[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 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."

[onthewillowsthere]

He tucks his impossible smile into Magnus' shoulder. "It's so good."

[summerdude]

"Good," Magnus says, deeply heartfelt. "Okay. What's number two?"

[onthewillowsthere]

"Number two is it's easy to tell someone else what to do. You should ask Alex." He remembers this is something Magnus talked about wanting, back when they first talked about what sex might be like.

[summerdude]

Magnus immediately flushes. "Yeah," he says. "Yeah. Good. Okay. Good." He clears his throat. "Rating?"

[onthewillowsthere]

"Ten. Telling Claudius what to do is a ten."

[summerdude]

"Does he ever tell you what to do?" Magnus can't even begin to imagine wanting to do that with Alex.

[onthewillowsthere]

"He tells me what to do when I don't know. What I should do with my body, and what he likes. But he doesn't give me orders."

[summerdude]

"But you give him orders?"

[onthewillowsthere]

He nods; his mouth still doesn't want to stop smiling. He thinks of Claudius worshiping him and he feels as giddy and happy as he's ever felt, unable to be serious -- he's embarrassed and proud and warm and overwhelmed, and he can't imagine letting anyone but Magnus know about these things.

[summerdude]

Magnus pokes the corner of Galahad's smile, thrilled after his evil twin -- who wasn't that bad; he was just so depressing. Magnus is so glad Galahad is Choice Guy now?

"I'm so glad you're Choice Guy now," he tells Galahad, because there's no reason to keep that thought to himself, and then, "I think maybe Alex should tell me what to do and what to do. You know?"

[onthewillowsthere]

"I like being Choice Guy," Galahad says immediately. "Yes. You should ask."

[summerdude]

"Okay, I'll ask." Magnus's cheeks feel even hotter than Muspellheim! "What's number three?"

[onthewillowsthere]

"You can't do everything on the same day. After a while your body will stop working. But you can still touch each other after that happens." He considers. "It might be different for Alex."

[summerdude]

"It might be different for both of us," Magnus says. He can jerk off a lot. Or, like, he could when he was actively jerking off a lot. He doesn't know whether that's a sixteen-year-old body thing or an einherjar stamina thing.

[onthewillowsthere]

"That's not fair," Galahad informs him.