onthewillowsthere: (look down)
[personal profile] 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]

Date: 2024-07-27 11:52 pm (UTC)
quote_gentle_unquote: (04. easy they come)
From: [personal profile] quote_gentle_unquote
It's strange and uncomfortable to consider how things might be even worse, so Susan sets that thought aside. "What other questions ought we ask?"

Date: 2024-07-29 03:46 am (UTC)
quote_gentle_unquote: (94. i may need a chaperone)
From: [personal profile] quote_gentle_unquote
"Have you any memory of your change?" Susan asks, interested. "I had... I suppose, a queer dream, but that's it."

Date: 2024-07-29 06:09 pm (UTC)
quote_gentle_unquote: (46. need you like my whiskey)
From: [personal profile] quote_gentle_unquote
"The other Susan did make a mess of my clothes."

Date: 2024-07-30 03:54 am (UTC)
quote_gentle_unquote: (46. need you like my whiskey)
From: [personal profile] quote_gentle_unquote
"Rummaging through my closet, abandoning outfits in a heap at the foot of my bed..." She rolls her eyes. "I expect she was far too accustomed to ladies in waiting to consider tidying up after herself."

Date: 2024-07-30 08:17 pm (UTC)
quote_gentle_unquote: (74. i think i will sing myself to sleep)
From: [personal profile] quote_gentle_unquote
"I don't believe so. Regina just scolded me about how she was so clearly starving to death due to our profound negligence, but she does that on regular days, too."

Date: 2024-07-31 04:19 am (UTC)
quote_gentle_unquote: (31. oh you make me)
From: [personal profile] quote_gentle_unquote
"So did the ones in Narnia." Susan sighs, but it's a pleased sigh. She very much likes having a cat of her own.

Date: 2024-07-31 03:51 pm (UTC)
quote_gentle_unquote: (34. to fight back)
From: [personal profile] quote_gentle_unquote
"I've never had a pet before," Susan confesses. "We had hunting-dogs and castle cats in Narnia, and of course many courtiers were Talking Beasts, but Regina is the first who's been all mine." She pauses. "Would you like to visit with her?"

Date: 2024-08-05 03:36 am (UTC)
quote_gentle_unquote: (17. drag me down)
From: [personal profile] quote_gentle_unquote
Susan glances around at their assorted tasks. The notebook with ideas for their survey can be easily transported; the soil slides are all prepared, and she hasn't got anything truly pressing at the moment. "Shall we go now, or have you got anything to wrap up with your lovely beetle there?"

Date: 2024-08-05 04:52 pm (UTC)
quote_gentle_unquote: (57. when i stand next to you)
From: [personal profile] quote_gentle_unquote
Susan empties the contents of her satchel onto the work surface, arranging them neatly so she knows where to start when she comes back here, and then slips her field notebook inside. "Very well," she says. By now the route to her rooms must be rather familiar to Galahad. As they travel it, she says, "She's gotten bold enough recently to explore outside of the room, but I shan't bring her to the laboratory. Imagine if she should start trying to play with the specimens!"

Date: 2024-08-05 06:45 pm (UTC)
quote_gentle_unquote: (56. i can stand tall)
From: [personal profile] quote_gentle_unquote
"Is that so!" says Susan, impressed. "I should like to read the book where you found that." She pauses. "And I ought to keep her away from small pets, I suppose."

Date: 2024-08-05 11:06 pm (UTC)
quote_gentle_unquote: (41. i don't need your baggage)
From: [personal profile] quote_gentle_unquote
"Oh goodness, yes, the rabbits," says Susan. "And Nina's little ferret, too." She's not yet had a formal introduction, but of course she knows about her.

Date: 2024-08-06 12:07 am (UTC)
quote_gentle_unquote: (75. cuz i've been having nightmares)
From: [personal profile] quote_gentle_unquote
"Khitka," Susan repeats. They're at her door, she opens it slowly, carefully - Regina has developed a taste for trying to dart out if Susan or Lancelot aren't paying attention.

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onthewillowsthere: (Default)
Galahad son of Lancelot

April 2025

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