[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

[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."

[onthewillowsthere]

The prettiest poison dart frog in the world, he thinks, rolling the words over in his mind as if they had physical weight to them, like smooth stones he could rub his fingers on. He tries to imagine a grass frog, with its pebbled hazel body and the brown stripe behind its eyes, but pink and green instead, latched on to Magnus' fingers with tiny needle-prick teeth full of poison.

[summerdude]

"Anyway," Magnus says, dredging his thoughts back to the present. "What else do you need?"

[onthewillowsthere]

Right. "I'm almost done. Say a little more about her."

[summerdude]

"Anything in particular?"

[onthewillowsthere]

"Something important."

[summerdude]

Magnus thinks for a minute. This probably isn't what Galahad meant, but it's been on his mind lately, so -- "I get worried sometimes," he says. "I've changed here. What if it's too much?" He's still not even begun to entertain the prospect of not seeing Alex again -- that seems impossible -- so it's not one of his concerns. He sighs. "Alex is a lot better with change than I am, but he's still a beautiful poison dart frog underneath it all. He's a really good einherji, which I've never really been, and he's been fine with that. But I'm pretty... pretty far away from that, now. I don't want to go where she might not want to follow." A faint, fleeting smile. "Usually we're pretty good about trading off on big leaps of faith, or whatever. But every time I think about putting down the sword for good..." he trails off.

[onthewillowsthere]

Quiet, as he works on finishing the sketch. He doesn't know what the answer to this is. He could tell Magnus that Alex loves him as much as he loves her, but he doesn't know whether that's true. He only knows Magnus, and the steadfastness of his love. He knows that Magnus has changed, and that he likes the person Magnus is, but he doesn't know what Alex would think of him. He doesn't know whether it would be all right. So he doesn't say anything like that. He just listens.

[summerdude]

"Sorry, dude, that was kind of --" Magnus shrugs. He's starting to realize that he's just been blabbing on about his boyfriend for some time to a very patient friend. That's a lot to ask of a guy, even if he is listening to draw you a picture.

[onthewillowsthere]

Galahad shakes his head and signs it's all right (by tapping his chest with the edge of his flat palm, which is the sign for fine). "Do you want to see?"

[summerdude]

"Yeah!" Magnus sits up so he can see better. "Show me!"

[onthewillowsthere]

He turns the sketchbook around. The drawing is -- imperfect, to say the least, he really can't draw very well without a reference, but he's done his best to include all the features Magnus described. He's also drawn frog!Alex, biting a finger. He knows it's bad; he's already laughing.

[summerdude]

It may not be a photorealistic sketch of Alex, and Galahad may have swapped Alex's eyes (because Magnus didn't clarify which was which), and the hair might be a little long, but it's perfect. Galahad has captured the important stuff. Magnus wants to reach out and touch it... so he does, one careful stroke, outside of the smudgeable lines of the charcoal.

The frog is also spectacular. Magnus laughs when he looks at it. "First of all, dude, I want that in full size so I can hang it in my room or maybe give it to her next time I see her," he tells Galahad. "Second of all, they, like, sweat the poison." It's an imperfect description, but good enough. "Don't get me wrong, this is perfect, Alex would totally bite someone like that, but the poison is inside their glands. And on their skin."

[onthewillowsthere]

"Their skin."

[summerdude]

"Their skin," Magnus says, with great relish.

[onthewillowsthere]

It's so easy to laugh around Magnus. All the tense knotted parts inside himself unknot, and he doesn't worry about saying the wrong thing, and everything is just easy. He looks from the picture to Magnus and laughs, as hard as he's ever laughed at anything, so hard his stomach hurts and his eyes water.