[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

[lightbearinglord]

"Did I?" He remembers warning Magnus about Luo Binghe, not for the first time, but of course nothing about Aornis.

[summerdude]

"And Sagramore. And -- I think maybe other people too." To Galahad, he shrugs. He has no idea why he can remember.

[onthewillowsthere]

He can't offer to protect Magnus, who is already stronger than he is. He can't do anything except tighten his arms around Magnus and hold onto him as if he could anchor him to safety.

[lightbearinglord]

For a breath, and then another, Lan Wangji has to sit with how much he hates that he can't remember. He inhales, exhales, and does it all again. "We knew there was something dangerous about her."

[summerdude]

"I think maybe it was just that she was... a mystery?" Magnus says, lifting his face a quarter-centimeter as he dredges his limited memory.

[onthewillowsthere]

"A mystery?"

[lightbearinglord]

Aornis is still a mystery now, but trying to recall how he once felt about her is impossible, like scrabbling at the smooth walls of a bottomless pit with no escape. Lan Wangji waits for Magnus' answer.

[summerdude]

"Like, an unknown quantity? I think..." Magnus frees up a hand to scratch his head. "Claudius maybe couldn't get a read on her?"

[onthewillowsthere]

"Claudius can read everyone."

[lightbearinglord]

That much is true. He knows that he and Claudius discussed her before their conversation in the kitchen, from the way the notes name her and name their path to what they had deduced about her. Claudius had his private notes, the descriptions of her behavior and appearance. He can't remember. He pushes aside the frustration. "That was before we discovered that she could take memories."

[summerdude]

"I think it was maybe a vibes thing still, right?" Magnus says. "And the stuff I found out that day, like, gave you extra pause or whatever, right?" He's really digging deep, trying as hard as he can to remember. "I think -- Galahad, I think you told me Claudius hadn't made up his mind about her yet because of the way he talked about her, and we thought that was maybe why Hanguang-jun and Sagramore and Shen Yuan kept warning me????"

[onthewillowsthere]

"I don't remember," Galahad says. He hates it, but there's nothing there. However, "Claudius didn't tell me everything before. He was trying to protect me by keeping things about her secret."

[lightbearinglord]

Lan Wangji frowns, just barely, but when he thinks of Claudius, for whom information can be powerful and dangerous at once, who tried with a smile to step neatly past the story of how Luo Binghe deceived him into a kiss, he's not so surprised. He can understand that desire to shield Galahad from everything, wrapping him in protective safety. "We know better now." The more people who know of Aornis and the more people who trust each other with it, the less power she can wield.

[summerdude]

"Yeah," says Magnus. Since his hand is free now, he scratches the back of his neck again.

[onthewillowsthere]

"Should we write each other notes too?"

[lightbearinglord]

"Yes," Lan Wangji says. "Every piece of evidence that she cannot steal keeps us safer."

[summerdude]

Magnus disentangles himself and goes over to the wall of board games and takes the little notekeeping pads of paper and pencils from Cluedo 2145. "Okay," he says, passing them out. "Notes."

[onthewillowsthere]

Galahad takes the stubby pencil and writes, in his usual neat Latin, If you forget me: you are my best friend Magnus Chase. You are from Boston. You love Alex Fierro. You are not a Fighting Guy any more. / There is a woman here named Aornis who has the power to take memories and make things happen coincidentally. Be slow and careful. If there is a coincidence too uncanny to believe, move away from it. Don't pursue it. Take your refuge in certainties, not in slim hopes. / There is a picture of her in my sketchbook from Dionysus's party. If you need to remember what she looks like, you can look there.

And then a second note: If you forget me: you are my teacher and my friend Lan Wangji. You are from Gusu. You love Wei Wuxian. You taught me about the ten thousand things. The rest of the note is a copy of Magnus'.

[lightbearinglord]

"Thank you," Lan Wangji says to Magnus, politely accepting the pencil and pad of paper. He sets them aside and then proceeds to do as he was already intending to do before he was diverted by Magnus' distress: he pulls that side table closer to himself, fetches his things from his qiankun pouch, sets those things out neatly, and grinds ink until he has a sufficient amount for writing his own notes.

Magnus-- If the name Lan Wangji is no longer familiar to you, trust that you have this paper for a reason. You have called me like a father to you. If you do not know me, Galahad or Claudius may. If not, both have their own notes from me. We are circling an enemy named Aornis who can sense it when her name is spoken and steal memories as she pleases. Be careful and find me.

As for a second note, he writes, Galahad-- If the name Lan Wangji is no longer familiar to you, trust that you have this paper for a reason. I am your teacher. If you do not know me, Magnus or Claudius may. If not, both have their own notes from me. We are circling an enemy named Aornis who can sense it when her name is spoken and steal memories as she pleases. Be careful and find me.

He signs both 含光君.

[summerdude]

Magnus, meanwhile, thinks for a minute, then scrawls, Hi Galahad! I'm Magnus. I'm your best friend forever and also we're, like, basically family. I live in the camp in the woods and I grew you your church. Your favorite flavor is red and you like it best in Mountain Dew Code Red. If we forget each other, find me and tell me we should try some sodas together and I think we'll remember everything. If that doesn't work, just know I love you and we'll figure it out some other way. And avoid Aornis. She did this to us. Xoxoxoxo, Magnus.

On another piece, he writes, Hanguang-jun, I know you hate when your memory is messed with but if you're reading this and don't know who I am it's happened again. I'm Magnus. You're teaching me how to cook and meditate and like a stuff. You mean a lot to me so find me at my camp in the woods and ask me to talk, okay? We'll figure it out. A woman named Aornis did it to us by the way, so keep an eye out for her. I have a pretty good memory though so I think we'll be okay. Your s disciple friend, Magnus.

[onthewillowsthere]

Once the notes are exchanged, Galahad carefully puts his two in the messenger bag where he keeps his things. Whether or not they use the notes, there's a comforting safety in having them.

[lightbearinglord]

Lan Wangji folds his and stows them neatly. He proceeds, then, to begin writing on a fresh sheet of xuan paper: On the screen in the game room, it is possible to see moving images of Aornis speaking with Laertes. They prove her existence.

[summerdude]

Magnus shoves his notes in his back pocket. He'll put them in his -- or maybe in Alex's -- cooler back at the camp when he goes home for the evening.

[onthewillowsthere]

"What next?" he asks, when the notes are all written and tucked away. At the same time he signs Thank you to Shen Yuan's soul, which he expects is still in the room with them, and then puts his hand out palm-up, an invitation for a touch he doesn't expect to be able to feel.

[lightbearinglord]

"We need to remember where to find this." Lan Wangji nods toward the screen. He is copying that same set of words onto a second sheet of paper with the ease of someone who has copied thousands of the same lines again and again throughout his life.