onthewillowsthere: (look down)
Galahad son of Lancelot ([personal profile] onthewillowsthere) wrote2024-07-07 11:17 pm

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

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]
summerdude: official art from rick riordan's webpage (Default)

[personal profile] summerdude 2024-07-30 01:52 am (UTC)(link)
"This is the people's game," Magnus says, peaceably. He doesn't see Shen Yuan, who art in the room with them, trying to get in the way of Hanguang-jun playing!
lightbearinglord: (yunmeng)

[personal profile] lightbearinglord 2024-07-30 03:12 am (UTC)(link)
An extended moment passes. Galahad's bottle does not move.

"Very well," Lan Wangji says, mildly wary.
summerdude: official art from rick riordan's webpage (Default)

[personal profile] summerdude 2024-07-30 03:39 am (UTC)(link)
"Okay," Magnus says. "Come here, take this controller." He hold his out to Hanguang-jun. "Galahad, can you explain the buttons?" It's probably easier for an older-timey guy to explain that to another older-timey guy.
lightbearinglord: (over the shoulder)

[personal profile] lightbearinglord 2024-07-31 03:46 pm (UTC)(link)
Almost visibly dubious, Lan Wangji accepts the object Magnus has offered him. The controller. In his hands, it looks and feels small and flimsy. He has several questions already, but he keeps them to himself for now and only nods, copying Galahad.
summerdude: official art from rick riordan's webpage (Default)

[personal profile] summerdude 2024-07-31 04:10 pm (UTC)(link)
"Okay," says Magnus. "Basically you just mash everything until it does what you want it to do." This is his method and it almost sometimes works! "But first you gotta pick a character to play as."
lightbearinglord: (curtain)

[personal profile] lightbearinglord 2024-07-31 06:15 pm (UTC)(link)
"What characters are these?" Slightly suspicious, he presses a button, the one that is labelled with the letter A.
summerdude: official art from rick riordan's webpage (Default)

[personal profile] summerdude 2024-08-01 04:37 am (UTC)(link)
"They're varied," Magnus says, as if this is a complete explanation. "I usually play Peach, but sometimes I pick Pichu to mess with Shen Yuan."
lightbearinglord: (excuse me?)

[personal profile] lightbearinglord 2024-08-01 02:49 pm (UTC)(link)
This is very much the blank expression of someone whose greatest weakness at this moment is that he barely understands half of what is being said to him. He frowns down at the controller. Hoping that if he is patient, one of them will explain this in a way that makes any sense, he says nothing and waits.
summerdude: official art from rick riordan's webpage (Default)

[personal profile] summerdude 2024-08-01 05:10 pm (UTC)(link)
Magnus takes a long look at Lan Wangji's face, and then tucks himself against his side. "Your character is going to move around on that screen," he says, pointing. "Based on which buttons you push. The point is to beat the other character."
lightbearinglord: (ethereal)

[personal profile] lightbearinglord 2024-08-02 04:52 pm (UTC)(link)
Relieved, Lan Wangji passes the controller he is holding back to Magnus. "Thank you."
summerdude: official art from rick riordan's webpage (Default)

[personal profile] summerdude 2024-08-03 06:33 am (UTC)(link)
"Okay," Magnus says, navigating to the character selection screen. "You tell me who looks the most interesting to you, and I'll play as them against Galahad. And I'll probably lose, but at least you'll get a sense of how it works."
lightbearinglord: (grim profile)

[personal profile] lightbearinglord 2024-08-03 04:01 pm (UTC)(link)
Lan Wangji examines the screen. The characters arrayed on it are not the easiest to distinguish; somehow, the visual is even less distinct than it was on the images of Aornis1. As Magnus moves through the possibilities, each character appearing in greater detail on the bottom of the screen in turn, he says, "That one." The name displayed is Marth. Importantly, the person depicted is dressed in blue and appears to have a sword.

1Local man doesn't know about pixels or polygons.
summerdude: official art from rick riordan's webpage (Default)

[personal profile] summerdude 2024-08-03 04:17 pm (UTC)(link)
"Cool," Magnus says, selecting him. He's never played Marth before! "Okay, so watch to see what we do. I'm playing your guy, but Galahad is better than me, so you should watch both of us." Then he hits start.
lightbearinglord: (over the shoulder)

[personal profile] lightbearinglord 2024-08-03 05:20 pm (UTC)(link)
Lan Wangji watches as closely as he can, although it isn't too long before he discovers an irritating feature of this game: the action takes place on the screen, but it is impossible to determine how that action comes into being without looking at Magnus and Galahad's hands. The disconnect between the buttons and their onscreen consequences makes it complicated to follow or to glean overmuch about the principles or any tactics.
summerdude: official art from rick riordan's webpage (Default)

[personal profile] summerdude 2024-08-03 09:20 pm (UTC)(link)
Magnus, predictably, is doing terribly, so he passes his controller to Lan Wangji. "Okay," he says. "To start... wiggle this thing to move and try not to let Galahad, um, smash you immediately."
lightbearinglord: (dubious)

[personal profile] lightbearinglord 2024-08-05 03:34 am (UTC)(link)
Lan Wangji accepts the controller again and nods at Galahad, grateful for that little bit of understanding. He has at least picked up enough to understand how to put his thumb to the aforementioned thing and push it to one side. Onscreen, Marth proceeds to walk directly off the edge of the stage.
summerdude: fanart by cookiecreation (da) / cookiesketches (tumblr) (over the shoulder)

[personal profile] summerdude 2024-08-05 04:28 am (UTC)(link)
"Great job, Hanguang-jun," Magnus says. "Try wiggling it in different ways to get a hang of movement. When you're ready, you can try pressing all the other buttons... um, maybe one at a time?... to get a sense of what they do."

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