[open post -- winged and once-winged insects]

[onthewillowsthere]

Galahad has collected every insect guide he could find in the mansion's library, and now he is camped out in a laboratory it seems to have created particularly for him and Susan -- the room has its own microscope, so that he can stop borrowing Claudius', and every single shelf is filled with glass habitats or mesh tents for keeping insects.

With his single-minded determination, he has filled many of them -- the tents house carefully potted foot-high milkweeds with tiny butterfly eggs affixed to their leaves, or potato plants he hopes will soon harbor potato beetles, or butterflies resting on the mesh. In the glass habitats there are millipedes, gleaming tenebrionid beetles, huge and bumbling scarabs, the dogbane leaf beetle Lancelot helped him capture, shiny blister beetles, leafhoppers in every shade of green, a pair of picasso bugs, an mantis he found in the greenhouse pretending to be an orchid flower.

Many of these insects stay only long enough to be identified and documented. Galahad and Susan between them take careful notes, make drawings, take pictures. When possible, they identify to species; more often, they identify genera or family, country of origin if they're lucky. Then they let their subjects go again. Neither of them has the time nor the inclination to feed and care for the immense diversity of insects living on the mansion's grounds. Potato beetles are one thing, but catching other tiny insects for the tiger beetles every morning is unsustainable. Galahad doesn't mind. Once he has a picture and the notes, the insect is saved, even if they don't see it again.

In the morning he trains with Lan Wangji, so it's an afternoon now when he's perched on a stool in front of the microscope, inspecting a chlaenius beetle to see whether it's possible to confirm a species. Unfortunately, these beetles are too fast and squirmy to put on a slide alive, so he's ethered it first. Now he's working diligently on his sketch, his pale head bowed as he studies the tiny body.

[Open especially to anyone who needs to be reassured that Galahad is back after the mod event and he's just fine now]

Comments

[onthewillowsthere]

He lifts his sword and turns it backwards, slowly bringing the pommel down like a pestle crushing into a mortar, and gives her a this? look.

[ninth_cavalier]

"Kind of," says Gideon. "Here, take defensive stance for a sec, I'll show you what I mean. Without actually doing it, obviously, no need to call Magnus today."

[onthewillowsthere]

He does immediately (his form is perfect).

[ninth_cavalier]

"Option one, if you're fast." Gideon aims a blow at his blade, high left arcing downward, but swaps to one-handed at the last second, twirling her blade in an arc beyond her own shoulder and bringing the pommel around, slowing as she does so, so it bumps against the back of his hand.

She steps back again. "Option two, if you're nasty." She aims the same blow, but this time catching his blade and staying caught, steel sliding against steel until they're crossguard to crossguard, and then she twists, so that Galahad's hand is pinched between his grip and her pommel.

She steps back again. "You can also aim for elbows. Trochlea's thicker, harder to break, but it's easier to hit the nerve, make the hand numb."

[onthewillowsthere]

Her knowledge of the bones and how to break them fascinates them -- it reminds him of Claudius, who uses his hands to heal but can use them to hurt, too; who knows all the parts of the body. He doesn't want Gideon to open and examine him the way he fantasizes about Claudius doing, but he wants to learn the things she knows, to understand the scaffolding and skeleton of the house of his body better.

"Show me how to do that. You can hurt me."

[ninth_cavalier]

Gideon studies him for a minute, then shrugs. She won't insult him by asking if he's sure, and anyway, it's not like she'll hurt him that bad. She does this right, he'll feel it from his collarbone to the tips of his fingers—but not in a way that lasts too long. That's why she recommended breaking bones first. A good disarm, you really hope they can't pick the sword back up again.

She rocks back on her heels, throws herself forward as if attacking, and then side-steps and twists, slamming the flat of her blade against the medial epicondyle of Galahad's bent arm, just above the point of his elbow, where the ulnar nerve is closes to the skin. She pulls it a little—again, not trying to break bone—but not a lot.

