[open -- nest]

[new_inglewoodblues]

The nest Ragnelle has been building in the woods needed a few more blankets now that the temperature has dropped a few more degrees, so this morning she was in the mansion raiding cupboards. Now she's outside in the lee of Nightingale's summer house with a basket of comforters, cutting them into pieces with a little knife so they'll be easier to incorporate, like leaves in a squirrels' nest. The time indoors has warmed her up, and her hands move quickly with the knife.

Comments

[new_inglewoodblues]

She laughs. "Wouldst thou have the whole tale entire?"

[sorrowandsorrow]

"If you want to tell it. And if you're not too busy with arts and crafts."

[summerdude]

"Ragnelle!" Magnus is experimenting with coming closer to the Mansion more regularly. "What's up?"

[new_inglewoodblues]

"Magnus! How dost thou, little god?"

[summerdude]

Somehow, Ragnelle calling Magnus 'little god' is less galling than most reminders of his demigod heritage. "Just swell, Ragnelle," he says, grinning at the rhyme. "What are you up to? Anything I can help with?"

[new_inglewoodblues]

"I'm gathering more stuff for my nest. I'm not like thee with the sun in my blood. Thou canst help me carry it up to the woods when I finish."

[summerdude]

"Gladly," Magnus says. He draws up a seat on a little broken bit of stone and calls a little warmth to the area. "You're settling in okay?"

[new_inglewoodblues]

"Mary, I can do my work and tell tales. 'Tis not a long one." Unlike with Claudius, when she teased the story out to see what he would do, she's mostly direct with Janet. "My stepdam laid a curse on me that made me like unto a monster, full terrible to look on, and, worse, halting and sore. She tied a riddle to the curse."

[new_inglewoodblues]

"'Tis like no wood I've ever walked, but it does. I have what I need. Thee? Thou art sufficient unto thy little camp?"

[summerdude]

"Oh yeah, I'm setting up a proper little lair," Magnus says, with an easy smile. After all, it's been a full twenty-four hours since he was huddled shaking on the roof. New day, new dude, that's what he always says!

[new_inglewoodblues]

"A goodly burrow for a goodly fox," she agrees. "I see the Men bring thee offerings -- thou must eat, or thou choosest?"

[summerdude]

"I -- actually, I'm not sure," Magnus admits. "I think I have to? I like food, though. I haven't really tried to go without since I died."

[new_inglewoodblues]

"Ay, I like it too. Men have their faults, but a roast capon is not among them."

[summerdude]

"What's a capon?"

[new_inglewoodblues]

"It is a cock that hath been unsexed, that it may grow fat."

[summerdude]

"Okay," says Magnus, rolling with this. He didn't know that could happen to cocks, and makes a mental note to do more research. Clearly the reading he's done to better understand bottom surgery and why people get it hasn't been enough-----

Wait. There's another possible meaning.

"Cocks as in... roosters?" he asks, tentatively.

[new_inglewoodblues]

Ragnelle lets out a shriek of laughter as she watches him process. "Ay, ay, thou hast the right of it now."

[summerdude]

Magnus gives her a Look. "Ragnelle, you're wicked," he says, smile breaking through.

[new_inglewoodblues]

"O, let it not be on my head that thou knowest not the language!" She's more or less finished with the blankets now, and she tucks the knife away into her gown and gets to her feet, brushing bits of fiber and down off her front and her skirts.

[summerdude]

He makes a mental note to look up if capons are anything like foie gras. "Okay, sure," he says. "Fair point. You got me there."

[ravkanwitch]

"Warm is good," Nina nods sagely. "Do you think it will snow here?"

[sorrowandsorrow]

"Your stepdam! Shit. Rude of her." This is right out of a fairy tale. It seems like at least half the people here are maybe from books or plays or legends, but Ragnelle has this whole extra quality to her, an additional layer of fantasy. It makes Janet homesick, but she likes it. "Did she do this for any reason, or was she just feeling really evil that day?"

[new_inglewoodblues]

"In aid of her son, my brother, that he might reclaim his lands. And," she allows, "I was mightily a thorn to her."

[rememberettersberg]

"Hello there." The man himself has stepped out to see what's going on, watching her work with some curiosity. "We've not met before. I'm Nightingale."

[new_inglewoodblues]

"Mary, it may! Thou art suited well for it; 'tis better to be fat and hale."