[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

[sorrowandsorrow]

You know what? That's actually a reasonable explanation. Especially if you used to be -- if you still are the queen in absentia of a fantasy kingdom populated by talking animals. Janet gets it. "It's not a pleasant transformation," she warns Galahad. "You feel like your bones are melting."

[onthewillowsthere]

"Does it hurt or does it feel strange?"

[sorrowandsorrow]

"It doesn't... technically hurt," Janet says, because that's true, "but it's strange in the bad way."

[onthewillowsthere]

"I understand. I still want to try." His voice and expression, as they have been all along, are serious -- he looks like he means it (which of course he does).

[sorrowandsorrow]

Janet never really doubted for a second that Galahad was serious, but she's catching on to just how serious. "Okay. It's going on the list." She pauses, then adds, "I assume you want the tattoo first? I have to do prepwork for both things."

[onthewillowsthere]

"Yes."

[sorrowandsorrow]

This is... a lot of changes to Galahad's body being put in her hands. They're strong hands that have done a lot of magic in her life, but Janet still flexes her fingers, crossing her arms over her chest. "Okay," she repeats. "No guarantees. If I'm not at least ninety-five percent sure I can do one of these without fucking you up, I'm not doing it. I don't need Claudius after me."

[onthewillowsthere]

"All right." This does seem fair, given how long it took Claudius to consider forgiving Lancelot. "Thank you very much."

[sorrowandsorrow]

"Don't thank me until I haven't accidentally turned you into a goat or given you a tattoo of a heart that says mom in it," Janet says lightly.

[onthewillowsthere]

"A goat would be suitable. Not a sheep."

[sorrowandsorrow]

"Ugh. I hate sheep. Don't worry about that one."

[onthewillowsthere]

"Then it's well."

[sorrowandsorrow]

The thought of turning Galahad into a miniature version of Ember or Umber is so gross. Janet forcibly wipes the image from her brain. "Just saying. I might still, I don't know, crook my pinky finger wrong and slice off your ear. Don't jinx it."

[onthewillowsthere]

"I have two."

[sorrowandsorrow]

Janet fully snorts, a completely undignified laugh. "Ears are like kidneys, huh?"

[onthewillowsthere]

"Can a cat manage with just one of either?"

[sorrowandsorrow]

"I'm not a vet, so take this with a grain of salt, but humans can live with one kidney, so... probably."<sup>1

1</sup>Yes, a cat can live with one kidney, but that does mean they're down to only about 100,000 nephrons total, so any renal disease, which tends to afflict about one-third of all cats, is going to progress quickly. Sorry! But also, you probably knew I would do this.

[onthewillowsthere]

"What does a kidney do?" he asks, suddenly very curious. He's never thought much about kidneys before.

[sorrowandsorrow]

Janet was a liberal arts student. Well, sort of -- she went to magic university instead of real university. But before that, she went to a pretentious boarding school in California. Biology class feels like it was five lifetimes ago. "I think it filters waste. I know it makes urine."

[onthewillowsthere]

"And a body has two but doesn't need them both?"

[sorrowandsorrow]

"Right. Nature goes for redundancy in case shit hits the fan. Like how you can live with one eye."

[onthewillowsthere]

"Or one ear, if you slice it off."

[sorrowandsorrow]

"Yep." She laughs. "I'm still going to try not to do that. Out of the goodness of my heart."

[onthewillowsthere]

"Christ would not reaffix it."

[sorrowandsorrow]

"Does he reaffix other body parts?" Janet's openly skeptical.