Magnus Chase | Magnus Chase (sonofnatalie) wrote in madisonvalley, @ 2017-05-08 21:45:00 |
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Entry tags: | !closed, !completed gdoc, !log, ~2017 may, ~25 points, ~~~magnus chase (sonofnatalie), ~~~reyna ramirez-arellano |
WHO: Magnus Chase and Reyna Ramirez-Arellano
WHAT: Having a chat
WHEN: This afternoon
WHERE: The street, then Hinkles
WARNINGS: Nah
STATUS: Closed/Completed Gdoc
May! It was officially going to be summer in a little more than a month, but it felt a whole lot like it right now. And Magnus loved it. He’d been spending a lot of time outside. He’d even pitched a tent in the woods and was going out there quite often to just sleep around nature. He loved it out there, and he felt...well, at home. His mother was gone, but at least his father felt...closer there.
And if little woodland creatures tended to flock to him, well, there were worse things.
He’d camped out last night, and now he was heading back to his apartment to get a shower. He was being trailed by two bunnies, several birds, and a deer, and trying to ignore how ridiculous he must look when he saw Reyna, and smiled broadly, waving.
“Hey! Reyna, what’s up?”
***
Reyna did not camp outside, but the weather was getting warm enough that she was thinking of doing so. Her training in New Rome had her camping out no matter what the weather was, and winter in San Francisco was way colder than most people would think, but there was no point in suffering through the biting chill now, especially when there were no children of Vulcan to warm the tents, and she still had homework to do.
For now, she was keeping to her usual routine of training in the mornings before showering and getting ready for school. She spent more mornings with Jason now, and they’d established a bit of a schedule where they trained together some days and separately on others. Today she was on her own - at least until Magnus and his menagerie showed up.
“Hello Magnus,” she said, stopping to see what was going on. “Are you aware there’s a robin trying to make a nest in your hair?”
***
Magnus cringed, clearly aware but hoping that embarrassment could somehow be ignored. Apparently not.
“Um, yeah,” he said, shooing it away as best he could, and failing rather badly. “They won’t leave me alone. I mean, I guess it could be worse but…”
He straightened up, trying to look respectable despite the animals.
“What are you up to?”
***
“Just finished training,” Reyna said, trying - and failing - to not be distracted by the little woodland animals surrounding him.
“Is it usually like this?” She gestured to the entourage to indicate what she was talking about. She didn't recall so many animals following him around before, but maybe things had changed when he'd gone home.
***
“Um, no,” he said. “This...is kind of new. I guess they just like me?” It made sense in a way. Maybe the animals back home were just more used to demigods being around.
“You wanna get something to eat and hang out for a bit? They probably won’t follow me inside.”
That was the only way he could think of to get rid of them.
***
“Sure,” Reyna said, her lips twitching. It would've been fun to walk around with him and watch him try to divest himself of his furry followers, but he looked too distracted by the animals, and she was hungry.
“Are smoothies okay? I need to refuel.”
***
“Sure, I like smoothies.” Actually, Magnus was very much not picky when it came to food. There’d been far too long he hadn’t had the privilege to be picky. Anything he could find, he ate to stay alive.
“As long as we can eat them inside. This is...a little annoying. I feel like Snow White or something.”
***
“Inside is fine.”
They walked together in companionable silence for a while. As she usually did when she was around him, Reyna enjoyed the warmth and smell of sunshine that came with him. It wasn't the hot, humid heat of a Puerto Rican summer, but a more subtle warmth, like what she envisioned a Nordic summer might be like.
“So when did all this…” she gestured to hi a following. “...happen?”
***
“The past few days,” he said, rolling his eyes. “As it got warmer, you know, more summery outside. First it was just the birds, but then the others started too.”
He didn’t know exactly why, and he didn’t exactly mind it. But it was a little embarrassing at times, and difficult to explain.
“I never really did much hanging out in the woods after I died. Maybe this is normal.”
***
“It wasn’t really like this when you were here last time,” Reyna murmured. It was strange to wrap her head around the idea that she knew more about him than what he knew she knew about him. As far as he was concerned, she was a girl he’d met here. But they’d been better friends than that.
“You must be enjoying the onset of spring.”
***
“Yeah, well, it’s weird. And I hope it stops soon.” He rolled his eyes as they stepped inside and he freed himself of his entourage.
“I am, yeah. It’s...well, it’s like something’s coming to life inside of me. I feel stronger. And there’s this humming inside of me…” He laughed a little. “That sounds really strange, doesn’t it?”
He chose a seat near the back and sat, grabbing the menu.
“But you like it too, yeah? I mean, everyone loves Spring.”
***
Reyna shook her head. “I have battle-ready reflexes,” she explained. “There’s always a sort of...energy humming inside me too. So it’s not that strange.”
She took a moment to look over the smoothie options on the board above the counter, then got in line once she’d decided.
“But yeah, I like spring,” she continued. “I like it better than summer, even - it’s too hot to train comfortably in the summer, even first thing in the morning.”
