ravkanwitch | [[open post and announcement: no mourners, no funerals]]

[[open post and announcement: no mourners, no funerals]]

[cw: discussion of death!]

Nina knows that word of Shen Yuan's death has been slowly spreading. She tried to put out a general warning of danger right after it happened... but she's not sure how many people were warned by it. She wasn't in the right mind at the time, after all. This time, she's more careful and collected. With SecUnit's help, she's alerted and gathered everyone who's interested for an important announcement in the lobby of the mansion. Despite all appearances of bossiness and stubbornness - all quite true - Nina has never been in charge of anything so serious. Kaz, Zoya, and the King himself; she followed their lead. As people slowly begin to gather and she attempts to compose herself, she wonders why she decided to put herself up to this.

Deep breath, Zenik. Pretend that - well, that this is pretend. She's back in the orphanage as the official greeter, making an important announcement to all the other children. She's the governor of a small town, making sure that all the citizens are aware and prepared. It does have to be her, after all. She's playing a crucial role in everything. She also doesn't want anyone else to carry the emotional load.

"Hi," she tells everyone gathered, trying to paste on a somber but not-too-morose expression. "Thanks for coming. I'm sure some of you have heard part of this announcement already and I'm sorry that it took so long to pass this information onto everyone else... but there was an incident not too long ago. We're not sure what caused it, whether it was the house or whether it was an individual, but... Shen Yuan is dead." There's most likely a reaction at this point and Nina forges onwards as confidently as she can, pitching her voice above the hubbub.

"But there is a way that he can return. We're sure of it. We're just trying to figure out the details, which might take a while. If you want to know more about that, you can ask Magnus, but I'm not sure how much he can tell you. Also, if you encounter any signs of Shen Yuan's spirit, you can talk to--" Here she meets Aleksander's eyes almost instinctively; this line of conversation is something she's purposefully kept from him. "You can talk to myself. Or... to Lan Wangji. ...That's all. Thank you."

A confident start but slightly deflated by her last few sentences, Nina steps back and allows for conversation to happen. If anyone would like to speak to her, she's looking much less strained and grim than she has in a while.

[[Feel free to post a single comment reaction and/or start a thread with Nina in the comments!]]

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Magnus looks up, startled. "What?"

"As I said, I was curt, and I apologize. But you aren't ordinarily so withholding with me, not since you first sounded me out as Galahad's potential partner. Now you're avoiding direct questions, ignoring offers of assistance, and pretending to be fine in circumstances where the most experienced of field surgeons would struggle. I've done surgery on dying men and seen their hearts stop beating while my tools were still in them. It was never fine. Even when I became accustomed to it, even when I had to keep my hands steady. Dead or no, you've the eyes of a man who hasn't had a deep sleep in days. Is there any advantage to denying it?"

He's doing it again, falling back into the habit of reading things people don't know about themselves, then saying them as though they're already understood. But it's so obvious Magnus has been dead on his feet.

Magnus has, it must be said, been mostly keeping it together pretty well, all things told. He's been confiding in Alex. He's been growing Shen Yuan and checking in on Luo Binghe and Nina. He's been hanging out with Sunny. He's been working on Dionysus's garden, alone and with Uncle D. He's been training more and more doggedly with Lancelot. (He's pretty sure he even started crying a little, once, during one of those practices there, but Lancelot -- shock of all shocks -- was decent enough not to mention it.) He's been helping Claudius with Hanguang-jun's gift. He's been...

...desperately missing everyone else. Shen Yuan and Hanguang-jun and Galahad and, like... literally everyone else. Regardless of what he's been telling everyone, he doesn't actually even know if this whole body thing will work; he's just been desperately hoping that it will. He's been guiltily avoiding his best friend, because he's (he too tired not to admit it) jealous, and sad, and also spending time with the guy his best friend hates most in the world. And also his best friend's estranged dad, who is secretly teaching him how to fight better. Not even Alex knows for sure about the fighting, Magnus is pretty sure.

He takes a deep breath, planning on deflecting... and bursts into tears.

