[closed post -- heraldry]

[onthewillowsthere]

It took another few meetings with Grantaire before Galahad was satisfied with the colors and able to reproduce them himself, especially now that his time is taken up with training with Lan Wangji. Every moment he's not with Magnus or Claudius he's in the parlor meditating, at the wood edge lifting stones, or watching Lan Wangji practice sword forms. His balance is improving steadily from pure repetition. He's assigned himself to every exercise with the kind of singular focus he always used to give to God's commandments, and if he's not exactly happy he at least has the comfort of knowing that, however slowly, he's getting stronger.

That evening he showed Claudius the finished heraldry, after they were back in their room together, and Claudius was silent for several long moments before he said, "Well," and the back of his neck flushed, and everything he had to say after that mattered, but by then Galahad already knew it was what he'd wanted.

So now he's looking for Janet. He's wearing his red velvet pinafore and his sword belted on as usual, and he has his sketchbook in his arms.

Comments

[onthewillowsthere]

"If a person who was not a woman had a tattoo there, would people also think it wanton?"

[sorrowandsorrow]

"Hm." Janet gives Galahad a good, hard look. Eliot's voice floats unbidden into her brain, whispering twink, twink, twink. Yeah, she can see Imaginary Eliot's point with zero effort. Put Galahad in a mesh top, booty shorts, and body glitter, and he could walk into the club and get eaten alive. "For you? Yep, I think so."

[onthewillowsthere]

"That is where I would like it," Galahad says, with finality. No one would see it except Claudius, and he would like Claudius to think him wanton.

[sorrowandsorrow]

"Oh my God," Janet says, but: "Okay. Do you want a tattoo of something specific? Don't say a dolphin or a rose."

[onthewillowsthere]

"I have it." He puts the sketchbook down on the table and begins flipping through it to the finished heraldry. Lately, there are more pictures of Susan in it, because he's been spending time with her, and he likes drawing the people he's around. There are, however, still plenty of rather deshabille drawings of Claudius to get through.

[sorrowandsorrow]

Galahad's got it bad for a guy who always seems like he's half a minute away from trying to sell you an extended warranty for something. Whatever; Janet's used to it from living through Eliot's ongoing parade of shitty boyfriends. When he gets to the heraldry, she leans forward a little to examine it. "That's bigger than your typical tramp stamp," she points out. "You still want it there? If I make it too small, it might not age well."

[onthewillowsthere]

"It can be big."

[sorrowandsorrow]

"How big is big?" Janet presses. She's going to have to do some research to make sure she doesn't fuck this up and turn Galahad's back into skin ribbons. She wants a good idea of what she'll be working with.

[onthewillowsthere]

He blinks at her. "How big should it be?"

[sorrowandsorrow]

"Smaller than the size of your back, ideally," she says dryly. "Otherwise, as big as you want. I think. I'll have to do some reading before we do this, by the way."

[onthewillowsthere]

"I will make a measurement. Thank you."

[sorrowandsorrow]

"No problem." She studies the drawing for a second. "Can I keep this? Or get another copy?"

[onthewillowsthere]

"You may keep it." It's not the only one.

[sorrowandsorrow]

"Great." Neatly, with the efficiency of a woman who once took the lead in every group project at boarding school, Janet tears the heraldry out of Galahad's sketchbook. "I'm not an artist, and I've never actually done this before. I don't want to fuck it up, but I still might. Maybe I should have you sign a consent form to that effect."

[onthewillowsthere]

"Do you need to be? How does the magic work?" genuinely curious.

[sorrowandsorrow]

"I shouldn't have to be. It's still physical magic." Thankfully, and maybe a little bit technically. "This is a pretty complex design, though -- I have to figure out which language to use to describe it, adjust for the stupid, sideways Circumstances here, et cetera. It's basically a matter of bending the ambient magic to my will, but it has to actually listen to me and do what I want it to do. Sometimes that requires props."

[onthewillowsthere]

"If I can help, I will." Since it's a favor she's doing his, in essence: it's not as if he can pay.

[sorrowandsorrow]

"I'll let you know." Janet folds the sketchbook page into crisp fourths and slips it into a back pocket of her jeans. "You have a deadline?"

[onthewillowsthere]

"I would prefer sooner," very faintly wry.

[sorrowandsorrow]

"Well, great news: you're my first client, so my books are wide open." She leans back in her chair again.

[onthewillowsthere]

Galahad waits for a few minutes, just in case she has something else to say, before he changes the subject. "I also have a question."

[sorrowandsorrow]

Janet is immediately wary. She's also immediately very, very curious. "Okay, shoot."

[onthewillowsthere]

"Can you turn someone into a cat?"

[sorrowandsorrow]

Janet had a couple of shot in the dark guesses about his question, like maybe the Holy Grail kid was about to start quizzing her about Jell-O shots or spring break in the Keys or tattoo sleeves. This was not on her list. She plays it off pretty well, all things considered. "I probably could," she says, "with some extra research and effort. In school, I got turned into a goose to fly to Antarctica."

[onthewillowsthere]

"I want to visit Mothwing in her den," he explains.