[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

[summerdude]

"Unicorn," Magnus says. "But, like, an Alex-unicorn, so she'll be extremely pro all the, um, mouth stuff and stuff."

[onthewillowsthere]

He turns and squeezes Magnus into a hug.

[summerdude]

Magnus squeezes back, hard. "I'm really glad you're you again."

[onthewillowsthere]

"Me too. I don't want to be him."

[summerdude]

"You won't ever be," Magnus says, confidently.

[onthewillowsthere]

"I love you," Galahad says, not moving from the hug.

[summerdude]

"I love you too," Magnus says, happily. "Hey, how big do you think Shen Yuan would want his dick to be?"

[onthewillowsthere]

He considers this seriously. "If it's too big, it would be hard for-- someone else to put in their mouth. So I think it's important for it not to be too big."

[summerdude]

"Great tip," Magnus says, thoughtfully. He's not imagining it. Well, okay, he's imagining it, but he's imagining Alex. "Yeah. Good."

[onthewillowsthere]

"Claudius says a person can become better at it with time and practice." But Luo Binghe doesn't seem like someone who's patient enough to practice.

[summerdude]

"I can't wait to start practicing," Magnus sighs, wistfully, and then flushes. He considers being embarrassed, but it's Galahad, so. It's fine.

[onthewillowsthere]

"Have you talked about it?"

[summerdude]

"Yeah," Magnus says. "We're talking about it. I'd say we're, like, in the ballpark of, like, committing to the nine." He sighs heavily. "Dude, it's so hard to, like, ummmmmmmmmmmmmmmm, like, um, like, you know, like jerk off, um, like, thinking about practicing when you live with your partner." In Valhalla they had separate rooms. Before Alex got here, too, it was just Magnus and his pornography. But now it feels weird to consider it.

[onthewillowsthere]

Galahad blinks. "You don't want to touch yourself in front of her?"

[summerdude]

"Oh, gods, do I ever," Magnus sighs. "I think about it all the time. But we're not, like, there yet."

[onthewillowsthere]

He waits, curiously. He knows it took a long time before he and Claudius were there -- although it was easier to watch Claudius touch himself even before he dared to touch him. But Magnus isn't afraid of God.

[summerdude]

"Soon, though. Maybe. Fingers crossed."

[onthewillowsthere]

"When you're ready, I'll show you want to do." It's what Shen Yuan would want.

[summerdude]

Magnus stares at him for a long moment, then cracks up. "Dude," he says, breathlessly, over gales of laughter.

[onthewillowsthere]

"I'm very wise now," smiling.

[summerdude]

"Yeah, yeah. You're a real wise guy," Magnus says, and then waggles his eyebrows at Galahad. "Okay. Top three tips with rankings, go."

[onthewillowsthere]

He flushes, but says determinedly, after a pause to collect his thoughts, "Tip one is that it's hard to use your tongue if you have all of... it in your mouth, so it's all right not to, because the tongue feels-- it's good. It's a ten."

[summerdude]

"So... use your tongue, not just your mouth?" This is crucial information!!! Most of the pornography Magnus has looked at is just pictures. It doesn't communicate movement very effectively.

[onthewillowsthere]

"Yes." The flush makes him look like he's feverish, and for some reason he can't stop smiling when he thinks about the specifics of using his mouth for the things he's explaining to Magnus.

[summerdude]

Magnus full-on grins. Maybe now isn't the right time to bundle Galahad into a hug -- when they're talking about sex and Galahad has his bug stuff going on -- but Magnus does, anyway. "Dude, I'm so glad you're so happy about it."