Once, Claudius recalls, he'd made Gertrude cry like this, and he wished the castle floors would open up and swallow him like the trap-door on a stage. He was sharper, after his stint in Normandy; he knew what it was to be up to his elbows in another man's blood, begging him to live. He wasn't a boy any longer. You don't need to lie to me, he'd said. I don’t have any illusions about my brother. You aren’t protecting him by hiding what he does.

He’d made her cry. The Queen of Denmark, the idol of his childhood, the bravest and kindest of women or men. He couldn't stand himself. Ever since then, tears have been his weakness, the easiest way to make him stop asking questions -- as Nina discovered her first day here.

But these are necessary tears. Tears flush out the chemicals the body no longer needs, built up in preparation to fight or flee or freeze. "Come here," he says, and pulls Magnus into his arms. He strokes his back, steady and gentle, and doesn’t ask him to stop crying.

"This is why you can't let it catch up to you," he burbles against Claudius's shoulder.

Wryly, not unkindly, he says, “It always catches up with you. There’s nowhere to run.”

Magnus makes an unconvinced sound.

Then Claudius keeps holding him, however long it takes.

"Gods," says Magnus, eventually, highly embarrassed. "I really am okay." He hiccups on 'okay,' and another tear or two leak out, but it's a lot better than when he couldn't get the mental image of Shen Yuan's limp body, dead forever, out of his mind. Now that there's a potential solution... at least it feels less dire.

"And you aren't alone," Claudius reminds him. "I hope you realize I won't allow you to take sole responsibility for this project. That isn't a weight you have to bear and, speaking frankly, you shouldn't."

Magnus pulls back far enough to give Claudius a blatantly confused look.

Claudius smirks, and shakes his head. "You know, I like to think I'm good at reading people, but I'm not a mind-reader. What's that look?"

"Shouldn't?"

"We're a community, aren't we?" Claudius can believe it as he says it, and that's a wonder in itself. "The success of Shen Yuan's resurrection shouldn't rely solely on you. There's no need for it. There are others here who know about cultivation and botany both, and who have a stake in the mansion's safety. The more of their knowledge you can draw on, the better your chances. I assume that's why you confided in me."

"Oh. I thought you meant, like, it could be dangerous or whatever."

Rueful, Claudius says, "Of course it could be dangerous. I'm taking that as a matter of course. Danger is also safer shared."

Magnus nods. "I would like your help," he says. "Guidance, whatever. I can grow things but you know things. But..."

"But?"

"Dude, Luo Binghe is, like, always there," gently.

"I could not care less where Luo Binghe is," frankly. "It's irrelevant. I'm not going to let it stop me from studying something that could help the entire mansion. If this plant can be propagated, many more lives could be saved through it, and others spared the grief we're all feeling now." "

"Okay." Magnus trusts Claudius to know his own limits. "Galahad's not going to like it." There's a measure of guilt to his tone now: he thinks Luo Binghe is fine now, and that he's not going to, like, hurt people, but he does know how his best friend feels about the guy, and he does respect it, and lately, for obvious reasons, he has been spending more time with Luo Binghe than with Galahad.

"I let Galahad surprise me with what he does or doesn't like. Except for certain recipes," he allows. There are certain loafs he knew Galahad wouldn't like. "He's someone I trust to listen if I explain my position, and form his own opinion from there. If he has reservations, I'll answer them." He doesn't ask whether Magnus needs to explain anything to Galahad, but the thought does occur.

Magnus nods. "I'll talk to Luo Binghe," he says. "And then you and me can go together."

It goes without saying that Magnus’s presence will help in answering Galahad’s reservations … and Claudius’s own, if he’s honest. Whatever killed Shen Yuan is an unknown threat, but Luo Binghe is a known one. Claudius can only hope that ‘consideration’ for Shen Yuan’s friends continues, for as long as there’s a possibility of Shen Yuan’s swift return.

He nods. “Thank you.”

Magnus nods, too, then fiddles with some of the gentians for a moment, then says, "Can, um," and falls silent.

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