***
“The heat doesn’t bother me much...but I guess that makes sense, doesn’t it?”
Honestly, he didn’t do a lot of training, either. He wasn’t like a lot of the other guys in Valhalla who just kind of put everything they had into killing and maiming and trying to win the battles. Sure, Magnus had put more into it and tried a bit harder lately, but it still wasn’t really his schtick. Maybe that was the Frey in him too.
“You could, I don’t know, take a break from training for the summer. Like you take a break from school?”
***
Reyna just looked at him uncomprehendingly for a moment, as if he'd just switched to Finnish. Not train? She'd always trained, even before she'd been claimed as a demigod. How could she keep her reflexes and instincts sharp otherwise?
“I don't know what it's like when you're dead,” she said slowly. “But when you're alive and you don't train for a while, you start losing muscle tone and conditioning.”
***
“But, I mean, you don’t have to fight here, right? So why not relax a little?” Reyna was so uptight; he worried about her sometimes. Sure, keeping healthy and in shape was important but so was having fun and enjoying life. Which Magnus knew first hand was way, way too short.
“I’m not the kid of a war goddess, though, so what do I know.” He gave a crooked half smile. It had just been a suggestion. He hadn’t really thought she’d take it to heart.
***
“But I've had to fight here,” Reyna pointed out. “I don't think you were here for the vampires and the dinosaurs, but recently my guardian turned into his past barbaric self and attacked me when I tried to stop him from leaving. If I hadn't been keeping up my training, I could have been hurt. And if I'd been training harder…”
She looked down at the counter. “Maybe I could've stopped him, and he wouldn't have been able to hurt anyone.”
***
“It isn’t your fault,” he said firmly, the smile fading from his lips. Yes, he’d heard about what had happened, and it was a terrible thing. But there was nothing that Reyna could have done to fix it, or make it better. It was entirely out of her hands.
“Sometimes, it doesn’t matter what we do, or how hard we try, things still happen. And you can’t blame yourself for all of them, or you’ll go nuts.”
***
“I don't blame myself.” Reyna tried not to do it - or at least not to dwell on it. It wasted precious time and energy that could otherwise be used to do something. “I'm just...disappointed in myself.”
She shook her head. “Anyway. Training is necessary.”
And truth be told, she wasn't sure if she knew how to do anything else anyway. Training was as much a part of her life as walking.
***
That sounded like pretty much the same thing to Magnus, but he wouldn’t push it. He wasn’t in charge of Reyna, or her life, and if she wanted to blame herself for things that weren’t her fault, then nothing he could say was going to stop her. Which was really too bad, but it was what it was.
“Um, well, maybe you could help me train, then? It would be nice not to die so quickly during the battle nights in Valhalla.”
***
Reyna looked at him with surprise. “You want to train?”
Somehow, his laid-back, pacifist demeanour had made her think he wasn't interested in any kind of fighting at all. Or working hard, for that matter.
“It requires consistency and dedication,” she warned. “Once you start, you won't be able to just decide you don't want to do it one day.”
***
“I’m not completely useless, you know,” he said a bit dryly. He understood it, though. Compared to the other demigods here, he really wasn’t a fighter. It just wasn't his thing. But why not learn, since he was here and there were lots of talented people to instruct him.
“I’d like to try,” he said. And he meant it. He didn’t know if he’d be any good at it, but he did know that he liked spending time with Reyna and this would be a good way to make that happen more often.
***
“I don't think you're useless.” It wasn't an assurance to soothe any ruffled feathers he might've gotten over her remark; it was a simple statement of fact. “I just want you to be aware that it's going to be intense. I know you've done a lot of fighting in Valhalla, but training is different. It'll be a while before you'd even start using a sword. If that's ok with you, I can start at any time.”
It wasn't that Reyna was trying to talk him out of it; she actually thought he had potential. Plus, she liked spending time with him as well. She just didn't want to waste both their times if he was looking for something different than what she was offering.
***
“Um,” he said. “My sword is a little weird anyway.” He’d arrived in Madison Valley without his pendant and gafn’t missed Jack - or fighting - all that terribly much.
But he could see the point of learning, and he wanted to.
“So, yeah, when and what time?”
***
“Tomorrow at six,” said Reyna. There was no time like the present to start, and she didn't have Kenny to train tomorrow. Atone point she'd get the two boys working together, but first she had to get Magnus up to speed. “Wear something comfortable and meet me at the trail head.”
***
“Alright, I can do that.” He smiled - he couldn’t help it. He was looking forward to the training, to actually doing something with his time which was worthwhile. And maybe it would help him win once in a while when he got back home. A boy could hope, couldn’t he?
“You’ll see. You’ll be so impressed with my awesome self.”
The words were full of bravado, but it was clear that there was a good deal of humor behind them as well, and that Magnus didn’t really believe them at all.
***
Reyna laughed and stepped forward to make her order. “We will see tomorrow,” she told him.
She was looking forward to this.