[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]

It makes sense, given the ways God has disappointed them both, that there would be futures in which He left them to suffer instead of keeping His promises. Galahad nods.

[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?"

[onthewillowsthere]

"What about a companion survey for the experience of having changed? Whether a person remembers what happened while they were different, whether the linearity was affected."

[quote_gentle_unquote]

"Have you any memory of your change?" Susan asks, interested. "I had... I suppose, a queer dream, but that's it."

[onthewillowsthere]

"I don't remember. It feels as if I slept all day." He could tell that time passed, but not what was in it.

[quote_gentle_unquote]

"The other Susan did make a mess of my clothes."

[onthewillowsthere]

"How?"

[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."

[onthewillowsthere]

"Did she bother Regina?"

[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."

[onthewillowsthere]

"The castle cats did that too." He actually smiles.

[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.

[onthewillowsthere]

"I always wanted a kitten when I lived in the nunnery," he admits. Magnus is the only other person he's told this to. "I used to pray for one."

[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?"

[onthewillowsthere]

"Yes, please."

[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?"

[onthewillowsthere]

The beetle is dead, so there's no need to return it to its habitat. He moves the slide from the mount and carefully places the beetle in a little plastic cup with a lid, so it won't be lost or crushed, and puts the lens cap back on the microscope. Then he collects his sword and sketchbook. "I'm ready."

[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!"

[onthewillowsthere]

"The saliva of cats is toxic due to its bacterial load," says Galahad, who has been reading. "Even non-fatal injuries from a cat can lead to death in animals such as small birds, reptiles, or mammals."

[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."

[onthewillowsthere]

"Like the rabbits," helpfully. "I'll bring you the book tomorrow."

[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.

[onthewillowsthere]

"Khitka."

[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.

[onthewillowsthere]

Galahad is attentive, though -- he wants very much to meet Regina, and when he sees her nose at the door, dark and inquisitive, his eyes widen slightly.

"Hello, Regina," he says.