[Re-Introduction: Sir Dinadan]

[rebecs_with_the_straps]

Dinadan awakens, which is already several positive steps ahead of where he thought he'd be this morning (viz. in the void from which there is no awakening, or in the hereafter that he has done nothing particularly to avoid). A giddy thrill of relief washes through him. He cautiously cracks one eye open, and then the other. For a moment, the sunlight's brightness overwhelms him--an aching reminder that he is, somehow, alive.

But as the sunlight becomes bearable, he realizes that he is somehow, impossibly, once again, in Sagramore's cabbages.


"Christ, do you really only have one joke?" he calls to the sky--but he's grinning all the same. A life condemned to cabbages is better than a death condemned to Hell or the void, and given those are the only two options, he'll gladly take the cabbages.

Friends and strangers may find a tall, blond knight minstrel wandering around in Sagramore's borrowed clothes, occasionally strumming his rebec, definitely not touching anything he shouldn't.

Comments

[futaille]

And in his wanderings, Dinadan will come across one of the residents he had not managed to meet on his previous visit. Grantaire stops to regard him. "You're new. What are your thoughts on large unsettling insects?"

[rebecs_with_the_straps]

This stranger is immediately delightful; Dinadan's eyes go wide. "Well, I suppose 'unsettled' by definition. Is this just something you think about for your entertainment, or is there a large, bewinged cause fluttering about somewhere?"

[futaille]

"First, don't trust subjective definitions. Nothing would be unsettling to everyone. As for your question, I haven't seen one today. In truth, I haven't seen one since I arrived, really. But the nature of this place does mean there is a possibility, so better to know, I think. Besides, it's a much less dull greeting than nattering on about the weather."

[rebecs_with_the_straps]

"Well, I can hardly argue with that. My name is Dinadan, and all of the insects I've seen today have been small and emotionally unremarkable."

[futaille]

"Unless I am a large insect in a very good disguise. However, I assure you I am not. I'm Grantaire, and it's truly a pleasure."

[summerdude]

Magnus, who in this time-stream is coming off of a glorious day spent entirely with his mother^*, is completely well-rested after an afternoon of hiking through every inch of the forest and a night camping in the deepest part of it with her. She stayed long enough for a camp breakfast, and he got to hug her before she left. His proverbial crops are flourishing (though not, apparently, dads' cabbages); his proverbial skin is moisturized (he looks exactly the same a always).

So he's in a remarkably good mood as he comes along, ready to make sure Sunny is okay after she got so upset meeting Natalie, when he sees a guy near-ish the cabbages, with a cabbage leaf stuck on his back.

"Hey, dude," Magnus says, with an easy wave. "Stork deliver you?" On the one hand, he looks a little old to be Magnus's new brother, but on the other hand... what even is age?


*The memories of the Count Olaf time-stream will percolate by lunchtime

[rebecs_with_the_straps]

"That would explain the fall from a height," says Dinadan, waving in return. "Is that the current going theory about who brings us here? Storks?"

[summerdude]

"Nah, it's just... you know, the delivery joke." Magnus pauses and scratches his head. "Do you know the delivery joke? Anyway, there's the under-the-cabbage-leaf delivery joke as well -- we did a whole joke photoshoot with my little sister in the really big cabbage that you, um, missed squashing, a month or two ago... well, I guess you missed it because we picked and ate it... Anyway." He's definitely gotten way too convoluted to explain himself now! "Hi! I'm Magnus. Welcome. You, uh," he gestures at the leaf on the guy's back. "You got something there."

[rebecs_with_the_straps]

Magnus has the vibe of a court jester--that rolling patter of nonsense. As a fellow professional, Dinadan makes a grinning bow (and covertly picks off the cabbage leaf while he's got a hand behind his back). "I'm Dinadan. A pleasure."

[sagramore]

Sagramore had accepted that Dinadan was gone. He had accepted that his ungodly hangover was the only memento he'd get to keep from his day with his best friend. He'd been trying to recover from both the hangover and the loss, to put on a brave face for Sunny and Magnus and pretend that he doesn't have a hole opened up in his heart that seems to ache dully every time blood pumps through it. Before, he'd been certain that Dinadan was off in Camelot living a reasonably good life, that it was unfair to bring him here, and now he knows Mordred -- Mordred! -- has cut him down as part of one of these endless stupid feuds that Camelot is cursed with. He no longer is stunned by Aziraphale's revelation that Camelot falls and Arthur and Mordred kill each other. Of course they fucking do. It's a world where someone like Dinadan couldn't be allowed to live. It's all trash, and if he were back there he'd burn it down himself.

