[Semi-Closed Post] the 'how are you's

[lanselos_du_lac]

It's a couple of days before Lancelot is feeling well enough, and before Susan is willing to let him out of her sight. He is still tired -- the incident with Magnus was surprisingly taxing, given the chill and the fever -- and he looks it.

He is dressed in a pair of jeans and a sweater, and he convinces Susan that he's feeling well enough, he needs to check on Magnus. In truth, he still feels on the mend, but giving into the urge to keep sleeping for another day or two would feel wrong.

So he ventures out, first to get coffee and then to seek Magnus. He decides to forego drills today, as he doesn't suppose he has the strength. He isn't entirely sure where to find Magnus, but he heads instinctively for the greenhouse, since that's where he left him. (Lancelot knows he might well find him elsewhere, but this is a good starting point.)

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[summerdude]

Magnus swings his attention back to Lancelot. "You're with Susan too, right?" he says, though since he doesn't actually need to check -- Susan confirmed as much when she stopped by the greenhouse to see that he was okay and get a weirdly intense accounting of what happened -- he barrels on and says, "What do you get out of, uh, um, dating(?) multiple people? I asked, uh, someone else," Galahad knows that it was Grantaire, but Galahad knows pretty much everything about Magnus, just like Magnus knows pretty much everything about Galahad except for the fact that he got to a nine on the snogging scale????! Around Lancelot, Magnus is more inclined to protect his sources. "And that person said it was about scheduling and jigsaw puzzles."

[onthewillowsthere]

He already feels ashamed of saying this to Lancelot just to distract him, and he takes advantage of Magnus taking the conversation in hand again to become silent and listen to Lancelot's answer.

[lanselos_du_lac]

Lancelot's brow furrows -- he should be used to the dizzying turns of conversation that are typical of Magnus, but this conversation has gone so far from what he initially intended that it's getting increasingly difficult to be sure he's following.

"I-- yes. I am with Susan." He pauses, trying to sort out the answer to the real question. "I think this will be different for anyone you might ask. For me, in Britain-- or, rather, all of my life up until I found myself here, what was seemly and proper¹ was for a man to be bound to one woman, and she to him. I..." He lets out a breath; this is difficult, but Magnus' question seems sincere. "I bound myself to the woman I loved, and her alone without question, though she could not really share that same binding with me. I did not look to any other desires. I know now that that did not serve me well, and I came to harm, eventually."

He clears his throat. "Here, there is a freedom that I did not have before. And I would know myself, and those other desires I set aside. And I've learned that, if it is agreeable to everyone, one can do this without causing hurt to someone they love. Different partners offer different ways of seeing things, or different experiences, or being with them is simply different in some way that shows one oneself. Susan is different from Laertes, and they are both different from Grantaire."

Then, as an afterthought, "I do not know what a 'jigsaw puzzle' is, nor how scheduling is central."

^{1: And, he thinks, what was the literal law of the land, amounting to high treason should one break it, in certain specific cases.}

[summerdude]

Magnus manages to swallow his first question, which is because of all the treason? "Huh," he says instead, and then "Okay," and then "Jigsaw puzzles are--" when the rest of Lancelot's words hit him and he stares at him. "Grantaire?????!"

[onthewillowsthere]

Claudius is going to be delighted to have this information. Galahad feels slightly less ashamed.

"Have you played billiards with him?" he asks. He, himself, has preferred to draw with Grantaire lately, in part because he finds it very difficult not to imagine Claudius on the billiards table, and that has significantly impacted his game.

[lanselos_du_lac]

"No," with some surprise. "We play pinball."

[summerdude]

"Grantaire told me about the pinball," Magnus says, with the subtext being, and not that he's macking on you????, "When I beat his high score the other day."

[onthewillowsthere]

Does Claudius know about pinball? It's time to shut up and gather more information.

[lanselos_du_lac]

Lancelot zeroes in on this. "You beat his high score? When?"

[summerdude]

"Um. Recently? Just the other day." Magnus shakes his head. "It was totally weird. I'm used to playing against Hearth, who's, like, actually good." Compared to Magnus, who is just average.

[lanselos_du_lac]

"I've been practicing for weeks, and still have only come with striking distance."

[summerdude]

"You should learn from a Deaf elf wizard."

[onthewillowsthere]

"Do you have a wager with Grantaire?"

[lanselos_du_lac]

He makes a little face, "Not exactly."

[summerdude]

"You should ask him about jigsaw puzzles."

[onthewillowsthere]

"He likes wagers."

[lanselos_du_lac]

"Does he?" Lancelot sounds like he's considering this. "Thank you."

[summerdude]

Magnus has been turning over Lancelot's explanation in his mind ever since he gave it, and now he shakes his head. "I still don't get it," he tells Galahad. "Like, I guess I don't need to get it, but I really don't get it."

[onthewillowsthere]

"What?"

[summerdude]

"Being into more than one person?"

[onthewillowsthere]

Galahad shrugs. "Lan Wangji doesn't," with the clear subtext, so it's fine.

[lanselos_du_lac]

"I think," Lancelot says carefully, "that this is just one more way of being. Just as people have different preferences in any other sense. If you are content, and your partner is content, then that's well. If Susan felt differently than I do on this, we would discuss it and decide how to proceed."

[summerdude]

"I know it's fine," Magnus tells Galahad, "and that it's probably just one of those things. I just wanna be a good ally, I guess." Even to Lancelot. If he must.

Speaking of! He glances at the guy. "What, is Susan, like, your, uh..." what's the word he's heard used before? "Primary?"

[onthewillowsthere]

Every time the conversation turns back to Lancelot Galahad swivels his head around to him with that fixed gaze, in a way that's surely a little disconcerting.

[lanselos_du_lac]

It is, but only a little. Lancelot is glad for the opportunity of a conversation with Galahad -- Magnus is fine, too.

He considers Magnus' question. Of course, Lancelot and Susan have discussed this but the term is new. After a thoughtful pause he says simply, "Yes."