll try. But it's different when I can't see what I'm drawing."

[summerdude]

Magnus grins, big and bright. "That's fine," he says. "I'll try to explain enough. Where should I start?"

[onthewillowsthere]

"What shape is her face?"

[summerdude]

Magnus closes his eyes, remembering. "Sharp," he says. "Pointy chin, big eyes. Maybe, um..." he tries to think of what he's read about face shapes. "Heart-shaped?"

[onthewillowsthere]

He does concentrate, trying to arrange all these features into something recognizable, though he has very low expectations of actually drawing anything that looks like Alex. "What shape is his nose?"

[summerdude]

"Also sharp," Magnus laughs. He brings his hands up, gesturing, first moving them in an outline of the overall shape of Alex's face -- what he can remember, from touching it when they're, like, making out or whatever, or from the considerable hours he's put into staring at it when Alex is otherwise occupied and less likely to tease him for it. "Kind of... long and narrow? A little delicate. Pointy at the tip." He outlines this with his hands, too, a swoop of his fingers and then a little flick, as if booping a nose that isn't there.

[onthewillowsthere]

He nods, smiling to himself as he sketches out a thin, sharp nose. "Mouth?"

[summerdude]

"Almost always in a wicked, sly grin," Magnus says. His smile is growing goofier as he thinks about it. This is a good exercise; even if Galahad ends up totally off-base with the drawing, Magnus has been here for close to two months. He hadn't realized he'd been a little worried about forgetting the details until now. "Um, it's wide, but her lips are on the thinner side? I know you're just working with charcoals, but they're brown, not pink. Unless she's been drinking cherry soda, in which case everything is so red." His hands move again, a crooked little swoop, like he's tracing the line of them. "And his eyes... he has complete heterochromia. One is as golden as Hanguang-jun's and the other is this gorgeous dark brown."

[onthewillowsthere]

Oh, he thinks, and stops worrying about the sketch at all. It doesn't matter whether it's good or even accurate. It just matters that Magnus remembers Alex, and that Galahad is here for him to remember her to. He keeps adding features as Magnus describes them, trying to memorize a brown mouth stained red and one brown eye, one golden one.

[summerdude]

"Freckles," Magnus adds, tapping his cheeks where the more prominent ones are. "Or, I guess, moles. His hair is -- actually, it's probably as long as mine is right now, but it's curly. Dark brown roots, but the rest is dyed green." He opens his eyes again and slants a look at Galahad, but doesn't want to look at the picture until it's done, so he focuses on the look of focus in Galahad's eyes.

"Alex doesn't really change when her gender does, even though I can usually tell what it is before she says. Except for how sometimes it does look like his hair is a little longer when he's a guy. Just, like an inch or so, though. Maybe half an inch. His skin is darker than mine, too. Not that that's hard, I'm basically as white as they come. But she's Mexican, so. Um, Mexico is a different country. Further south than mine. Anyway, her skin is, like, a light brown." He almost compares its shade to Samirah's, or Blitzen's, and remembers at the last minute that those references won't mean anything to Galahad.

[onthewillowsthere]

He keeps nodding, as Magnus gives more and more information, adding to his sketch. Freckles, curly shoulder-length hair, light brown skin.

[summerdude]

"I know this won't matter for the sketch," Magnus adds, "but I'm on a roll, so. She's a little shorter than me? Not much shorter, though. A couple of inches maybe?" Alex's dad is short, too; Magnus doesn't share this, though, because Alex's family is Alex's business. "I've probably already said this, but she wears really loud colors. Pinks and greens, mostly. She likes patterns. She's kind of like..." He thinks for a minute. "You know how some venomous animals are really brightly colored to warn you off?"

[onthewillowsthere]

The venomous animals he can immediately call to mind are adders, and they're subtly patterned and dark to blend in with leaf litter and stones. He frowns at the sketchbook page. "Are they?"

[summerdude]

"Yeah, like poison dart frogs," Magnus says. "Or blue-ring octopuses. I think there's a book in my room, actually; we could look at it tomorrow if you want." It's probably obvious why he took it from the library. He's smiling again. "Alex is like a poison dart frog. A beautiful poison dart frog."

[onthewillowsthere]

"I'd like to," he says. Alex is dangerous, but not a danger that wants to be fallen into. A courteous danger. There's no real way to put it in the sketch, but he thinks about it while he adds shadows, as if it could be shaded in.

[summerdude]

"He's very private," Magnus says, and laughs. "I got stung a few times before I learned better. Believe it or not, I used to be a lot worse about boundaries. Especially Alex's, before we got together and before I realized I was into him; he's very alluring and mysterious."

[onthewillowsthere]

Stung throws him for a minute -- it's not a natural attribute of a frog, and he doesn't draw the connection that Magnus is making -- but he's heard a snake's bite called a sting before, and after a moment or two he nods, mostly to himself, and then tries to catch up on the rest of what Magnus has said. "Really?" Alluring and mysterious are not two words that come immediately to mind after all Magnus' descriptions.

[summerdude]

"Yeah," Magnus says, dreamily. "I mean, I didn't realize I thought she was alluring for, like, months, because I'm bad at recognizing that kind of stuff I guess, but I did want to know everything about her -- if she really was at the same shelters as me when we were both alive, what she thought about anything and everything, what happened in her past to make her the person I knew, what her hopes and dreams were for the future, what she was thinking when she looked at me and made any one of her specific facial expressions, why she dressed like a venomous animal warning off predators. And she would get mad at me for trying to find out. Refused to let me heal her for a while, on account of the whole memories-thing." He sighs. "I bet if she turned into an actual poison dart frog, she'd be the prettiest poison dart frog in the world."