[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]

"Yes. Each of the buttons does something you need to be able to do to play the game." He touches the joystick with this fingers. "This one allows you to move around."

[lightbearinglord]

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]

"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."

[onthewillowsthere]

"I always pick Jigglypuff. At first it was because I liked the way she looks, but her powers are good too."

[lightbearinglord]

"What characters are these?" Slightly suspicious, he presses a button, the one that is labelled with the letter A.

[summerdude]

"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."

[onthewillowsthere]

"The characters have their own strengths and weaknesses. In the game, you have to consider your own strengths and weaknesses as well," very seriously.

[lightbearinglord]

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]

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."

[onthewillowsthere]

"We'll show you."

[lightbearinglord]

Relieved, Lan Wangji passes the controller he is holding back to Magnus. "Thank you."

[summerdude]

"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."

[onthewillowsthere]

Galahad, meanwhile, selects Jigglypuff as usual, then waits.

[lightbearinglord]

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]

"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.

[onthewillowsthere]

Galahad is good partly because he and Shen Yuan used to play not infrequently, and partly because he always plays the same character and he's learned that character well. Also Jigglypuff has the best moves.

[lightbearinglord]

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]

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."

[onthewillowsthere]

"I will go more slowly. Like training."

[lightbearinglord]

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]

"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."

[onthewillowsthere]

That's an excellent idea. On Lan Wangji's other side, Galahad also leans against him just a little. "Yes. Do that."

[lightbearinglord]

Marth has reappeared onscreen, which seems to Lan Wangji like an unrealistic expectation for someone who just plummeted from some unfathomable height to, presumably, his death¹. He thinks he prefers pinball, but with Galahad on one side and Magnus on the other, anything but sitting here attentively and pressing buttons is out of the question. So he does. Gamely, he directs the miniature swordsman to walk back and forth on the screen. He attempts each button, observing as Marth jumps and swings his blade.

¹Just one of many times we can be grateful that he hasn't seen the television adaptation of his life.

[summerdude]

"Good one," says Magnus, as Hanguang-jun cycles through everything. "Okay, now try pairing a couple things together at once."

[onthewillowsthere]

Galahad waits, patient and attentive.