[onthewillowsthere]

Galahad's arm goes numb, and the sword falls from his hands as his fingers become incapable of gripping it properly. He looks down with fascination at his arm hanging uselessly. The feeling isn't painful, but it's not good either. "It's the nerve? How long does it last?"

[ninth_cavalier]

Gideon shrugs. "Total numbness doesn't last long at all, unless I fucked you up more than I meant to. It'll start hurting as you get feeling and capability back, and be kinda tingly for, uh, probably a while."

[onthewillowsthere]

He nods. He's not bothered by the fact that he's been hurt: he asked for it, and even if he doesn't like pain it's essentially science. This move is a good one if someone must be disarmed, but you would prefer not to hurt them badly. "Will you teach me how to do it?"

[ninth_cavalier]

"Yep." Gideon circles around to his other side, reaching out to pinch him above the elbow on his left arm. "You can kind of feel it, right? Where the bone is, and then just above, the tendon and nerve?" She realizes he can't actually feel his own with his deadened hand, so she holds out her own elbow for him to feel. "You can feel it on me, too, even with all my sick gains, because the nerve kind of emerges from behind the muscle. That's where you wanna aim."

[onthewillowsthere]

He rubs his thumb against her muscles until he can pick out the tendon specifically, the way it's slightly stiffer than the muscle that surrounds it. "The goal is to strike it, and that will deaden the arm and hand?" he asks.

[ninth_cavalier]

"Yeah. You ever, like, hit your elbow on something, and it hurts way more than it should? This is like, the big version of that. It's gotta be pretty precise to actually deaden the arm, though. You wanna practice?" She looks around. "Maybe with a stick or something, so you don't slice me up."

[onthewillowsthere]

"Yes, please. It works with a stick?"

[ninth_cavalier]

"Not sure you can get the weight you need, but we can at least triangulate the aim." She doesn't anticipate it'll take much triangulation; Galahad's a pretty precise guy.

[onthewillowsthere]

"I understand." It takes him a moment to find a suitable stick, but once he does he comes back, holding it in his fist.

[ninth_cavalier]

Gideon takes her defensive stance, absolutely ready to be hit repeatedly with sticks. "Alright. Come at me, bro."

[onthewillowsthere]

She does indeed get hit repeatedly: Galahad is intently focused as he brings the butt of the stick down on her elbow over and over, changing the angle or placement ever so slightly, until he begins to hit the same spot consistently.

[ninth_cavalier]

"Ow," says Gideon. "Yep—ow." She catches the stick in a palm. "Okay, now we're gonna try when I'm not just standing around letting you aim. Y'wanna find me a stick, too?"

[onthewillowsthere]

He gives her a pleased look at having gotten it and spends several moments finding a suitable stick for her before returning.

[ninth_cavalier]

Meanwhile, Gideon's unstrapped the sword from her back and laid it by the side of the practice yard. When Galahad returns, she takes the stick from him and weighs it in her hand. "Nice," she says approvingly, and then takes her stance again. This time, when Galahad attacks, she'll defend, moving to block his blows so he can't go for the disarm. The idea is to force him to find new ways to hit the same spot.

[onthewillowsthere]

Galahad is relentless and purposeful -- what he lacks in finesse he makes up for in sheer determination. He comes at her again and again, adjusting minutely each time as he learns more about her and the way she defends.

[ninth_cavalier]

Gideon appreciates the dedication—but the minute adjustments aren't going to be enough to get through her defenses. "Half of cheating is just surprise," she says, deflecting a swing of his stick. "This isn't working because I know you're going for the disarm every time, and I know what kind of disarm. You gotta change it up, lull me into a false sense of security."

[onthewillowsthere]

"I'm not very good at surprises."

[ninth_cavalier]

Gideon considers this. "Well, it doesn't have to be a surprise to you, just a surprise to them. Sometimes a surprise is just a pattern the other guy doesn't know about."

[onthewillowsthere]

"Oh." He stares at her for a long moment, digesting that information. A surprise is just a pattern the other guy doesn't know about. "All right," finally. "I'm ready to begin again."