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holdmecloser-gandydancer · 3 years

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“Did you get in a fight with a bear? Just say yes.” with Magnus?

From this prompt list! Still accepting!

Magnus is not the most experienced or qualified counselor that Camp Goodfriend has ever seen, but nobody can deny he’s the most enthusiastic and, surprisingly, one of the most patient. that's not to say his coworkers aren’t capable or compassionate, but most people have limits. The large sign Lup hung on her door proclaiming no visitors in her cabin unless someone is dying or missing makes this pretty clear.

“Gotta have my me-time, ya little weasels,” she had said to the gaggle of kids pouting outside her cabin door on the day the sign went up. “Besides, if you need something, I know Magnus will be more than happy to help you out!”

And it’s true. Magnus is known for, quite literally, dropping whatever he’s doing to help out. He’s spent many an afternoon carting kids to the med cabin to get help for their skinned knees, buttering up Taako to get some extra snacks for kids, tracking down stamps for postcards home, and being a listening ear to anyone who needs it. However, this was not a mantle he was given immediately. In fact, it’s one he’s had to fight hard for.

Magnus realizes that he can appear intimidating at first but failed to realize that tiny kids would all but cower in fear at the sight of him. He gets it, he supposes. Big, burly guy with his fair share of scars from old hobbies, jobs, and teenage troublemaking? It can be a lot to parse especially when you’re ten and still figuring out how to exist in the world.

In his time, though, Magnus has figured out a workaround for this. See, kids love a good story. So anytime he catches a kid staring at him, sizing him up, and trying to decide if he’s a good dude, he launches into a wildly fanciful story about how he got a particular scrape.

The night that everyone at camp remembers most, though, is when Magnus tells the tale of I’Morko.

The first big bonfire night, a few kids are just sitting, watching Magnus. He’s fairly certain that they’re checking out his admittedly gnarly scar near his eye. (Old woodworking accident. He should use this as a PSA to always wear protective gear when working with power tools but the camp’s already got a buzzkill counselor).

“I ever tell ya how I got this scar?” Magnus asks the kids as he spears a couple of marshmallows before sticking them directly in the heart of the fire. They catch immediately and he quickly blows out these tiny infernos.

They all shake their heads mutely.

“Well, it’s really funny, I actually –“

“Did you get in a fight with a bear?” the youngest one, a little firecracker of a boy with hair to match, blurts out suddenly. “Please say yes,” he adds breathlessly, a little more self-conscious after his outburst.

Magnus pauses for a moment before breaking into a massive grin. He eats a charred marshmallow before nodding. “Actually, yeah.”

The kids look at him as though he’s telling them that he’s Santa Claus. Their eyes are as wide as dinner plates and they’re slack-jawed.

“Why’d you fight a bear, mister Magnus?” another one asks.

“Oh, it’s your classic bear fighting story. This bear, I’Morko, as he likes to be called, came through camp a few years ago and was trying to snag a camper! He snuck into camp and gnashed his teeth and swiped his claws at some tents and roared this terrible roar. Loudest thing I’ve ever heard,” Magnus sees these kids shaking like the last leaves clinging to a tree in fall and decides that he may have gone a bit too far. “Buuuuuuut, there was no need to worry! I saw him trying to carry some kids off and I rushed in to fight him. I had a walking stick on me and I just started whacking him. He got a couple good blows in,” he points to his scar for a moment. “But I came out on top. And now, I’Morko and I are like old pals.”

“Wait, now you’re friends with the bear that tried to take a camper?” a young, skeptical girl asks.

“Um. Yes. Yeah. I am. Because I uh….” Magnus thinks for a moment. “I learned how to really protect people from fighting him and he respected me for not really hurting him. Also, I just dig bears.”

At this point, half the campers surround Magnus and are looking at him like he personally planted every tree in the forest.

“Wait!” a young boy exclaims, his hand shooting straight into the air.

“Yeah?” Magnus asks as he finishes his other marshmallow.

“How’d you know his name is I’Morko?”

A grin crosses Magnus’s face. “Oh, my little dude, I’m cosmically not allowed to tell other people the secrets of the trade.”

The young boy looks disappointed and embarrassed for a moment.

“But, I’m a bit of a rule-breaker myself,” Magnus adds happily before he begins launching into a spiel about the very careful way he learned to speak and read bear.

#camp counselor magnus is something that is so important to me #also i have another v similar prompt sitting in my inbox and i promise I'm going to get to it just as soon as i can!#magnus burnsides #taz #taz balance #tazb #the adventure zone #reese writes #prompt fill #thanks for the request gab you're too kind!!

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