He's been off for days, and everyone knows it. Laertes has been making him a dog nearly every night to grant him the mindlessness of it, but he's still a mess, and he doesn't have a smile that can properly cover for it.

So when he emerges late from his house with Szarka in tow, trying to muster up the energy to go look in on Fenyes and Baitiao, and sees a familiar figure in the garden, his first emotion is anger. It's another stupid trick.

But then Szarka bounds into the cabbages to begin licking Dinadan everywhere she can reach.

[rebecs_with_the_straps]

"Oh, hello, little girl, thou art so full of kisses today," says Dinadan, sing-song, scritching Szarka vigorously under both of her ears. "I see the drinks wrecked thee; happily, I'm perfectly well, except for the sun's too bright."

[sagramore]

"Thou art not real," Sagramore says stubbornly, but there's a smile playing on his lips. "Thou art a trick."

[rebecs_with_the_straps]

"Well, I think that's very rude." Szarka is now fully in his lap, kissing his beard, and Dinadan just buries his face in her soft fur. "If this dog were any less fully on top of me, I'd walk off in a huff."

[bymyheelies]

Mercutio is all in favor of touching things he shouldn’t. But this is a new face, at least to him; and he supposes he should at least welcome him. His demeanor is —not entirely sunny, but he’s making an attempt, at least.

“Ho there! Art newly arrived?”

[rebecs_with_the_straps]

"New enough," says Dinadan. "I arrived just yesterday. Dinadan, at your service, so long as your service isn't particularly boring or taxing."

[bymyheelies]

"Boring," he says with some distaste, in mock-offense. "Wouldst call me such? I am wounded, sir."

[rebecs_with_the_straps]

"I? Never! I can see you're a man of many and varied pastimes. Which include ..."

[vineleaves]

It has been several days since the visitors came and left, and several days since all of the vines in Dionysus’ garden died. As it is fast approaching winter, they were dormant for the season anyway, but he still doesn’t want them to just be dead.

This, at least, is something he can bring back to life.

He has finally trudged out of the mansion and down to his garden, wearing a warm cardigan (pastel rainbow stripes, if you must know) over his chiton, and is in the process of reviving the plants when he notices someone new.

“Hello!” he calls, waving.

[rebecs_with_the_straps]

"Well, this is a fine bit of magic--hello to you, too," says Dinadan as he approaches. "Do I have you to thank for my extremely timely resurrection?"

[vineleaves]

“Ah, not unless you’re somehow a cleverly disguised bunch of grapes,” he says. “I take it then you’ve recently passed away? Oh, where are my manners. I am Dionysus, god of Drama. And Wine,” he gestures to the vines with that last bit, as if it explains everything.

[rebecs_with_the_straps]

"Drama and wine? Sir, you've been blessed in your domains! My name is Dinadan, and I'm delighted to meet you." He bows--a shade more deeply than he'd bow to any other stranger, although his easy smile softens the formality. "Are you a guest here, as well?"

[biteybaby]

It has been hard for Sunny to feel like playing lately. Out of boredom though she is making an attempt, sitting in her room and spelling words out with her blocks (a phrase which here means, "finding the letters she knows already, sitting that block by itself, and deciding she spelled a word that has that letter in it") when she hears a noise outside.

Again.

She stills in her room for a moment, then deciding that it very definitively cannot be Count Olaf for a number of reasons, including but not limited to: suffocation, sci-fi gunshot wounds, lightning, and lack of hands, she gets up to go see what the noise is.

Minutes later she is running out her front door, grinning, all the way over to her garden to tackle Dindin in a big, giant hug.

"Dindin!"

[rebecs_with_the_straps]

"Sunny! My favorite little girl!" Dinadan lets the force of the hug bowl him over, gathering her up to his chest. "I seem to have ruined thy cabbages again; I'm sorry, and it will happen again."

[biteybaby]

Finally some good news! “Thought you leaved? You come back to live with me?”

[rebecs_with_the_straps]

"I don't think there's room for me to live with thee, darling--but I'll live at the big house, and thou canst visit me there whenever thou likest."