Introducing Benvolio

[keep_the_peace]

Waking up in a strange bedroom, in a strange house, was bad enough, but then when Benvolio finally made his way to the front door he was greeted by snow outside. Summer might be coming to an end, but it definitely is not snow weather yet, nor is Benvolio dressed for such, in his black silk doublet, black and blue trimmed trunk hose, and black stockings. He does have shoes on, thankfully, though he can't imagine how he would have fallen asleep wearing shoes. It's not like he's had much opportunity to celebrate to the point of blacking out lately, after all.

Regardless, he takes one look at the snow outside and decides to shut the door and instead turn his attention to the table covered in different pamphlets and papers. He has many questions.

Comments

[summerdude]

If and when the newcomer finds a coat and makes it outside, he will see two figures wrestling in the snow, in the wreckage of a once-grand snow fort, to which a considerable amount of waste has been recently laid. The freshly-falling snow is softening the edges of what surely must have been an epic battle, but the wrestling figures are knocking that new snow down, packing it into the ground.

One of those figures, it must be said, is a griffin, almost fully grown, screeching as she swipes her talons into the drifts. Anyone who can speak animal will understand she's yelling baby kill!! kill mama!!! fake kill!!!! The other, a sixteen-year-old twenty-six-year-old, is shouting with laughter.

[keep_the_peace]

It’s a couple of days later before Benvolio finally gets bored enough of being inside to brave the snow, but he is out on a walk, bundled up in modern clothes Mercutio helped him find (sorry, Kade) when he comes across… what appears to be a beast of some kind attacking a kid maybe a little younger than himself. This is, of course, wrong on multiple fronts, but he at least figures out that the “kid” isn’t actually in danger before he gets too close. He also realizes that the beast must be a griffin? He knows what those look like, and that’s definitely one of them. More evidence for this place being from one of Mercutio’s stories, after all.

No luck realizing Magnus isn’t actually younger than him though.

“I’m not sure this is an even match,” he says with a grin as he approaches. “Thou needest more claws.”

[summerdude]

"It's okay, she knows my baby sister will avenge me if she does too much damage," Magnus says, swiping a glittering arc of powdery snow at Dro's face; she snaps at it with her beak, and he takes advantage of the pause to clamber up from the ground. If the newcomer is paying close attention, he'll notice that no snow is sticking to Magnus's hair or hoodie... and that the hoodie doesn't seem thick enough to serve as a winter coat.

Magnus sizes the newcomer up with a quick glance. "New guy, right? Mercutio's friend? Dad and Uncle D both said we got another one... I'm Magnus. And this is Her Most Gracious Majesty and Royal Betaloned Beakiness, Eminently Glorious Princess Drosera Dinosaur Hungry Baby Kitty McBirdface Magnahad the Fluffy-Pawed of Shed Kingdom, First of her Name and Cutest in all the Worlds, Terror of the Snows, Who Is a Good and Big Girl Who Behaves In Weddings Now And A Friend To Other Babies. Even When She's A Bad Baby Teenager And Decimating The Fish Population. But you can call her Dro for short."

[keep_the_peace]

Well, a name like that clearly needs only the most deep of bows as a greeting. "'Tis truly an honor, your majesty, to be in the presence of one so great," he says, completely straight-faced, before turning back to Magnus. "Mercutio mentioned thee, I am pleased to finally meet thee. He said thou wert fun to hang out with," he grins.

[summerdude]

Drosera trills her approval, moving in to head-butt the new guy in greeting; Magnus quickly inserts himself between the two of them and takes her beak straight on his shin. He doesn't stagger, so it may look like she wasn't using a lot of strength in that head-butt... but she sure was. "Nice of him," he comments, stroking a hand over the feathers on the top of Dro's head. "Let me guess: this is your first time outside since you got here?"

[keep_the_peace]

"Ay. I did not wish to face the cold."

[summerdude]

"Yeah, that makes sense," Magnus says, stretching... and clocking the mischief in Drosera's eyes. "Dro, go catch some fish for dinner, okay? We can give some to Mothwing and Angus."

angus!!!!!!!!!! Drosera shrieks, and she lopes off toward the sea, shaking snow off her feathers and fur as she runs.

"Angus," Magnus tells the new guy, "is this total dickhead of a tomcat, but Dro has the biggest crush on him." He adds, in stage-whisper, "I keep waiting for her to outgrow it."

[keep_the_peace]

Thankfully for Benvolio, the mansion translator takes pity and translates crush into something that makes sense in context, rather than a direct translation of the word itself, and he laughs. "Unless this tomcat is unlike any I have seen, it would seem Dro has already outgrown him by size, so hopefully the infatuation shall follow. What doth the cat do that is so offensive?"

[summerdude]

"Just... extreme frat bro vibes," Magnus says. "He's a womanizer and thinks he's, like, cock of the walk or something." He pauses. "I guess he's not that bad, but he's definitely not into fathering his children."

[keep_the_peace]

There's a few words in there Benvolio does not know, but he gets the gist close enough, he thinks. "I have known many people like that," he says, as if they aren't talking about a cat. "'Tis best to keep thy child away from such a man."

[summerdude]

"He's, like, mostly harmless in this situation, because -- as you said -- a griffin is a lot bigger than a cat, and she just has a kiddy kind of crush on him, but... at least he was a decent babysitter before she got too old for that."

[keep_the_peace]

Mercutio said something about Magnus being a demigod, right? Demigods probably have magic powers, right? "This may be foolish to ask, but forgive me, canst thou speak with this cat?" Because he's certainly acting like he has full on conversations with it.

[summerdude]

"Huh? Oh, yeah. Any animal, actually, but I only have, like, telepathy with fish."

[keep_the_peace]

"Telepathy?"

[summerdude]

"Well, not true telepathy. I can't read all their thoughts or anything. I can mostly just figure out what they're feeling."

[keep_the_peace]

"Have they... many troubles?" He never considered the feelings of fish before.

[summerdude]

"Only if you take away their water," Magnus says. "Or if Dro decides to take a swim, I guess."

[keep_the_peace]

He laughs. "'Tis easy to see why those issues would be troublesome."

[summerdude]

"Yeah. Like, not to quote the Lorax, but it does seem to suck to be a fish out of water on hot dry land."

[keep_the_peace]

"What is the Lorax?"

[summerdude]

"Oh! He's this guy from a book and a cartoon. Kind of a weird orange creature? His whole thing is he speaks for the trees." Magnus is still lowkey annoyed that he can't speak to trees himself.

[keep_the_peace]

Ah, some sort of fae from a story then. "As well as the fish, it seems."

[summerdude]

"Well, in the movie, they can sing." Magnus pauses, something occurring to him. "Wait. Has anyone told you about movies yet?"

[keep_the_peace]

"I am afraid not."

[summerdude]

"Okay, it's short for moving picture," probably. "They're stories that you can watch, kinda like a play, but they're put on a screen and you can watch the exact same thing again and again. It has moving pictures and also sounds."