[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]

Galahad hasn't met Mercutio, but he knows everyone else on Kade's list. "What makes us the same?"

[kadewest]

"Well, what do you think?"

[onthewillowsthere]

"We are young."

[kadewest]

"Sure," says Kade easily. "That's one similarity."

[onthewillowsthere]

Galahad considers. "We have not been treated justly by our gods."

[kadewest]

"Oooh," says Kade. "I like that descriptor. What do you mean by it? I'm interested to see if it's what I might call Door-touched."

[onthewillowsthere]

"We were intended for something, and our lives were bent around it. Or we suffered."

[kadewest]

"Intended," says Kade, "or selected?"

[onthewillowsthere]

"Chosen."

[kadewest]

Kade nods slowly. "Door-touched."

[onthewillowsthere]

"Can a person be Door-touched without going through a Door?"

[kadewest]

"Oh, sure. Cora went through a patch of seaweed." Kade pauses. "Maybe you didn't all go to other Worlds before you came here--though I know for a fact some did," though, to be fair, Susan doesn't precisely have what he'd call student vibes, and neither does Janet or Shen Yuan, "but you did all come here. A more... protracted selection."

[onthewillowsthere]

"Do you think, if we came through a Door, that we'll have to go back? Like your students."

[kadewest]

"No," says Kade, after a moment of reflection. "Every single one of my students back home had to go back, but there's just as many people who go to Worlds and don't ever return. I know of at least ten that never get return Doors, and at least three that have only ever had one person leave, out of the dozens-to-hundreds of people who entered." He pauses. "In a way, this is a unique opportunity to get another look at a World that's likely just a World-to." He pauses again. "Though I guess it is possible that some people might return."

[onthewillowsthere]

"Do you think we'll have a choice?"

[kadewest]

"I don't know. I like to think yes, since Worlds-to generally don't just expel residents unasked, but..." Kade tilts his head. "I haven't seen Annie in a while, but we weren't close enough that I would expect her to tell me if she was given a choice whether to go home."

[onthewillowsthere]

"I don't want to. If there is a choice, I want to stay."

[kadewest]

"Then if there's a choice, you will." Kade pauses, tilts his head, regards Galahad for a long moment. "I know it's an unsatisfying answer. I'm sorry. The best assurance I can offer is a look at my notes about the Worlds Compass and how the Doors work, if you'd like to see 'em."

[onthewillowsthere]

"If it's true, then it doesn't matter whether it's unsatisfactory." He pauses. "I would like that."

[kadewest]

"Come by my room anytime and I'll let you read the notebook," Kade says—he doesn't have it on hand. "Or I can bring it by whenever."

[onthewillowsthere]

"I will. Thank you. "

[kadewest]

"No problem," warmly. He slaps a hand to his knee. "Right, well, I can let you get back to it if you want."

[onthewillowsthere]

"Thank you. I have more to do."

[kadewest]

"I look forward to hearing about your findings," says Kade, with a queasy look at all the bugs around the room. "From a safe distance away."